When planning a deployment of IBM Maximo Application Suite (MAS), accurate sizing is critical to ensure performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency. The MAS Sizing Calculator includes several parameters that help architects and engineers tailor the infrastructure to meet business and technical requirements. Below is a detailed explanation of key sizing parameters commonly encountered in the calculator.
1. Enforce 3 Master + 2 Worker Nodes?
This parameter ensures the OpenShift cluster is configured with exactly 3 master nodes for high availability and 2 worker nodes to run MAS workloads. It represents the minimum viable cluster setup for production-grade deployments.
2. Installing into Existing OpenShift?
This flag indicates whether MAS will be deployed on an existing OpenShift cluster. If selected, the sizing calculator assumes that the base infrastructure is already provisioned, which can reduce the overall resource requirements and deployment complexity.
3. Install Manage w/Existing Database?
This option determines whether the Maximo Manage component will use an existing DB2 database. Leveraging an existing database can simplify deployment and reduce the need for provisioning new database resources.
4. Install Monitor w/Existing Database?
Similar to the previous parameter, this applies to the Maximo Monitor component. It checks if the component will connect to an existing database instance, which can be beneficial for integration with existing monitoring data sources.
5. Isolate DB2 Databases on Single Server?
This parameter ensures that all DB2 databases used by MAS are deployed on a dedicated server. Isolating databases can enhance performance, improve security, and simplify backup and recovery operations.
6. Isolate Visual Inspection GPU Nodes?
This setting allocates dedicated GPU nodes for the Visual Inspection component. GPU-intensive workloads, such as image recognition and AI-based inspections, benefit from isolated resources to avoid contention and ensure optimal performance.
7. Number of Development Environments
This parameter allows users to specify how many development or test environments are needed. Each environment adds to the overall resource requirements, so this input directly affects the sizing output.
8. Enforce Dev DBStorage = Prod DBStorage?
This ensures that the database storage allocated for development environments matches that of production environments. It promotes consistency across environments, which is especially useful for testing and validation.
Conclusion
Understanding and correctly configuring these parameters in the MAS Sizing Calculator is essential for a successful deployment. Each option influences the infrastructure footprint, cost, and operational efficiency. Whether deploying on ROKS (Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud) or ROSA (Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS), these inputs help tailor the solution to meet enterprise needs.