Capacity planning

CPU and Memory

For more information, see Microsoft® Print Server Scalability and Capacity Planning.

As stated in this Microsoft® document, it may be difficult to size a print server, as there are many parameters to consider: number of printers, type and number of client workstations, type and size of spool files, network interface.

For resources to be allocated to Watchdoc, here are our recommendations:

  • Less than 200 print queues: 4 CPU cores as a minimum with 1 GO of available RAM.

  • Between 200 and 1'000 print queues: 8 CPU cores as a minimum with 2 GB of available RAM.

SNMP Network Monitoring Traffic

Examples measured on Doxense network:

  • Xerox WorkCentre 24 (Internal Auditron enabled with 80 accounts) : 30 MB/day

  • Kyocera Mita KM-4035 : 18,5 MB/day

  • Dell 5100cn : 10,8 MB/day

  • Lexmark T420 : 10,4 MB/day

Local Agent Network Traffic

For each document printed on a local printer, the agent sends a message to the Watchdoc server. Its actual size depends on the protocol being used:

  • .NET Remoting (TCP on the 5744 port) : 2,5 kB (kiloBytes) per transaction ;

  • HTTP : 3,5 kB (kiloBytes) per transaction.

Database storage requirements

In the database, each printed document needs between 1,5 and 2,5 kB.

For monitored network printers and MFP:

  • Incidents : 1 kB per incident on connected devices (if SNMP is active);

  • Supplies and counters: 600 bytes/device/hour or 5,2 MB/device/year;

  • Server counters (RAM, CPU...): 200 bytes/server/hour or 1,8 MB/server/year.

Note that Microsoft® does not support workstations with desktop OS as a production server.