Active Directory Sizer 2.0.1005.1

Dialup	(56k)	-	09 m 46 s
ISDN	(128k)	-	04 m 16 s
DSL	(512k)	-	01 m 04 s
Cable	(1024k)	-	32 s
T1	(1484k)	-	23 s

Estimate the hardware that is required to deploy Active Directory in your organization Active Directory Sizer application was designed to let you estimate the hardware that is required to deploy Active Directory in your organization. The estimate that is provided is based on your organizations usage profile, and the domain and site topology. Before using the Active Directory Sizer, the IT consultant or administrator should be cognizant of the organization' layout, namely the domain configuration, site topology and user distribution. This should have been worked out during the design phase. The Sizer tool can also be used for existing Active Directory deployments that are either planning for future growth or deploying an application that uses Active Directory, such as Microsoft Exchange 2000. Sizer provides an easy and convenient way for users to enter and view their organizational layout and help administrators and consultants plan their hardware requirements based on this layout. The purpose of the Sizer is to predict an organization' hardware requirements as accurately as possible, such that administrators are protected from under-estimating their hardware, which could potentially cause poor performance and longer client or application response times. Active Directory scalability (in terms of the number of users it supports per domain), depends entirely on the usage profile for the domain. 'Usage profile' can be defined as the load on the directory due to searches, updates, logons, applications, etc. For this reason, it is hard to assign a strict upper limit on the number of objects Active Directory can support per domain. Deployment planners should feed in their desired usage profile (or if currently using Windows NT4.0, they could use their existing user profile plus growth), using the Sizer domain wizard, and let Sizer determine the hardware requirements to support this user profile. While the Sizer tries to account for most of the factors that affect Active Directory sizing, it may not know of certain in-house applications or services that use Active Directory. Hence it is recommended that the user take this into consideration before purchasing the requisite hardware.