Hardware Requirements
The following sections outline the minimum hardware specifications for deploying Windchill Modeler in different scenarios. For optimum performance, PTC recommends using at least 32 GB RAM and utilizing SSDs (solid state drives) for the computer that will host the Modeler Server and SQL Server.
Hardware and Software Requirements for Installing SQL Server 2017
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/install/hardware-and-software-requirements-for-installing-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver15
When it comes to storage and performance, PTC recommends solid state drives (SSDs) These are faster than conventional hard disk drives (HDDs) and are also more reliable and use less power. When considering disk speed in terms of sequential or random read/write speeds, SSDs are 2 to 5 times faster than conventional hard disks.
For information on SQL Server requirements and prerequisites, refer to the Microsoft help topic:
Hardware and Software Requirements for Installing SQL Server 2017
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/install/hardware-and-software-requirements-for-installing-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver15
For a list of all supported versions of SQL Server, see the Release Notes document.
Windchill Modeler Client or Standalone Installation
For Client Only and Standalone installations of Modeler, we recommend a computer with the following minimum specifications:
• Windows PC with a 3 GHz i5 processor
• 8 GB RAM recommended
• SVGA graphics, 1280x1024 minimum, 256 colors
• Supported Windows operating system - For more information, see the Modeler Release Notes.
If the Client Only or Standalone installation is integrated with a Requirements Management tool requiring both Modeler and the Requirements Management tool to be running simultaneously, you should add the recommendations for CPU throughput and RAM.
If you are using ACS to generate large quantities of code, or a Reverser to reverse engineer large quantities of code, we recommend you use a computer that has 16 GB of RAM or more.
Windchill Modeler Server – Workgroup Deployment:
For Server Only installations supporting multi-user access of small models by up to five concurrent users, we recommend a computer with the following minimum specifications:
• Windows PC with a 3 GHz i5 or Xeon processor
• 8 GB RAM recommended (for SQL Server 2017 Express)
• SVGA graphics, 800x600 minimum, 256 colors.
• Supported Windows operating system - for more information, see the Modeler Release Notes.
Windchill Modeler Server – Enterprise Deployment
If you want to support a greater number of concurrent users, or if you want to store large models (for example, models that make a Database larger than 1 GB) on a Modeler server, the recommended specifications may not provide a satisfactory performance when performing operations that process a large number of objects, such as check in and check out operations and versioning of models.
To maintain a good performance with a greater number of concurrent users or large models, we make the following minimum recommendations:
• 3 GHz Xeon multi-core processor.
• 16 GB RAM recommended (for SQL Server 2017 Standard)
• Use fast SCSI disks (15,000 RPM) or equivalents.
• If you are using a RAID disk array, configure it as RAID 0. The RAID 5 configuration is not recommended because it performs poorly with large numbers of small disk writes.
• Enable Write-caching on disks. Performance can be substantially improved by enabling Write-caching, but if you do this ensure that the server has an Uninterruptible Power Supply.
The following table suggests the minimum number of processor cores and the minimum size of RAM that we recommend to support different numbers of users.
|
Number of Users
|
Processor Cores
|
RAM
|
|---|---|---|
|
10
|
4
|
16 GB
|
|
25
|
6
|
16 GB
|
|
50
|
6
|
32 GB
|
|
100
|
8
|
32 GB
|
|
200
|
8
|
32 GB
|
 |
Ensure that you have a working, regular backup procedure in place for your models.
|
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services and Citrix MetaFrame Installations
If you set up a Modeler server and client on a Microsoft Remote Desktop Services or Citrix MetaFrame computer, that computer must be powerful enough to run the server and client software, along with any add-ins the remote clients choose to use.
The following table suggests the minimum number of process cores and the minimum size of RAM that we recommend to support different numbers of users.
|
Number of Users
|
Processor Cores
|
RAM
|
|---|---|---|
|
10
|
6
|
32 GB
|
|
25
|
8
|
32 GB
|
|
50
|
12
|
64 GB
|
|
100
|
12
|
64 GB
|