Performance Tuning for Content Manager

88 Performance Tuning for Content Manager

4.1 Introduction

Eventually, after all of the tuning and system design has been optimized, the

system performance comes down to the ability of the hardware resources to

process commands, access data, and communicate across a network.

Unfortunately, the hardware resources are the first components acquired when

building a system. Although Content Manager provides the flexibility to expand

and take advantage of more hardware that is added into the system, it is usually

more cost effective to get the correct hardware resources in the first place.

For new systems, we need to be able to determine the required resources even

before the detailed system design has been done. If you already have an existing

system, you might want to perform the sizing exercise to determine whether the

existing hardware configuration can support new workload or projected growth.

How can we determine what system resources are required? To do this, we need

to accurately estimate the current workload and its rate of growth, then translate

that into hardware and software configurations by comparing this workload to

measured systems and workload. This is a critical exercise when implementing

new systems, but should also be performed periodically for existing systems as

part of a capacity management review. To create a capacity plan, we must:

 Understand the current process and data.

 Translate the current process to the new data model.

 Analyze the impact of the new workload.

 Estimate the storage requirements.

 Perform benchmark measurements.

 Forecast future workload and system performance.

An organization considering a new Content Manager application should examine

the current methods of processing their documents and data. They need to have

some business goals defined for the system. The task then is to use attributes,

resource objects, documents, folders, links, authorization schemes, and work

processes to develop a model that best represents the organization’s data flow.

They will need to understand their business process and user needs well enough

to translate the existing process into a Content Manager data model and

document routing and work flow process. See 5.5.3, “Data model” on page 115”

for details. Having mapped the existing process you might be able to enhance it

with new capabilities provided by an electronic Content Manager system.

The data model you have developed and the data volumes measured from the

current processes enable you to calculate projected activities in the Content

Manager system. To automate some of the calculations, sizing support is