TM1 Admin Server Configuration

[Jodha]

As we know Admin server can be configured in both ways
i) Admin server located in one region (USA) and all regional TM1 servers (China, London) across the globe pointing to Admin servers in USA region by modifying Admin server in Config file.
ii) Each region has its own Admin server (China) and its Regional TM1 servers (China) point's to its own regional Admin server (China).

I have seen different clients using option 1 and option2 can anyone suggest me best approach between option1 & option2 or advantages & disadvantages in both the approach.
I have gone through this forum and IBM documentation but haven’t got proper answer. It is appreciated if anyone can point me to proper thread.
I am using TM1 10.1 version on windows 2008 R2 machince.
Thanks in advance for your feedback.

[jim wood]

There are several factors that come in to this:
1) WAN performance
2) Need for consolidating data for summary purposes.

Due to both of the above I wouldn't recommend using either of your options. I would centrally locate all services using one admin server and use either citrix or TM1 Web for user access.

WAN performance of TM1 is shocking. Both or your solutions would kill performance,

Jim.

[Jodha]

Jim Thanks for your response i agree with you.

My present client is using first option. All the Dev servers in USA/CHINA/LONDON region are configured to Admin server in Dev USA.
Will it make any difference in performance by installing china region admin server in china Dev and London region admin server in London Dev (i.e installing each region admin server in its own Dev box instead of one central Admin server in USA Dev)

Users in USA region complaining about performance while accessing other region(China/London ) Dev servers .At present my client dont have any plans to implement Citrix .Is there any fix for this apart from accessing from Citrix ?

I looked for IBM documentation but there is not enough documentation on best practices on configuring Admin server.

[Paul Segal]

As a general rule, the closer the TM1 server to the user the better performance will be. So for your users in China accessing a server physically located in China will almost always be faster than trying to access a server in London or the US and vice versa. This does, however, bring other challenges - for example in ensuring that your data is synchronised correctly between the regional servers.

[lotsaram]

I believe admin server location is a complete red herring.

Red herring is an English-language idiom that commonly refers to a type of logical fallacy in which a clue is intentionally or unintentionally misleading or distracting from the actual issue.[1] It is also a literary device employed by writers that leads readers or characters towards a false conclusion, often used in mystery or detective fiction.

The admin server registers the TM1 servers (= distinct TM1 database instances) and the Client gets the list of registered databases from the admin host. Therefore if the admin host is remote relative to the Client then there would be a delay in getting the list of servers. HOWEVER, once the client is logged on to a server all communication is directly between client and server, the admin host is a bystander, packets do not go between client and server via the admin host!

* I just tested this myself with a dev server in Europe pointing to USA admin host. As I am in Europe once I logged on to the server performance was as expected 100% normal.

Your real issue is physical location of the TM1 database servers themselves (and relative proximity of the clients connecting) and NOT your admin host configuration. If you have users (or devs in this case) who are remote relative to the TM1 server then they need some kind of LOCAL access as performance over WAN will as discussed not be good. This would normally be done via Citrix or Terminal Services. Easiest method would just be to enable terminal services on the dev box so that you can have more than the default 2 (or 3 with console) rdp connections to the server. This should sort out performance for your devs but if you have USERS on one continent who are expected to connect to a production TM1 server on another continent then unless the UI is Contributor, TM1web or EV then performance will suck, not more delicate way to put it. So if you have or are planning to have users accessing via Excel to a TM1 server on another continent then you need TS or Citrix, simple as that.

[jim wood]

Interesting point Lotsaram. One point however, neither Paul or said that the Admin server had to be in the same location. Granted I talked about centrally having your services pointing to one admin host, I didn't say that the admin host had to be in the same place, it does however make sense to keep it in the same location. From a DRR point of view alone it means you are replicating one network cluster,

Jim.

[lotsaram]

Interesting point Lotsaram. One point however, neither Paul or said that the Admin server had to be in the same location. Granted I talked about centrally having your services pointing to one admin host, I didn't say that the admin host had to be in the same place, it does however make sense to keep it in the same location. From a DRR point of view alone it means you are replicating one network cluster,

Jim.

I know. I'm was just pointing out that location of admin host has precious little to do with performance on the client side and this is all about the WAN/LAN proximity & latency of client and server and that the OP should be focusing on location of the hardware hosting the TM1 servers themselves and not where the admin host is located which is largely if not totally irrelevant.

[Jodha]

Thanks for your responses Paul/Lotsaram/Jim

Lotsaram i agree with you.

HOWEVER, once the client is logged on to a server all communication is directly between client and server, the admin host is a bystander, packets do not go between client and server via the admin host!

But my current TM1 application is developed by some Consulting firm and they configured TM1 Admin server
using option1 as i mentioned above

As we know Admin server can be configured in both ways
i) Admin server located in one region (USA) and all regional TM1 servers (China, London) across the globe pointing to Admin servers in USA region by modifying Admin server in Config file.
ii) Each region has its own Admin server (China) and its Regional TM1 servers (China) point's to its own regional Admin server (China)

.

But still i am not able to figure it out the benfits or reason they choose to go with option 1 on top of option2 .The only benfit i can see is stopping all the TM1 servers configured to that Admin server in one instance apart from this nothing comes to my mind.

Once again Thanks for your valuable inputs .