Architecture overview
The architecture of a TARGIT solution is best illustrated as a structure with many levels or tiers.
Starting from the leftmost tier, a typical solution will contain these tiers:
The Data Sources tier
A company’s source systems are in this tier. Examples of source systems might be ERP Systems, CRM systems, Excel sheets and log files. Source data are retrieved from the ERP tier.
Data Warehouses is for analytical and reporting. The purpose is to collect, to uniform and to store data from the ERP tier.
Most often, you will find multiple Data Warehouses in this tier: Multiple relational Data Warehouses and one or more multidimensional Data Warehouses.
The TARGIT Server (in the Server tier) can communicate with all common Data Warehouse platforms.
Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services are used for many TARGIT solutions.
TARGIT InMemory Server is an alternative to Microsoft SQL Server.
The Server tier
The TARGIT Server is in the Server tier. The TARGIT Server handles all communication and distribution of data between the Data Warehouse tier and the Client tier.
A Microsoft Internet Information Services must be running on the server tier as well to enable TARGIT Anywhere Server functionality. TARGIT Anywhere Server functionality includes working with the browser based TARGIT Anywhere client and Mobile clients.
TARGIT Data Discoverer is a component running on the TARGIT server that enable end-users to work with ad-hoc data sources, e.g., data in Excel documents or online data sources.
The Client tier
The Client tier is the topmost tier in a TARGIT Solution. The standard end-user will be working with the analytical and reporting clients of this tier. The administrative client, the TARGIT Management client, is also part of this tier.
The TARGIT Windows client is the tool you need if your role is to design analyses and reports for yourself or for others to use. While the TARGIT Windows client is mainly a Designer toll, it can also be used for standard Consumer purposes.
The browser-based client, the Anywhere client, and the mobile platform clients are purely Consumer clients. An end-user with a Consumer client will take full advantage of the power of stored analyses and reports but will lack the ability to design new TARGIT documents.
Hardware recommendations
We recommend two or more Windows servers for a TARGIT solution, but for smaller installation, we recommend starting with one Windows Server.
One TARGIT Server – less than 100 users
For small installations with less than 100 users, you can have all TARGIT components on one Windows server.
The Windows server should have a minimum of two cores and 16GB ram.
On the Windows Server you could install TARGIT Server, TARGIT Anywhere and TARGIT Data Discovery.
If the usage of TARGIT grows, you can scale out to multiple servers at a later stage or add more CPU and RAM to a single server.
The disk system is subject to an average workload, and if possible, we recommend Solid State disks. Minimum 200GB storage.
The server must be a part of Microsoft Active Directory or use an OpenID Connect provider.
Windows Server 2016, 2019 or 2022 are supported.
.NET Framework 4.7.2 or newer is required on the server.
View a more comprehensive description of the components in the following section.
Multiple TARGIT Servers – more than 100 users
TARGIT Server
TARGIT Server is the main application server that feeds data directly into the Windows clients and TARGIT Anywhere.
The TARGIT server connects the clients with data from Microsoft Analysis Service, TARGIT InMemory, Azure Analysis Services or other data sources.
The server should have two cores and 16GB ram. For scenarios with above 100 concurrent users, we recommend four cores.
The disk system is subject to an average workload, and if possible, we recommend Solid State disks. Minimum 100GB storage.
The server must be a part of Microsoft Active Directory or use an OpenID Connect provider.
Windows Server 2016, 2019 or 2022 are supported.
.NET Framework 4.7.2 or newer is required on the server.
This server could also be used for TARGIT Data Discovery components. TARGIT Data Discovery is a self-service solution for ad hoc analytics and data mashup.
With intense use of TARGIT Data Discovery, the server must be expanded with more memory. 8 GB of additional RAM for TARGIT Data Discovery is recommended.
TARGIT InMemory Database is column-store databases.
Column-store databases allow for large data set storage in a small space when loaded in-memory.
If you choose to use TARGIT InMemory, we recommend adding additional two more CPU cores and 16GB of RAM.
For TARGIT InMemory models above 16 GB of RAM, we recommend using a dedicated Windows Server for TARGIT InMemory. A dedicated server for TARGIT InMemory is 4 cores and 32 GB RAM.
TARGIT Anywhere is an important element in achieving high performance for TARGIT Anywhere and Mobility users.
We recommend a server with two cores and 16GB RAM.
CPU performance and multiple cores – when you have many concurrent users – is important to achieve good performance. The better performance per cores the better. The disk system is subject to an average to high workload, and if possible, we recommend Solid State discs.
Minimum 100GB storage.
TARGIT Anywhere Server is based on Internet Information Server (IIS). IIS performs better when utilizing Solid State Disk – another argument to choose Solid State. As opposed to the TARGIT Server, the TARGIT Anywhere can reside outside the domain, typically in a DMZ. We recommend Windows Server Windows Server 2016, 2019 or 2022.
It is required the server has Internet Information Server (IIS) and .NET Framework 4.7.2 or newer.
CPU
SQL Server Analysis Services utilized multiple cores, but when e.g. calculating “calculated measures” it can only utilize one. The cost for a SQL Server License is based on the number of cores; not the performance of the cores. We therefore recommend the best performing CPUs as possible within your budget.
Minimum 4 cores.
RAM
RAM is critical to Analysis Services – the more the better. Recommended minimum is 64GB based on Microsoft’s own statements. In most cases 32GB is enough and in a few cases 16GB can be OK.
DISK
Analysis Services is very IO intense and fast reading equals better performance. We recommend SSD discs and preferably multiple, in a RAID setup with emphasis on reading and not mirroring. RAID 5 or 10. The more discs the better. Consider many small disks over a few large.
Comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.