| Solution ID: prim19697 |
| What is the Cost Management Remote Server? |
| Status: Reviewed |
| Version(s): 4.1 |
| Problem: | What is the Cost Management Remote Server? |
| Fix: | The Cost Management Remote Server is a Microsoft IIS based middle tier for the Cost Management client. The IIS based middle tier allows some of the more processor intense actions to be executed on the server instead of the client. The remote server can also increase performance when clients are connecting through a slow network such as a WAN. 1. Does the CM server offload anything from the client workstation? A. Yes, it does.The CM server optionally offloads ‘engine’(number-crunching), ‘interface’ (e.g. import from scheduling system) and ‘report’ (data extraction) operations.Any or all of these operations may be offloaded to the server. For number-crunching operations, the benefits of using a server arise from the fact that servers tend to be multi-cpu and have more memory than workstations. CM is designed to use all available resources to maximize throughput, so if these operations are performed on the client workstation it can adversely affect the ability of the user to use the workstation for other purposes while the CM operation is under way. For interface operations, the benefit primarily arises from bandwidth considerations.Typically, a server will have much better connectivity to the database server(s) used as repositories for the scheduling tool and CM, so offloading these operations to the server obviates the need to move very large amounts of data over the network to and from the client workstation.
2. What are the recommended workstation requirements?
A. The minimum requirements recommended for a client are 2GHz CPU and 512MB RAM. Offloading processing operations to a server will improve scalability and performance, but does not affect this minimum requirement of the client workstation.
3. If purchasing the CM Server, what are the requirements for the workstations running CM?
A.See (2).The minimum and recommended requirements remain the same for server and non-server configurations.
4. What is the architecture connection for server? Other then IIS on the server, are there any other requirements for the server?
A. Client workstations communicate with the server using SOAP-encoded XML messaging over the HTTP protocol.The only other requirement is that the client workstations be able to ‘see’ the server as a web server, i.e. they are not prevented from communicating over HTTP (port 80) by firewall issues. |
| Fix: | Remoting: Remoting or Remote Operations is the execution of Cost Management operations by an application server rather than by the local Client (User’s computer). It speeds up laborious, time-consuming, resource-intensive calculations, compilations, and/or interface operations. When to use remoting? Remote hosting is designed to allow optimal use of a company’s computer and server resources. Remote operations allow the client computers to be less powerful and require less memory; therefore, client stations may be less costly. This is because the bulk of the heavy, complicated data manipulation is done on a remote server. The functions that may be performed remotely are Interfacing and Engine calculations (such as, Apply Rates and Summarize Cost).
The options available for each setting are Local or Remote. How does remoting work? The Cost Management Client specifies the URL of an application server and allows selection of databases available at the server: such databases need not be hosted on the same application server. |
| Fix: | See Also: Solution ID: prim61317 ”How to setup the Cost Manager client to connect to the Remote Server?” |