Plan for Telemetry Dashboard topology and hardware

Summary: Learn about sizing, topology, hardware, and bandwidth recommendations for Telemetry Dashboard deployments.

Audience: IT Professionals

When you deploy Telemetry Dashboard components, you must consider several factors. These can include the location of the users to be monitored and the hardware specifications of the computer that runs the Telemetry Processor. It's also important to understand the supported limits for Telemetry Dashboard deployments, such as the maximum number of users who can be monitored. Use the guidance in this article to help you design a Telemetry Dashboard topology that is sized appropriately for your organization.

In this article:

• Overview of topology planning for Telemetry Dashboard

• Topology requirements Telemetry Dashboard deployments

• Supported limits for Telemetry Dashboard components

• Topology and bandwidth recommendations for Telemetry Dashboard deployments

• Scaling out Telemetry Dashboard deployments

• Hardware recommendations for Telemetry Dashboard deployments

Overview of topology planning for Telemetry Dashboard

If you reviewed the Assess Office 2013 compatibility and are familiar with the telemetry components that are described in Deploy Telemetry Dashboard and in the Office Telemetry poster, you are ready to design your Telemetry Dashboard topology.

As you review this article, be aware that the recommendations assume that the following statements are true for your organization:

• Telemetry Agents upload data every 8 hours, which is the default setting.

• Each user has a single computer that runs a Telemetry Agent.

If these statements are not true for your organization, plan to adjust your topology accordingly.

Topology requirements for Telemetry Dashboard deployments

At a minimum, Telemetry Dashboard requires one telemetry database and one Telemetry Processor and shared folder pair. These can be hosted on the same computer, as shown in the following figure. You can use the computer for other purposes besides hosting Telemetry Dashboard components.

Minimum topology requirements for Telemetry Dashboard

Two additional requirements apply to the Telemetry Processor and shared folder pairs:

• A Telemetry Processor must always have a dedicated shared folder. A shared folder can't be used by multiple Telemetry Processors.

• You can have multiple Telemetry Processor and shared folder pairs, but each pair must be stored on a separate computer. The next section, Supported limits for Telemetry Dashboard components, describes the numbers of pairs that you can create in a Telemetry Dashboard topology.

Supported limits for Telemetry Dashboard components

For best performance, we recommend that your Telemetry Dashboard topology does not exceed the limits that are described in the following table.

Supported limits for Telemetry Dashboard components

Here is a figure that shows a production topology that is configured within the supported limits. Note that each Telemetry Processor and shared folder pair has fewer than 50,000 users and that this topology already has the maximum of 100,000 users for the telemetry database. Three computers host telemetry components in this example.

Production topology for Telemetry Dashboard

Topology and bandwidth recommendations for Telemetry Dashboard deployments

If your organization has users who are in multiple geographic locations, make sure that you follow these guidelines when you decide where you want to deploy the Telemetry Dashboard components.

• We recommend that you host the Telemetry Dashboard components (the dashboard, telemetry database, Telemetry Processor, shared folder, and Telemetry Agents) on a network that has bandwidth of 1.5 Mbps (T1) or more, with latencies no greater than 150 ms.

• Deploy each Telemetry Processor and shared folder pair as close as possible, ideally on the same computer.

• If you only need one Telemetry Processor and shared folder pair, run the telemetry database, Telemetry Processor, and shared folder on the same computer to avoid any bottlenecks that are caused by transferring data over the network.

• If you must have multiple Telemetry Processor and shared folder pairs, run one Telemetry Processor on the same computer as the telemetry database. Run other Telemetry Processors on separate computers.

For a telemetry database that hosts more than 10,000 users, consider the following recommendations, in addition to general performance recommendations for SQL Server:

• For the best performance, deploy SQL Server on a dedicated computer that is not hosting databases for any other application.

• For the best performance, place the tempdb, telemetry database, and SQL transaction logs on separate physical hard disks.

• Ensure that the SQL I/O channels to the disks are not shared by other applications, such as the paging file and Internet Information Services (IIS) logs.

Scaling out Telemetry Dashboard deployments

We recommend that you start with a single dedicated computer that is running the telemetry database, Telemetry Processor and shared folder, and then scale out the topology by adding more computers that host Telemetry Processor and shared folder pairs. We recommend that you add a new Telemetry Processor and shared folder pair if you do either of the following:

• Collect data from more than 50,000 users.

• Collect data from remote sites. We recommend that you install the Telemetry Processor and shared folder pair as close to the agents as possible.

Hardware recommendations for Telemetry Dashboard deployments

The following table describes hardware recommendations for Telemetry Dashboard deployments.

Hardware recommendations for the computer that hosts the telemetry database

*Includes inventory and events for earlier versions of Office and for Office 2013.

**The recommended RAM value is greater than the one recommended as the minimum values for SQL Server because of the distribution of data required for a Telemetry Dashboard environment.

The following table describes hardware recommendations for each computer that hosts a Telemetry Processor and shared folder pair.

Hardware recommendations for each computer that hosts a Telemetry Processor and shared folder pair

*Includes inventory and events for both earlier versions of Office and for Office 2013.

See also

Content roadmap for Office 2013 compatibility
Deploy Telemetry Dashboard
Compatibility in Office 2013