Implementation Guide › Capacity Planning › How to Estimate a Sustained Authorization Rate › Estimate Daily Authorizations

Estimate Daily Authorizations

What is the estimated number of daily authorizations for the application?

The number of total logins (authentication load) and the number of page "hits" each authenticated user makes directly affects the number of daily authorizations (authorization load). A web page "hit" usually requires an authorization. Therefore, think of the authorization load of an application as total authorizations per day.

Note: When estimating the authorization load, we recommend that you begin 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 usage throughout the year.

All users requesting the same number of pages per login is unlikely, so calculating total authorizations begins with determining the percentage of logins that generate one page hit, which the following represents:

authentication_load * percentage_of_authenticated_users * page_visits = daily_authorizations

• authentication_load

  Represents the estimated number of daily authentications for the application.

• percent_of_authenticated_users

  Represents the percentage of authenticated users that visit the same number of pages after login.

• page_visits

  Represents the number of pages a particular set of authenticated users visits after login.

  Note: A page can result in multiple GET/POST because it contains multiple objects. The total number of authorizations per page is the number of GET requests, plus the number of POST requests, minus the number of extensions the Web Agent ignores. For the purpose of this guide, each of the following examples assume that a page visit generates one GET/POST. For more information about configuring a Web Agent to allow access to specific resources types without checking policies, see the Web Agent Configuration Guide.

• daily_authorizations

  Represents the number of authorizations a particular set of authenticated users require.

Example 1: Estimate Daily Authorizations

As detailed in Estimate Daily Authentications, the portal application has an authentication load of 88,000 logins. Twenty-five percent of which visit one page after login:

88,000 * 0.25 * 1 = 22,000 authorizations

However, some logins generating more than one page hit is more likely.

Example 2: Estimate Daily Authorizations

The portal application has an authentication load of 88,000 logins:

• 50 percent of which visit 10 pages after login.
• 25 percent of which visit 15 pages after login.

88,000 * 0.5 * 10 = 440,000 authorizations

88,000 * 0.25 * 15 = 330,000 authorizations

The total authorizations per day (authorization load) is the sum of each of the authorization calculations.

Example 3: Estimate Daily Authorizations

The portal application has an authentication load of 88,000 logins:

• 25 percent of which generate one page hit after login, creating 22,000 authorizations.
• 50 percent of which generate 10 page hits after login, creating 440,000 authorizations.
• 25 percent of which generate 15 page hits after login, creating 330,000 authorizations.

Note: The percentage of authenticated users must equal 100 percent because each authenticated user generates at least one page hit.

Therefore, the authorization load for the portal application is 792,000.

The following table illustrates each of the previous examples:

The company uses the authorization load to estimate the sustained authorization rate.