To Determine Initial Replication Requirements

1. Estimate the maximum number of searches per second that are required at peak usage time.

   This estimate can be called Total searches.

2. Test the number of searches per second that a single host can achieve.

   This estimate can be called Searches per host. Note that this should be evaluated with replication enabled.

   The number of searches that a host can achieve is affected by several variables. Among these are the size of the entries, the capacity of the host, and the speed of the network. A number of third party performance testing tools are available to assist you in conducting these tests. The SLAMD Distributed Load Generation Engine (SLAMD) is an open source Java application designed for stress testing and performance analysis of network-based applications. SLAMD can be used effectively to perform this part of the replication assessment. For information about SLAMD, and to download the SLAMD software, see http://www.slamd.com.

3. Calculate the number of hosts that are required.

   Number of hosts = Total searches / Searches per host