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Quick Partition and Replica Design Guidelines

Articles and Tips: tip

01 Mar 2000


You can use the following rules to design partitions and replicas in almost every situation, regardless of your network infrastructure. These rules help you design a network that runs efficiently with a minimum of impact from synchronization traffic. They also help you design a network that's easier to service an maintain. Keep in mind that the limits associated with these rules don't apply to NDS v8. NDS v8 is the version of NDS included in the edirectory. Novell's testing shows that NDS v8 scales and efficiently handles many more objects than those given in these guidelines.

The Quick Design rules are:

  • Partition size: 5000 object or less

  • Number of child partitions per parent: 30 partitions or less

  • Number of replicas per partition: 10 or less (typically you only need 3 replicas of each partition)

  • Number of replicas per server: 20 or less

  • Number of replicas per Replica Server: 60 or less

  • Minimum server hardware: Pentium 300 MHz with 128 MB of RAM

You could run into a few situations where you the above guidelines won't help. The next guidelines are advanced guidelines. These guidelines give larger numbers than the Quick Design Rules, so they're recommended for use by consultants and administrators who understand the impact greater numbers will have on their network efficiency.

Keep in mind that the guidelines given below will affect the efficiency of the directory's replication process. Again, keep in mind that the limits given in these guidelines don't apply to NDS v8.

The Advanced Design rules are:

  • Partition size: 10000 object or less (V-8)?

  • Number of child partitions per parent: 75 partitions or less

  • Number of replicas per partition: 20 or less (typically you only need 3 replicas of each partition)

  • Number of replicas per server: 40 or less

  • Number of replicas per Replica Server: 120 or less

  • Minimum server hardware: Pentium 400 MHz with 256 MB of RAM

The above guidelines should help you design an efficient network. If you're running the edirectory, your network will scale and run efficiently with many more objects per partition and many more replicas per server. NDS v8 was specifically designed to handle much larger networks.

(Taken from Novell's Guide to NetWare 5 Networks, Jeffrey F. Hughes and Blair W. Thomas, Novell Press, 1999, pp. 368-369.)

* Originally published in Novell AppNotes


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