Implementation Guide › Capacity Planning › Capacity Planning Introduced

Capacity Planning Introduced

Planning a SiteMinder deployment with performance in mind is the first step to maintaining high enterprise availability and performance standards. A good approach is to estimate the number of expected authentications and authorizations SiteMinder must handle per application. The following general factors influence SiteMinder performance:

• Sustained authentication and authorization rates. The rate at which users authenticate to an application and request protected resources fluctuates throughout your business day. Some periods can generate relatively few authentication requests, and therefore relatively few authorization requests, while others generate more. The sustained authentication and authorization rates represent a sustained period during which SiteMinder must service an average number of authentication and authorization requests.
• Peak authentication and authorization rates. During sustained periods of activity, user activity may spike. The peak authentication and authorization rates represent a period during which SiteMinder must service the highest number of authentication and authorization requests.

  Note: Although a number of other factors can influence SiteMinder performance, such as performance tuning and network bandwidth, the previous factors can help you make informed decisions when implementing Policy Servers and Agents, and when determining if existing user stores can handle the anticipated SiteMinder workload.

The following graphic illustrates how authentication and authorization rates fluctuate throughout the day, are sustained for a specific period, and peak within that period:

Note: Authenticating and authorizing users results in a number of reads, and if Password Policies are enabled, writes, to a user store. Determining sustained and peak rates helps you determine the load under which your user stores must operate to service Policy Server requests.