Recommended number of users per server

Question

We currently have two servers for Adaxes, both with 12gb of RAM and 4 virtual CPUs running on VMware ESXi. One of our servers is primarily used for scheduled tasks/automation and the other one is primarily used for access by our technicians. There is no load balancer between the servers. Both servers have all Adaxes services running (web, backend, and API calls) on them, supporting a user base of approximately 7000. Both servers are running the latest Adaxes version (2023.2).

We have had an increasing number of server freezes on the technician server after the CPU reaches 100% utilization. We currently have about 60 technicians using the server simultaneously.

I have several questions about optimizing our environment that I don't see covered in the documentation:

1. What is the optimal set up for multi-server environments?
2. How many concurrent connections per server are recommended?
3. In multi-server environments running on VMware, what system specifications are recommended on each virtual server?
4. Is there any benefit/downside to having a separated web server from the Adaxes backend servers?

Answer 1

Hello Abby,

We have had an increasing number of server freezes on the technician server

If you have Adaxes 2023.2, this might be caused by a known issue. For details, see https://www.adaxes.com/questions/13927/memory-leak-caused-establishing-connections-exchange-online. For information on how to check your Adaxes version, see https://www.adaxes.com/help/CheckServiceVersion.

What is the optimal set up for multi-server environments?

It totally depends on your environment. A good idea is to have your Adaxes services geographically close to users and have at least one DC for each managed domain in the same AD site as Adaxes service.

How many concurrent connections per server are recommended?

What connections do you mean here?

In multi-server environments running on VMware, what system specifications are recommended on each virtual server?

Have a look at section Prerequisites of our installation guide: https://www.adaxes.com/help/InstallationGuide/#prerequisites.

Is there any benefit/downside to having a separated web server from the Adaxes backend servers?

When you have Adaxes service and Web interface on the same computer, the web interface will always connect to this service. The only exception is when the service is not running. As such, it is a good idea not to have the Web interface component on the computer where the service dedicated to scheduled tasks runs.

Comments

it is not the memory leak issue. Memory usage stays below 50% of the 12GB and we recently transitioned to a single app login. This issue was present on the past two previous versions for us.

For "What is the optimal set up for multi-server environments?" I am not referring to location. I am referring to the recommended configuration involving load balancers, web servers, and backends. Is the recommendation to divorce the web server from the backend? Is it recommended to keep them on the same server?

For connections, I am referring to how many concurrent technicians are recommended per instance of Adaxes.

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Hello Abby,

Thank you for clarifying. There are no such recommendations. The thing is that the load does not only depend on the number of accounts managed by Adaxes and the number of concurrent logins. It mainly depends on the operations being performed. In your case, using a web farm seems to be a good idea. If you use Adaxes intensively, it is also a good idea to store log records in an external MS SQL database.