Patent ID: 6963828

Claim:
In a Thin Client Sizing Tool, a method for developing a Metafarm having an optimal number of Server Farms to provide recommended configurations meeting certain specified parameters, wherein a number of factors are established which include: (i) the total number of users who will be using the Metafarm; (ii) an Availability goal which indicates the percentage of time that the systems and applications in each Server Farm will be accessible to all the users involved; (iii) assigning a user weight volume to each type of user to indicate estimated average usage or light, medium, heavy or super heavy; (iv) calculating the number of servers to be assigned to each Server Farm and which will fulfill the said Availability goal; (v) calculating the number of redundant servers per Server Farm needed to provide maximum performance over and above the average nominal performance while still fulfilling said Availability goal; (vi) seeking to find the minimum number of Server Farms which still provide an optimum Redundancy Factor of extra servers which will still fulfill the desired Availability goal, comprising the steps of: (a) delivering input data on the total number of users to be serviced, the Availability goal to be achieved, the User-weight utilization factors involved, and the preferred Server types to be used; (b) sequencing a series of calculations to determine the number of Servers per Farm and the number of redundant Servers per Farm which match or exceed the said Availability goal; and wherein data on Benchmark operational parameters are consulted on a specific type of server to establish the maximum number of users which can be supported by said chosen specific type of server, and wherein step (b) includes the steps of: (b1) retrieving a Benchmark parameter which indicates the maximum number of users which can be serviced by a chosen Server type; (b2) calculating a preliminary number of such chosen Servers which will constitute a Server Farm; and wherein a desired Redundancy Factor is used to add enough extra servers, designated as a number of redundant servers per farm, to enable maximal user usage over nominal user usage and wherein an estimated Availability Level is set for each chosen Server Farm, and wherein step (b2) includes the steps of: (b2a) calculating the number of redundant Servers per Farm according to a preliminary set percentage parameter for the Redundancy Factor; (b2b) calculating the estimated Availability Level for the Server Farm chosen; (c) displaying a set of recommendations which show the minimum number of Server Farms which have the optimum redundancy factor and meet the values needed for the Availability goal.