Server Specifications - Application Server / MS SQL DB for 3-5 active users and 10-20 'Robot' resources

[BenKirimlidis]

Hello, Can someone please recommend an appropriate server config for: 1) Production Application Server for 3-5 active developers and 10-20 robotic workers 2) MS SQL DB server for the same number of users/robots above My company has recently deployed multiple resources (BOTs) and based on our initial success we are looking to scale up. We are currently using 2 virtual cores and 4 GB of ram in our application server and 1 virtual core, 4 GB of ram and 100 GB of storage for our MS SQL DB for Blue Prism. We have started experiencing some issues with significant slow down/unresponsiveness/crashes on our production application server when more than 2 or 3 resources are running automations or where more than 1 or 2 developers are logged into the PROD server. I believe this is due to our server being under resourced.  I have not been able to find server requirements for either the Application server or the MS SQL DB server in the forum/documentation. Thanking you in advance for any help/direction you may be able to provide.  

[BenKirimlidis]

Additional info: I found a similar thread on the forum where it was recommended to read these docs: 1) https://portal.blueprism.com/system/files/documents/v6.3%20User%20Guide… 2) https://portal.blueprism.com/system/files/documents/v6.3%20Data%20Sheet… 3) https://portal.blueprism.com/system/files/documents/v6.3%20Data%20Sheet… However these docs only specify minimum ram and an 'Intel' CPU which is too vague to be useful. As much as I would love to tell my boss we all need 7980XEs for everything I don't think that will fly! :) Similar forum thread:https://portal.blueprism.com/forums/technical-queries/faq-hints-tips/mi…

[BenKirimlidis]

Additionally have read the BP docs for provisioning a BP application and SQL DB server but this does not contain any actual guidelines https://portal.blueprism.com/system/files/2017-11/v6%20Data%20Sheet%20-%20Provisioning%20a%20Blue%20Prism%20Database%20Server.pdf

[AmiBarrett]

I've seen a couple things that could affect this. 1) How are your resources connecting to the DB? Is it direct, or are they going through the application server first? I've found that direct connections are significantly faster with zero loss of functionality. (For example, importing a supplied VBO takes a few seconds instead of a few minutes.) 2) RAM, for sure. We have a server that has 8 GB, but it keeps defaulting to disk R/W instead due to the lack of RAM. It got to the point that the disk was maxed out and crashed multiple processes trying to read work queue data. We're considering upping it to 16GB if possible. Here's the specs on our DB server: 4 virtual cores @ 2.6GHz 8GB RAM 600GB Data drive

[BenKirimlidis]

1. All communication to the DB server are through the app server.  Configured way that based on BP recommendations, security trumps performance for my company. 2. Makes sense, our DB server is a single vCPU @ 527 MHz with 4 GB of Ram  and 300 GB of storage.  The physical server itself is 10 year old hardware, most recent gens of intel CPUs perform better clock for clock.   Likewise our app server is just 2 vCPU @2.4 GHz on the same 10 year old hardware also running on old hard drives. From what @amibarrett says above, my own further research and anecdotes from peers who have worked on BP developments elsewhere, the issue is most likely infrastructure. For anyone else who comes across this thread, please comment with the approx. scale of your operations and the physical resources allocated to your BP App server and DB server.