Predicting Disk Space and RAM Requirements at Run-Time

The following section contains guidelines for predicting run-time disk space and RAM requirements.

Deploying Object Instances

Deploying an object instance does not affect the size of the Galaxy Repository database. However, deployment impacts disk space and RAM use on the target Platform.

Deploying object instances to an AppEngine impacts RAM usage. The initial deployment has largest impact on RAM, since deployment involves loading the associated run-time software on the Platform node (local or remote). Subsequent object instance deployments (based on common templates) use much less RAM.

The following table describes disk space and RAM usage when creating and deploying an aggregated Application Object instance containing multiple child objects. The objects are deployed on the local node:

Some RAM on the local (target) node is used by the IDE, the remaining RAM is used by the Platform and AppEngine.

Deploying to an XP Platform

In a production environment, AutomationObjects may be deployed to an AppEngine on the XP platform. Estimating disk space on XP is problematic because of the System Restore feature.

System Restore provides protection from inadvertent deletion of required system files. The end result is similar to a Backup/Restore operation on a Server operating system: the user can restore the machine from a certain point in time.

However, the System Restore feature maintains extra copies of files on the local machine's disk drive, and provides limited administrative options. File copies are made at a random times determined by the operating system. The deployment operation generates the System Restore operation, but may not include all necessary executable files.

Default System Restore Disk Space settings are as follows:

• For drives greater than 4 GB, System Restore uses up to 12% of the disk space.

• For drives less than 4 GB, System Restore by default only uses up to 400 MB of disk space

The data store size is not a reserved space on the disk and the maximum size (to the max values defined above) is limited at any time by the amount of free space available on disk. Therefore, if disk space use encroaches on the data store size, System Restore always yields its data store space to the system.

For example, if the data store size is configured to 500 MB, of which 200 MB is already used, and the current free hard-disk space is only 150 MB, the effective size of the data store is 350 MB (200 + 150), not 500 MB. Note that disk space usage can be adjusted at any time.

Note: System Restore is accessed via the System utility in Control Panel.

System Restore is enabled by default. DO NOT turn off the System Restore feature on an operational System Platform computer. Instead, assess disk space usage using an isolated test computer on an isolated Galaxy where System Restore is disabled.