Eduardo,

My comments are interspersed.

Eduardo Martinez wrote:

Hi All.

Has anyone of you ever sized an BMR solution?
I have several doubts about it.

A) Space requirements for BMR software installation

TKG says the following:

"The BMR server requires 4 megabytes of disk space plus approximately 1
KB of disk space for every 2 clients.  Each Boot image on the Boot
Server will require 100 to 800 KB of disk space."

How much space am I going to need for each boot image?

AIX Boot images are about 6 to 8 megabytes each.  They are stored in
/tftpboot on the Boot server.

Is a boot image created for each of my clients? if so, am BMR is going
to backup a boot image each time the client is backed up? in this case
I have to calculate the space on disk according the backup policies for
each one of my clients.
or
am I going to create ONLY one boot image per platform I 'm going to
backup (one image for SUN, another for NT, another for AIX)? This way
I'm going to use much less space than the above scenario.

AIX boot images are are built using 3 parameters: Architecture,
Processors, and Network type.  The possible architectures are rspc,
rs6k, or chrp.  The possible processor types are up or mp, the possible
Network types are ent or tok.  So there are 12 possible boot images for
each AIX SRT.  There are currently 4 different AIX SRT's you can have on
a  File Server.  (AIX 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, and 5.1).

Solaris Boot Images are very small (200 KB) and you only need one for
each SRT.

NT boot images are just BMR database place holders.  They take up no
space,  BMR does not use network boot for NT.
 NT is always booted from a BMR Floppy.

How often are the boot images refreshed? How BMR is going to
realize
that a client has upgraded its OS, when others have not?

BMR does not currently validate the boot images.  You will need to
update the boot image when the client has a major OS level change (For
AIX that would mean if the machine is upgraded from 4.1 to 4.2, but not
from 4.3.2 to 4.3.3. ).   The boot image creation does not take a long
time, and it can be done regardless of the state of the client.  The BMR
database holds enough information about the client to help you build the
correct boot image.

B) Shared Root Tree

For the SRT TKG states: "Each Shared Root Tree (SRT) on the File server
will require 200 to 400 MB of disk space".

The same questions as above. Is a SRT created each time a client is
backed up?

No.  Once an SRT is  created, it is shared among many clients.

I've calculated the space Im going to need considering I have 6 clients
(2 sun, 2 aix and 2 NTs), also that I only need one boot image per
platform (3 in this case), and also one SRT per platform too.
This makes a total of 606 MB.
Are this calculations right?

Your calculations are about right.  You will need 3 SRT's, one for NT,
one for AIX, and one Solaris.  The SRT's will total about 600 MB.   Each
platform varies in the amount of disk space required for the SRT, and it
depends on the OEM drivers and utilities that are added to the SRT to
support the clients.   So 200 MB is an average.   NT takes about 100 MB,
AIX takes about 300 MB, and Solaris takes about 200 MB.

BMR Server
BMR Server      1       4MB
BMR Client      6       3.0Kb


Boot Server
Boot image      3       2MB


File Server
Shared Root Tree (SRT)  3       600 MB

                 Total         606MB


Thanks in advance.

=====
"Do or Do Not, there is no try"
-Yoda. The Empire Strikes Back

________________________________
_______________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Messenger: Comunicacisn instantanea gratis con tu gente -
http://messenger.yahoo.es

--
Ray Schafer             The Kernel Group       www.tkg.com <http://www.tkg.com>
Ray Schafer             The Kernel Group       www.tkg.com <http://www.tkg.com>
Sr. Sales Engineer      schafer AT tkg DOT com <mailto:schafer AT tkg DOT com>  
  +1 512 433 3300