Hardware requirements of sisNET and sisIMS in a virtualized environment

Graphics processors are required on clients and servers that perform the MicroStation graphical functionalities of sisNET. This is done by all client machines of sisNET, sisFLOW and sisVIEW, as well as by a sisIMS server that serves graphical images to the sisIMS web clients. Some sisIMS setups have multiple sisIMS servers: one for running IIS processes and one for running MicroStation-engines. A sisIMS server running MicroStation engines needs a GPU. A sisIMS server that only runs IIS, does not need a GPU.

If the machine does not have a GPU, MicroStation will emulate it in the CPU of the machine. This will perform at a much lower speed as the emulation puts a heavy load on the CPU, of a type for which a CPU is not optimized. 

A general notice on CONNECT Edition (CE) hardware specifications, compared to V8i requirements: the sisNET CE software is 64 bits, whereas the older V8i releases were 32 bits. On top of that, there is a 10-year difference in the two generations of the software. This makes the software more powerful, but the CE generation also expects this more powerful hardware to be available. So generally documented minimum requirements may not be very different, the requirements for a good working performance may differ indeed.

Typical Desktop Machine Specifications

Some examples of desktop machines that will provide good sisNET CE performance are the following:

• Machine A
  • Intel Xeon CPU E5-1660 V3 @ 3.00GHz, 8 cores, 16 logical processors.
  • 64 GB RAM
  • 9.50 GB page size
  • 1 TB hard drive
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 graphics card

• Machine B
  • Intel Core i7-8850H CPU @2.60GHz with 6 cores and 12 logical processors.
  • 32 GB RAM
  • 1 TB hard drive
  • NVIDIA Quadro Pro P2000 graphics card with 4 GB of GPU memory. 

Virtualization of sisNET Clients

If sisNET is running in a virtualized client, the specifications should be similar to those of a physical client. That means: similar specifications for CPU, RAM and GPU. The GPU is often forgotten as it may not be part of a default virtual machine setup. A video showing good reasons for having a GPU can be found here: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/virtual-gpu-technology/

More specifically:

• For users running sisNET clients on VDI
  • If you are moving to a virtualized setup, the following websites and documents have a lot of information on choosing the right virtual GPU setup (both hardware and required software):
  • https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/data-center/virtual-gpu-technology/
  • https://www.nvidia.com/content/dam/en-zz/Solutions/design-visualization/solutions/resources/documents1/Tech-Brief-Virtual-GPU-Positioning.pdf
  • https://www.supermicro.com/white_paper/white_paper_NVIDIA-VDI.pdf
  • Information about options for GPU optimized virtual machines in Azure is available here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/sizes-gpu?context=/azure/virtual-machines/context/context
  • A Microsoft Azure pricing calculator is available on https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/calculator/ 

• For users running sisNET clients under Citrix
  • This requires GPUs, just like running sisNET on physical clients. Information about using GPU's under Citrix is available on the following websites:
  • https://citrixready.citrix.com/nvidia.html and
  • https://citrixready.citrix.com/nvidia/nvidia-grid.html
  • More specific information about the use and conditions of using Bentley applications under Citrix is available here: https://bentleysystems.service-now.com/community?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0018660
  • Generic Citrix info is available on: https://www.citrix.com/en-in/products/citrix-virtual-apps-and-desktops/feature-matrix.html 

Note that on virtualized servers, you need both a specific GPU and the vGPU software to enable the use of the GPU in that environment. For example, see the Microsoft instructions on https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/n-series-driver-setup 

Virtualization of sisNET- and sisIMS-servers

• sisNET Fileserver
  A sisNET fileserver does not need a GPU.
  
  
• Physical sisIMS servers
  Regarding sisIMS physical servers that run MicroStation engines: these need a GPU, just like a desktop running MicroStation. For a 10-user sisIMS server, the hardware specifications in terms of CPU, RAM and GPU should be comparable to those of a high-performance desktop, e.g., 8 cores CPU, 64GB RAM and a GPU like the examples mentioned above. The hardware specifications of a sisIMS server used by 50 or 100 web viewers should be a multiple of these specifications, depending on the number of concurrent users (10, 50, 100) and the type (heaviness) of viewing they are doing. If you have multiple sisIMS engines running, always use at least 32GB of RAM.
  
  
• Virtualized sisIMS servers
  For running sisIMS MicroStation engines on VDI, check the links and documents provided above under “For users running sisNET clients on VDI”.

 The graphical capabilities and performance that can be achieved with virtualized servers should not be less than those of physical servers. The choice between physical or virtual clients and servers depends on factors such as ease of maintenance, scalability, number of users, use cases, required performance, cost, etc. Factors that are outside the Bentley scope. Your hosting provider will be able to give your further input there.