Jan 28, 2013

REQUIRED / RECOMMENDED HARDWARE

The following hardware specifications are defined per one server within a LAN. A multi-server environment is
required for higher numbers of connected devices.
HW server sizing is based on approximately 10,000 pages per device (monthly) and an average of about 20
users per device.

The sizing is based on several premises (click to expand)

1.

MS Windows Print Queue represents print input-output-queue in the operating system. It really
represents a mere mechanism to provide the print driver to a client software (e.g. to create PCL/PS
file, receive the print data stream over network, store it on the hard drive, and serialize it to the
printer. According the Microsoft print server Sizing Overview (http://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/cc783748(v=ws.10).aspx), one can have about 1500 queues on single server and 2500 on
clustered system. The number of connected clients, network throughput and hard disk speed is the
biggest resource constraint. Of course the document is outdated, so we can expect slightly higher
capacity on new systems.

2.

YSoft SafeQ Print Queue represents a name in the database that may be related to a printer,
terminal (reader) or group of users. From a windows print queue perspective, this would represent a
(LPR) queue name in the print queue backend. YSoft SafeQ server has an internal mechanism how to
balance the load by partially serializing the incoming traffic; in theory there is no limit on how many
windows print queues can be connected to the SafeQ server.

3.

YSoft SafeQ Network Device (printer/mfp) represents a physical printing devices or multifunction
printer with terminal / card reader. YSoft SafeQ server pushes/queues print jobs to this device or pulls
the print jobs from the server upon user's request at the terminal. One network device typically
represents one or multiple Windows Print Queues.

4.

YSoft SafeQ CML Server -- represents a YSoft SafeQ Server app installed on a physical or virtual server
(may be print server). CML server includes a SQL database to track all prints (contains relation among
users, printers, readers and print jobs), LPR subsystem to receive prints from a Print Server (or client
workstations), administrative Web interface, system for managing the request from terminals and
readers (provides user authentication and list of applicable print jobs to be pushed to the devices) and
LDAP integration subsystem. YSoft SafeQ server can handle up to 200 network devices on a single
server and up to 1600 on a 4-server CML system. Reasonable hardware or virtual platform is needed
(dual/quad core 2GHz+ processor, 6GB RAM, 500 IOPS storage).

5.

YSoft SafeQ ORS Server -- represents a YSoft SafeQ Remote Spooler Server app installed on a physical
or virtual server (may be print server). Remote spoolers can build roaming groups (clusters) and can
handle up to 2000 devices on 25-node system. A single ORS server can handle up to 50 network
devices (80 devices on a YSoft approved hardware platform). Remote spoolers can generally handle
much lower amount of traffic, however are usually more reliable that CML system as they don't have
any external dependencies web server, SQL database or LDAP (not taking CML connection into
account).

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Jan 28, 2013

Server Sizing constraints (click to expand)

This section describes resource usage by YSoft SafeQ in various configurations.
Do not use for server sizing unless you know what you are doing. A sizing guide based on these numbers is
under preparation.
Tests were performed on

VMWare virtual machine, dual core, with 3GB RAM

YSoft SafeQ 4, SR10

Single Node CML Performance Constraints / job parser disabled / avg job 2MB
Printers

Jobs/Hour

RAM usage

CPU
avg/peak

CPU ready

Disk
IO time to print
avg/peak

25

1000

1700 MB

300/1200
MHz

38 ms

60/220 IOPS

50

2000

1850 MB

500/1500
MHz

55 ms

100/290 IOPS 14 sec

100

3800

2050 MB

760/1500
MHz

20 ms

160/300 IOPS 17 sec

150

6400

2300 MB

1000/1900
MHz

20 ms

130/250 IOPS 14 sec

200

8300

2900 MB

1400/2125
MHz

120 ms

200/530 IOPS 14 sec

Two-Node CML Performance Constraints

PER SERVER

14 sec

/ job parser disabled / avg job 2MB

Printers

Jobs/Hour

RAM usage

CPU
avg/peak

CPU ready

Disk
IO time to print
avg/peak

25

1000

1950 MB

300/1300
MHz

35 ms

70/100 IOPS

50

2000

2010 MB

500/1300
MHz

30 ms

100/210 IOPS 18 sec

100

3800

2050 MB

900/1500
MHz

100 ms

150/860 IOPS 14 sec

14 sec

ORS Performance Constraints / job parser disabled / avg job 2MB

Printers

Jobs/Hour

RAM usage

CPU
avg/peak

CPU ready

Disk
IO time to print
avg/peak

10

400

1200 MB

550/1500
MHz

19 ms

113/180 IOPS 18 sec

20

800

1200 MB

870/1700

25 ms

210/280 IOPS 16 sec

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Jan 28, 2013

MHz
30

1200

1200 MB

1200/2100
MHz

20 ms

300/400 IOPS 16 sec

50

2000

1200 MB

1800/2300
MHz

17 ms

420/480 IOPS 18 sec

1300 MB

1200/2300
MHz

20 ms

180/300 IOPS 17 sec

10 (w/parser) 360

ORS SafeQube Performance Constraints / job parser disabled / avg job 2MB
MAX 100 IOPS

