Click2Gov Website Performance

Web Performance and Click2Gov

Audience	Applications
Webmasters	All current and potential Click2Gov users concerned with website performance.
	Restrictions
	This specification is for use and communication to Sungard Public Sector licensees only. It is covered under the existing Sungard Public Sector license agreement as confidential material and is therefore, not to be communicated to any third party in accord with the covenants of the Sungard Public Sector license agreement. Copyright 2000 - 2008 by Sungard Public Sector, Inc. Confidential. All Rights Reserved

Obviously, performance is a vital issue to Click2Gov. Unfortunately, the optimization of the web application software that Click2Gov provides is only a single drop in a bucket of issues that can effect interactive web performance. This document lists the major issues to be considered when looking to improve performance and before ordering hardware or upgrades for your Click2Gov System.

Keep in mind that while these issues are important, there are resolutions to each of them. Even better, there is a built in opportunity to react. Don't be alarmed by the stories or TV commercials that warn of millions of "hits" the moment you install the site. In the cases where this has happened, it has been at heavily pre-publicized sites geared toward the existing web community. Click2Gov is geared toward your entire customer base. Many of these customers have never used the internet and others still shy away from e-commerce. While we expect the Click2Gov web site to be popular with your end users, you can expect have a small peak when you first announce it and a gradual user adoption after that. Depending on how you role it out, you could announce to subsets of the market at different times making this adoption even more controlled. During this ramp-up time there will be ample opportunity to evaluate web performance and make adjustments to your infrastructure as they become apparent.

Internet Access to the Web Server.

Click2Gov recommends a T1 or better connection to the Internet. Many of HTE’s clients use something other than this for their internet access, such as ISDN, DSL and cable. This is sufficient for the email and general browser access necessary for employees and may be adequate for Click2Gov as well. Still, we must keep in mind that an interactive web site will have some sort of impact on internet throughput.

The Web Server

HTE has published equipment recommendations in three categories, “low”, “medium” and “high” volume. Since the web server hardware is only one factor in performance, these ranges cannot guarantee any specific level of throughput per user. These three categories are generalizations of what a small, medium and large web server might be for Click2Gov. Here are some more specific guidelines when selecting a web server.

CPU	We have seen Click2Gov perform very well at a low volume of access with as little as a 500mhz Pentium III. A 1 GHz is probably a safer bet. For expandability, choose a motherboard with more than one CPU socket so you can add on if necessary.
Memory	Memory is more important than CPU. As the number of concurrent users increases, additional memory is needed store their session information. The problem point is when memory usage passes the amount of physical memory on the machine. At this point the hardware begins to swap memory needs in and out of hard disk space to make up the difference. Of course, the hard disk access is much slower than memory access and performance degrades significantly. Fortunately, Click2Gov requires a relatively small amount of memory per user and therefore can handle a significant number of current users with 1 Gigabyte of memory. Again, selecting a motherboard that allows you to upgrade to more memory is a smart choice.
Hard Disks	Yes, faster is better. But one huge drive is not. By selecting several small identical drives and using Windows 2000 to RAID them together, performance can be much greater than a single drive. Also, remember that Click2Gov stores no client information on the web server and the amount of space required by BEA Weblogic for its database is very small. You will probably not use more than 10 Gigabytes for the OS, Weblogic and Click2Gov combined. Therefore, 3-20 GB hard drives, which RAIDed together will net 40 GB, should be sufficient.

Graphics

GIF files were selected for Click2Gov because our evaluation showed that they give the best image representation with the smallest size. But, even GIF files can become very large if the graphics are complicated or their area is too large. The larger the file, the longer it takes to be sent to the end users browser and the greater the resource drain it presents to your infrastructure. Only you know what will look best on your Click2Gov site, but keep in mind the fancier the graphics, the slower the site. This is especially true for the end user at home where a 14.4 modem is actually the bottleneck. And remember, in the opinion of your end user, it is always your site that’s slow, not their modem.

Intranet Performance

This pertains to the throughput between the web server and the AS400 application server. Even if the web server can communicate with the outside world at blinding speeds, it will still be effected by the performance of the local network. A network that is already taxed with very heavy traffic will most likely degrade quickly when interactive internet access is made available.

Performance of the AS400.

HTE recommends a CPW of 115 for Click2Gov. However, like the low-medium-high recommendation for the web server, this is a very rough estimate. We can not know what applications are being run on the AS400 besides that HTE software or what level of demand is present. However, performance issues on the AS400 can be just as detrimental to interactive web throughput as any of the items above.

This specification is for use and communication to HTE licensees only. It is covered under the existing HTE license agreement as confidential material and is therefore, not to be communicated to any third party in accord with the covenants of the HTE license agreement.