This document provides guidelines for configuring your computer hardware for CA ARCserve Backup for Laptops and Desktops software. The table below suggests configurations based on a number of clients and client storage requirements.

CA ARCserve Backup for Laptops and Desktops - Hardware Configuration

This document provides guidelines for configuring your computer hardware for CA ARCserve Backup for Laptops and Desktops Server software. The table below suggests configurations based on a number of clients and client storage requirements.

1. This chart assumes a maximum of 50 concurrent connections.
2. We take advantage of multiple processors.
3. RAID5 or an NT volume set is required for very large hard drives.
4. We do not recommend more than 2500 users per server.

Approximating Disk Space Requirements

The disk storage amounts provided in the above table are approximate. The amount of disk capacity required will depend on the type and amount of data you intend to backup. If data to be backed up compresses by 25% or more, you may be able to use a smaller drive. If the data you backup up is pre-compressed or does not get much smaller then need a larger drive than is indicated in the table.

We suggest you run the following test to determine how large a disk drive you will need for your CA ARCserve Backup for Laptops and Desktops Server.

1) Create a directory with the types of files you intend to backup

For example, if you intend to backup Lotus Notes database files then find or create a directory full of Notes database files.

2) Use PKZIP or WINZIP to backup that directory of files to a single file

3) Calculate the compression percentage For example, if you had 200MB of Lotus Notes files and they compressed down into a 100MB compressed .zip file then you have a 50% compression percentage (ratio) (100/200 = .5)

4) Given this information you can determine approximately by how much your data will compress. Assuming all of your clients backup the same type of data all you need to consider is how much data each client is backing up. The CA ARCserve Backup for Laptops and Desktops Server stores both the current version of the file (compressed) and the changes to that file ("deltas").

For example, if you have 100 clients backing up 100MB baseline of data, that would consume (at a minimum) of a 10Gig drive. Keep in mind that CA ARCserve Backup for Laptops and Desktops also stores the delta changes to the captured files, so additional space will be required to save the deltas. The amount of additional space is dependant on the size of the change.