Estimating the sustained authentication rate of an application is the process of determining:
Complete the following steps to estimate the sustained authentication rate for an application:
What is the estimated number of daily authentications for the application?
The number of users directly affect daily authentications (authentication load). When users log into the application, CA SiteMinder® authenticates them. Therefore, think of the authentication load of the application as the total logins per day.
Note: When determining the authentication load, we recommend beginning with an evaluation interval of 24 hours. However, depending on the requirements of your enterprise, you can compare your daily results over a period of weeks or months to gain a better understanding of usage throughout the year.
All users logging into the application each day is unlikely, so estimating total logins begins with determining the percentage of users that log in once a day, which the following represents:
(total_users * percentage_users) * (number_of_logins) = daily_logins
Represents the total number of users with access to the application.
Represents the percentage of users who log in the same number of times per day.
Represents the number of times the particular set of users login.
Represents the number of logins the particular set of users creates.
Example 1: The company has 100,000 users, 75 percent of which log in once a day.
(100,000 * 0.75) x (1) = 75,000 logins
However, some users logging into the application two or more times a day is more likely.
Example 2: The company has 100,000 users, 5 percent of which log in twice a day and 1 percent of which log in three times a day.
(100,000 * 0.05) x (2) = 10,000 logins
(100,000 * 0.01) x (3) = 3,000 logins
The total logins per day are the sum of each of the login calculations.
Example 3: The company has 100,000 users:
The authentication load for the portal application is 88,000 logins.
Note: The percentage of users logging in does not have to equal 100 percent because all users will not log into the application each day.
The following table illustrates each of the previous examples:
|
Total Users |
Percent of Total Users |
Logins Per Day |
Logins |
|---|---|---|---|
|
100,000 |
75 |
1 |
75,000 |
|
100,000 |
5 |
2 |
10,000 |
|
100,000 |
1 |
3 |
3,000 |
|
Authentication Load |
88,0000 |
||
The company uses the authentication load to estimate the sustained authentication rate.
What is the sustained authentication rate for the application?
The sustained authentication rate is based on the authentication load. Specifically, when and at what rate the authentications occur. The chance that the authentication load is uniformly spread across your business day is unlikely. Rather, the rate at which requests occur fluctuates, remaining between the lowest and highest (peak) levels for a sustained period. Estimating the sustained authentication rate is the process of identifying a sustained period during which the system is servicing an average amount of authentication requests.
When estimating a sustained authentication rate, we recommend using the daily authentication load to determine:
Note: We recommend beginning with an evaluation period of 24 hours, broken down into one-hour increments. However, depending on the requirements of your enterprise, you can compare your daily results over a period of weeks or months to gain a better understanding of usage throughout the year.
The following figure is an example of these metrics:
Identifying these metrics helps you to estimate the number of authentication requests, per second, that CA SiteMinder® must service to maintain the average rate at which users authenticate, which the following represents:
(authentication_load * percentage_of_authentication_requests) / number_of_sustained_hours / 3600 = sustained_authentication_rate
Represents the number of daily authentications for the application.
Represents the percentage of authentication requests that occur when the system is operating at sustained levels.
Example: If the authentication load is 50,000 logins, and 32,000 logins occur during the sustained period, then the value is 64percent (0.64)
Represents the number of hours in which the system is operating at the sustained level.
Note: 3,600 represents the number of seconds in an hour.
Represents the number of authentication requests, per second, that CA SiteMinder® must service during the period of sustained activity.
Example: Estimate the Sustained Authentication Rate
The company has determined that their application portal has an authentication load of 88,000 logins. The application portal is available to customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Using system activity reports to break down a typical day results in the following metrics:
(88,000 * 0.51) / 5 / 3600 = 2.49 authentications per second.
The portal application has a sustained authentication rate of 2.49 authentications per second.
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