SafeQube HDD performance is

Printers

Jobs/Hour

RAM usage

CPU
avg/peak

CPU ready

Disk
IO time to print
avg/peak

10

400

2200 MB

30%/80%

19 ms

66/90 IOPS

20 sec

20

450

1200 MB

40%/80%

25 ms

80/120 IOPS

22 sec

30

500

2200 MB

43%/80%

20 ms

80/120 IOPS

20 sec

In case Virtual devices are used, the virtual machine should have dedicated resources. Virtual
machines with shared resources may not handle the load and significantly impact end user
business.
The most critical resource for the system is disk. Having at least 300 IOPS storage is in general
mandatory.
Depending on the load, the system requires server resources. It is mandatory to have free processing power for
the YSoft SafeQ application (at least 30% continuous for ORS up to 30 devices and 50% continuous for
CML/ORS and more than 30 devices).
See
hardware
requirements
us/windowsserver/bb414778

for

Windows

Server

at

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-

See
best
practices
for
sizing
Windows
Print
Server
http://blogs.technet.com/b/yongrhee/archive/2009/09/14/best-practices-on-deploying-a-microsoftwindows-server-2008-windows-server-2008-r2-print-server.aspx

at

See Network communication overview for more details on YSoft SafeQ communication.
Main sites:

Minimum / recommended HW specification

Up to 50 devices/server
Dual
Core
2GHz
or
faster
processor
YSoft SafeQ standalone or clustered Server 2 GB free RAM (4 GB RAM recommended), 1GB
Network
3.1/3.6/4.0

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Up to 100 devices for entire Alternative: SafeQube - YSoft SafeQ Appliance

installation
(Standalone Edition, Described Separately)
or YSoft SafeQ Central Reporting Server
Performance of the SafeQube may differ based
on installed configuration (online/offline accounting,
terminal types, ...) Please, consult with YSoft R&D
when implementing SafeQube for over 30 devices.
Equal VM with at least 2 cores and set a
memory reservation on VM for the full
amount
of
its
RAM
allocation
20 GB available disk space
Connection to storage with throughput at
least 120MB/s and 300 IOPS
o

Up to 200 devices per server (100 devices if only

single server is used)
YSoft SafeQ standalone or clustered server
3.1/3.6/4.0
YSoft SafeQ Central Reporting Server

Dual Core 2GHz or faster processor (Quad Core

recommended)
4GB free RAM (6 GB RAM recommended), 1GB
Network
Equal VM with at least 2 cores (4 cores
recommended) and set a memory
reservation on VM for the full amount of its
RAM
allocation
100GB available disk space
Extra space 100GB (or more, depends on the
storage strategy) for YSoft SafeQ Central
Reporting Server data objects.
Connection to storage with throughput at
least 150MB/s and 600 IOPS

Multi-server:
Up to 100 remote sites (and total 500 devices) for 1 central (CML) server
details see Distributed Server System - Private Cloud

Important
1 CML server is a technical minimum.
However, from a licensing standpoint, having
more than 5 remote sites requires a SafeQ
Enterprise Edition license, and that requires at
least 2 nodes.
Up to 500 remote sites (and total 1000 devices)

2 central (CML) servers with 6GB RAM

Additional remote sites (up to 2000)

1 additional CML server per 500 connected sites (ORS

servers)
500 MB RAM per CML server for every 100
connected sites (over 500 sites)

Remote sites:
1-3 devices per server
Minimum configuration:
YSoft SafeQ Remote Spooler (requires
Dedicated Windows Server with 1CPU (Intel
connection to central server)
Atom 3xx/D5xx or similar processor)
1200 MB free RAM
20GB HDD (100 IOPS)
100 Mbps LAN

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Up to 10 devices/server
Minimum configuration:
YSoft SafeQ Remote Spooler (requires
Intel i5 or similar processor
connection to central server)
1200 MB free RAM
40GB HDD (100 IOPS)
100 Mbps LAN
Up to 30 devices/server
SafeQube - YSoft SafeQ Appliance (ORS Edition YSoft SafeQ Remote Spooler Appliance Described Separately)
(requires connection to central server)
limited by HDD performance (100 IOPS)
Up to 30 devices/server
Dual
Core
2GHz
or
faster
processor
YSoft SafeQ Remote Spooler (requires 2 GB free RAM (4 GB RAM recommended), 1GB
Network
connection to central server)
Equal VM with at least 2 cores
20 GB available disk space
Connection to storage with throughput at
least 120MB/s and 300 IOPS
Central Reporting Server
Up to XXX devices

to be defined
plus database and disk requirements

Up to YYY device

to be defined
plus database and disk requirements

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Jan 28, 2013

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

5.1

Server operating system for YSoft SafeQ server and YSoft SafeQ ORS v4.0
o

Windows 2003/2003R2/2008 32bit including clustered installation

Windows 2003R2/2008/2008R2 64bit including clustered installation

Windows 2012

Not currently supported, for details, please contact YSoft R&D

Workstation operating system for YSoft SafeQ ORS v4.0 up to 10 connected devices.
o

Windows XP SP3/7 32bit

Windows XP SP3/7 64bit

NOTES

Microsoft .NET 4.0 is required for embedded terminal and vendor-provided accounting support.

YSoft SafeQ ORS installation always require .NET 4.0 support.

YSoft SafeQ 4 does not yet support Linux-based operating systems.

For windows XP and Server 2003 is required Windows Imaging Component.

When you are sure your system meets all the prerequisites, you can begin the YSoft SafeQ installation. With
the interactive installer, all you need to do is to run the installation file and follow the steps in the installation
wizard. You can choose between the default installation or a customized installation. The default installation
will install YSoft SafeQ with the recommended settings, but with a customized installation, you can set all the
settings yourself.

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