Hardware

ESET PROTECT Server machine should meet the following hardware recommendations in the table below.

Number of clients

ESET PROTECT Server + SQL database server

CPU cores

CPU clock speed (GHz)

RAM (GB)

Disk drive1

Disk IOPS2

Up to 1,000

4

2.1

4

Single

500

5,000

8

2.1

8

1,000

10,000 3

4

2.1

16

Separate

2,000

20,000

4

2.1

16

4,000

50,000

8

2.1

32

10,000

100,000

16

2.1

64+

20,000

1 Single / Separate disk drive - We recommend installing the database on a separate drive for systems with over 10,000 clients.

2 IOPS (total I/O operations per second)

We recommend having approximately 0.2 IOPS per connected client, but no less than 500.

You can check your drive's IOPS using the tool diskspd, use the following command:

Clients number

Command

Up to 5,000 clients

diskspd.exe -c1000M -b4K -d120 -Sh -r -z -w50 C:\testfile.dat

Over 5,000 clients

diskspd.exe -c10000M -b4K -d600 -Sh -r -z -w50 C:\testfile.dat

3 See the example scenario for 10,000 clients environment.

Disk drive recommendations

The disk drive is the critical factor influencing the ESET PROTECT performance.

The SQL Server instance can share resources with the ESET PROTECT Server to maximize utilization and minimize latency. Run the ESET PROTECT server and the database server on a single machine to increase the ESET PROTECT performance.

The performance of a SQL server is enhanced if you place database and transaction log files on separate drives, preferably separate physical SSD drives.

If you have a single disk drive, we recommend that you use an SSD drive.

We recommend that you use all-flash architecture. Solid-state disks (SSD) are much faster than the standard HDD.

If you have a high RAM configuration, SAS setup with R5 is sufficient. The tested configuration: 10x 1.2TB SAS disks in R5 - two parity group in 4+1 with no extra caching.

The performance does not improve when using an enterprise-grade SSD with high IOPS.

100-GB capacity is enough for any number of clients. You may need a higher capacity if you backup the database often.

Do not use a network drive, as its performance would slow the ESET PROTECT down.

If you have a working multi-tier storage infrastructure that allows online storage migration, we recommend to start with shared slower tiers, and monitor your ESET PROTECT performance. If you notice read/write latency goes over 20ms, you can perform non-disruptive move on your storage layer to a faster tier to use the most cost-effective backend. You can do the same in a hypervisor (if you use the ESET PROTECT as virtual machine).

Sizing recommendations for different client counts

Below you can find the performance results for a virtual environment with a set number of clients running for one year.


note

The database and ESET PROTECT are running on separate virtual machines with identical hardware configurations.

CPU cores

CPU clock speed (GHz)

RAM (GB)

Performance

10,000 clients

20,000 clients

40,000 clients

8

2.1

64

High

High

Normal

8

2.1

32

Normal

Normal

Normal

4

2.1

32

Normal

Normal

Low

2

2.1

16

Low

Low

Insufficient

2

2.1

8

Very low
(not recommended)

Very low
(not recommended)

Insufficient