Plan your deployment

Determine the size of your deployment

Understand the requirements and limitations for deploying the Solution. We base the examples in this manual upon a small scale deployment. Understanding how the Solution works for a small scaled deployment is essential before you scale up to meet the needs of your environment. See Scaling your deployment in this manual for more information about how to deploy the solution to meet your environment needs.

Deployment Size	Description
Small scale deployments	This is an environment where the Solution monitors a small vCenter (one that manages 10 or less ESX/i hosts in total, and a small number of ESX/i hosts (also less than 10). This type of inputs.conf is only appropriate for monitoring a small vCenter (i.e. one that manages less than 10 ESX/i hosts in total) and a small number of ESX/i hosts (also less than 10). In this environment you can use a single default engine instance within a single FA.
Medium scale deployments	This is a vCenter environment containing 10 to 50 hosts. In this environment you can run multiple engines within a single FA. This reduces the maintenance requirements of the engine.conf and the load on the forwarder appliance.
Large scale deployments	This is a vCenter environment containing more than 50 hosts. In this environment you can use multiple FAs, with the option of running multiple engines in each one.