Before beginning any discussion on how to deploy Netscape Application Server (NAS), make sure you understand your performance goals and what you want to achieve when you integrate NAS into your enterprise. As explained in Chapter 1, "Overview of Netscape Application Server Deployment," one of your main goals in deployment is to maximize performance. This translates into maximizing throughput and reducing response time. You will make decisions about your network configuration and how NAS fits into it based on your expectations of throughput and response time.
Maximizing Throughput
Throughput refers to capacity, or the number of requests per minute that your system can process. As explained in Chapter 1, "Overview of Netscape Application Server Deployment," a request consists of a single user's request for data, and the return of that data by the server. The request makes a round trip, from the user submitting the request, to the server, and then back from the server returning the result of that request to the user.
A simple example would be a shopping cart application, in which the user must click OK on a web page to submit a request to purchase an item. The result of this click, the purchase being processed, is considered a single request. Another example is a 401(k) application, where a user clicks OK to request a snapshot of an account balance, and the snapshot is returned to the user. A request is not a running application, but rather a transaction generated by an application to read or write data.
Improving throughput means increasing the number of requests per minute that can be handled by the server. A lower throughput capacity means that some or even many users are unable to process their transactions immediately, causing them to wait longer to obtain request results.
When planning your network environment and determining how NAS fits into your overall enterprise, consider what you can do to your network to increase the number of requests per minute that the system can handle.
Improving Response Time
Response time refers to the number of seconds it takes for request results to be returned to the user. Consider the 401(k) application example provided in "Maximizing Throughput." When a user requests a 401(k) account balance on a web page, ideally the information should be displayed on the page within a few milliseconds from the moment the user clicks OK. However, if performance is not optimal, the user may have to wait several seconds, perhaps even minutes, for the account balance to appear. Response time is discussed in detail in Chapter 3, "Determining System Capacity," but when considering how to integrate Netscape Application Server into your overall network, think about what you can do to your network to improve the average response time of user requests.
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