Choosing the System Size

This chapter describes the different system sizes, and provides guidance to help you determine the correct size for your company.

Users

  • Users cannot be deleted from the system. However, you may deactivate a user from the system. This design enables administrators to reactivate previously deactivated user accounts, even after long periods of user inactivity. The user's meetings and other content (including recordings) are restored.
  • The system supports a lifetime maximum of 400,000 user accounts. This number represents the total of both active and deactivated user accounts. This lifetime maximum number is large enough to accommodate expected growth in the user database.

Deployment Sizes For Your System

Determining the System Size

When determining the size for your system, consider how many users you expect to be using the system at any given time. For a 50 user system, the maximum number of users concurrently attending meetings is 50. If more than 50 users attempt to start or attend a meeting, they may see error messages stating that they cannot start or attend a meeting at that time.

  • Determine the number of users that will be concurrently attending meetings at any given time. You want to select a system size that will accommodate your users in most cases, excepting rare or unusual occurrences.
  • Once you select a system size, you can always expand the system later, to a larger size. However, your hardware must meet or exceed the minimum requirements for the larger size or you must purchase additional hardware.
  • If you are planning to add high availability for your system, you will deploy both a primary system and a HA system, then "combine" them into a single system, with high availability. Be sure to include the additional virtual machines for the HA system in your hardware purchases.

    Note

    Adding an HA system does not increase "port" or system capacity. It simply provides some protection against virtual machines failures in your system.

Note

Once you determine the system size for your company, be sure to purchase the appropriate hardware and enough VMware licenses to support the minimum requirements for that system size.

Requirements for vCenter Co-residency

VMware vCenter co-location (co-residency) is only supported with the 50 and 250 concurrent user system configurations.


Note

If you plan to place VMware vCenter on the same host as a 50 or 250 concurrent users system, then you must order additional RAM with your UCS server. For the exact amount of RAM required, see the requirements for that system size in the Cisco WebEx Meetings Server System Requirements.

Virtual Machines In Your System

These are the virtual machines created for your system. Some functions are combined into one virtual machine for the smaller system sizes.

  • Admin—"Heart node" of the system. Includes the system database and provides administrative functions.
  • Media—Provides media services (audio-video function, telephony and meetings services). Included in the Admin virtual machine in a 50 concurrent users system.
  • Web—Provides web services (meeting list and recordings). Enables the user to schedule future meetings. Included in the Admin virtual machine in a 50, 250 or 800 concurrent users system. End users sign in to the WebEx web site. Administrators sign in to the Administration web site.
  • Internet Reverse Proxy (IRP)—Provides public access, enabling users to host or attend meetings from the Internet and mobile devices. Although this is optional, Cisco encourages its use as it provides a better user experience for your mobile workforce.

    Note

    Only the Internet Reverse Proxy provided with this product may be used in this system. Internet Reverse Proxies or web load balancers, supplied by other vendors, are not supported. The Internet Reverse Proxy provided with this product is optimized for handling real-time web, audio, and data-sharing traffic from external users joining meetings from the Internet.

Note

In this documentation, we use the term "internal virtual machines" to refer to the Admin, and if applicable, the media and web virtual machines.

The Internet Reverse Proxy is situated in the DMZ network (non-split-horizon and split-horizon network topologies) or in the internal network (all internal network toplogy.)

50 User System

This is a schematic diagram of a 50 user system. The diagram illustrates two versions of a 50 user deployment. If you plan to add a HA system, those virtual machines are shown as the "redundant" virtual machines. If you do not want HA, then only deploy the primary system.


Note

For brevity, we use the acronym IRP for the Internet Reverse Proxy in the following diagram.

250 User System

This is a schematic diagram of a 250 user system. If you plan to add a HA system, those virtual machines are shown as the "redundant" virtual machines. If you do not want HA, then only deploy the primary system.


Note

For brevity, we use the acronym IRP for the Internet Reverse Proxy in the following diagram.

800 User System

This is a schematic diagram of a 800 user system. If you plan to add a HA system, those virtual machines are shown as the "redundant" virtual machines. If you do not want HA, then only deploy the primary system.


Note

For brevity, we use the acronym IRP for the Internet Reverse Proxy in the following diagram.

2000 User System

This is a schematic diagram of a 2000 user system. If you plan to add a HA system, those virtual machines are shown as the "redundant" virtual machines. If you do not want HA, then only deploy the primary system.


Note

For brevity, we use the acronym IRP for the Internet Reverse Proxy in the following diagram.
Important:

Be sure to deploy the virtual machines as shown in the following diagram. By deploying different types of virtual machines on a physical server, you can better avoid a system shutdown in case of a hardware failure. (For example, placing a media and a web virtual machines on a single physical server is more resilient than if you place both web virtual machines on the same physical server.)