Please help me with a conceptual networking question

DannyJ7 · 05-09-2008, 02:06 AM

Hello,

I do not have a lot of networking experience, but I need to research networking solutions for a large project.

The situation is as follows: A large employee database (let's say 50,000 employees) already exists and is fully functional. If I want to create an online system for employees to access their payroll records, I need to have a general idea of what hardware and software is required.

From my basic understanding, I assume that the new system would not run on the same system as the existing database, right? It would be necessary to deploy new hardware to run the employee interface and to retrieve data from the database as per employee requests, correct? I assume a web server would be necessary for this. I think something like a C# program utilizing ASP.NET would be appropriate for handling employee login and retrieving database info via SQL.

What is confusing me most is the hardware requirement. Let's say that these 50,000 employees are logging into the system from different geographic locations, that's quite a lot of users. What type of server would be able to handle this volume of requests? I'm a bit lost here, so could someone please clue me in as to what might be a viable hardware solution?

Sorry if I sound dumb!

Thanks!

DannyJ7 · 05-09-2008, 08:56 AM

Thanks for the meaningless reply. Can I get some real help?

**Shady** · 05-09-2008, 02:25 PM

I just want to point out something there, the performance of a database doesn't only depend on how many tables it has, the design plays a very important rule here.
a short example... Imagine that all the employees information are stored in one table, so this table will have many records. every time an employee wants to access his information the engine will search all over the database to find his key and access the info, meanwhile if the info are separated in several tables with some relation, it would take a great less amount of time to find a record.

To sum this up for you, go talk to the designer of the DB and ask him what system requirement would be suitable for that kind of DB.

tlarkin · 05-09-2008, 02:45 PM

Well, I am not a database guy myself, but I have worked with some, and I can give some pointers from my limited experience. First off is cost a factor? SQL and other Microsoft licensing is very expensive and requires higher end hardware to run. Where as a Linux solution running MySQL, with many of the free open source standard web front ends and web servers, like Apache would make it cheaper, more streamlined and of course more secure.

Make sure your database is clean and do not allow SQL injection, otherwise your data base can be compromised really fast.

As for the hardware behind it, man, 50k users, at the same time? I would say you would want a bad ass oct-core (dual quad xeons) with at least 4 gigs of RAM and probably some form of RAID 5 running, probably SAS drives. Then of course put it on at least a gigabit backbone.

Heck you may need to cluster a few servers together for that, it is hard to say if one server could handle 50,000 users.

05-09-2008, 02:06 AM	#1 (permalink)
DannyJ7 New Member Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 2	Please help me with a conceptual networking question Hello, I do not have a lot of networking experience, but I need to research networking solutions for a large project. The situation is as follows: A large employee database (let's say 50,000 employees) already exists and is fully functional. If I want to create an online system for employees to access their payroll records, I need to have a general idea of what hardware and software is required. From my basic understanding, I assume that the new system would not run on the same system as the existing database, right? It would be necessary to deploy new hardware to run the employee interface and to retrieve data from the database as per employee requests, correct? I assume a web server would be necessary for this. I think something like a C# program utilizing ASP.NET would be appropriate for handling employee login and retrieving database info via SQL. What is confusing me most is the hardware requirement. Let's say that these 50,000 employees are logging into the system from different geographic locations, that's quite a lot of users. What type of server would be able to handle this volume of requests? I'm a bit lost here, so could someone please clue me in as to what might be a viable hardware solution? Sorry if I sound dumb! Thanks!

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05-09-2008, 08:56 AM	#2 (permalink)
DannyJ7 New Member Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 2	Thanks for the meaningless reply. Can I get some real help?

05-09-2008, 02:25 PM	#3 (permalink)
Shady Moderator Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Cairo Age: 20 Posts: 2,331	I just want to point out something there, the performance of a database doesn't only depend on how many tables it has, the design plays a very important rule here. a short example... Imagine that all the employees information are stored in one table, so this table will have many records. every time an employee wants to access his information the engine will search all over the database to find his key and access the info, meanwhile if the info are separated in several tables with some relation, it would take a great less amount of time to find a record. To sum this up for you, go talk to the designer of the DB and ask him what system requirement would be suitable for that kind of DB.

05-09-2008, 02:45 PM	#4 (permalink)
tlarkin VIP Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 5,821	Well, I am not a database guy myself, but I have worked with some, and I can give some pointers from my limited experience. First off is cost a factor? SQL and other Microsoft licensing is very expensive and requires higher end hardware to run. Where as a Linux solution running MySQL, with many of the free open source standard web front ends and web servers, like Apache would make it cheaper, more streamlined and of course more secure. Make sure your database is clean and do not allow SQL injection, otherwise your data base can be compromised really fast. As for the hardware behind it, man, 50k users, at the same time? I would say you would want a bad ass oct-core (dual quad xeons) with at least 4 gigs of RAM and probably some form of RAID 5 running, probably SAS drives. Then of course put it on at least a gigabit backbone. Heck you may need to cluster a few servers together for that, it is hard to say if one server could handle 50,000 users.