ABD SS6 - Network computer configuration

We have some questions about AECOSim and its perfomance working in a network.

We have the Dataset company installed into a LaCie D2 Quadra that we use as a server. It is connected to a standard switch computer by ethernet gigabit cable. All the computers are also connected to the switch by ethernet gigabit cable. Nowadays we only have problems with AECOSim performance. It is very slow and it has tendency to crashes every time the program access to the Dataset o Datagroup info.

Is it possible install the company Dataset into a LaCie D2 Quadra used as a server? What is Bentley recomendation? A traditional computer server with its typical hard disks? What traditional server configuration?

In case of working with a LaCie D2 Quadra or similar is it necessery to take any consideration about configuration level? 

On the other hand we are thinking about changing some computers. We would like to know which is the suitable configuration to work with the actual AECOSim SS6 and future updates. Now we have computers with Windows 7 64bits, with a SSD and 8 GB RAM but AECOSim SS6 runs slow even when we are working with the default Dataset in local.

Lot of thanks

Parents
  • While it's certainly possible to run a dataset from any external hard drive, it's near impossible to say how well it might work in practice without specifically testing a particular drive, connected to a specific USB port and with other peripherals in place. I believe most typically use a dedicated server with internal 7200RPM (or greater) hard drives, but network protocols can potentially vary a lot as well, so hopefully others reading will chime in with any specifics they've found to work well for them.

    In regards to client machines, the old cliché "the faster the better" always applies. Most here at Bentley are running Windows 8.1, with plans to move to Windows 10 in the near future. Using an SSD is a good idea, particularly for faster start-up time and frequent read operations, though fast HDDs can still be viable. With regards to RAM, I would consider 8GB a bit light, with 16GB a minimum for new machines and preferably 32GB. But of course since ABD is a graphics oriented application, the system's graphics subsystem can't be overlooked either. This is an area where there are many, many options.

    Here a few related threads on the topic:
    communities.bentley.com/.../4175.microstation-v8i-system-requirements-and-hardware-recommendations-tn
    appsnet.bentley.com/.../Default.aspx
    communities.bentley.com/.../116776



  • Hi Steve

    Very useful. Now we know what kind of computers buy. Lot's of thanks for the information.

    Regards
    Borja
  • To add to Steve's comments I highly recommend SSDs to anyone for both new and existing workstations, I have upgraded both my Bentley machine and a couple of personal machines over the last couple of years, the performance improvement all round is very impressive, a machine that might be scheduled for replacement could have another year or two of useful life (also note just reinstalling Windows periodically can often result in a surprising performance hike).

    On the server side I'd strongly recommend (based on my previous experiences running IT/CAD systems) replacing the NAS drive with a proper server, there are some pretty good deals around for entry level systems (at the moment including some cashback offers for Microsoft server OS). A server gives you potential to have more resilient RAID options (either immediately or in the future), perhaps better network throughput with multiple network cards,  easy expansion of storage and so on.

    From the configuration viewpoint, yes your company dataset can go on a share on the LaCie drive, take a look at ABD SS6 - QuickConfig for an example of how to do this.

    How many users do you have on your network?

    Regards

    Marc

Reply
  • To add to Steve's comments I highly recommend SSDs to anyone for both new and existing workstations, I have upgraded both my Bentley machine and a couple of personal machines over the last couple of years, the performance improvement all round is very impressive, a machine that might be scheduled for replacement could have another year or two of useful life (also note just reinstalling Windows periodically can often result in a surprising performance hike).

    On the server side I'd strongly recommend (based on my previous experiences running IT/CAD systems) replacing the NAS drive with a proper server, there are some pretty good deals around for entry level systems (at the moment including some cashback offers for Microsoft server OS). A server gives you potential to have more resilient RAID options (either immediately or in the future), perhaps better network throughput with multiple network cards,  easy expansion of storage and so on.

    From the configuration viewpoint, yes your company dataset can go on a share on the LaCie drive, take a look at ABD SS6 - QuickConfig for an example of how to do this.

    How many users do you have on your network?

    Regards

    Marc

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