web
You’re offline. This is a read only version of the page.
close
Skip to main content

Notifications

Announcements

No record found.

News and Announcements icon
Community site session details

Community site session details

Session Id :
Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Microsoft Dynamics NAV (Archived) / NAV 2013 Server.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV (Archived)

NAV 2013 Server.

(0) ShareShare
ReportReport
Posted on by Community Member

Looking for what is recommended here: The NAV server doesn't need to be on different hardware from the SQL server, right? I know SQL loves to be by itself. Then should we be looking to upgrade our SQL 2008 R2 to 2012?

Pro and Con list would be nice.

Thanks,

Mike

*This post is locked for comments

I have the same question (0)
  • Nick Haman Profile Picture
    Nick Haman on at

    I am sure you will get more feedback on this, but you will want the NAV Middle Tier Server(s) to be on separate boxes, NOT on the SQL Server. If you are a 2-5 person shop, you can probably get by having them on one machine, but otherwise please do not put anything on the SQL Server other then the SQL Server. Even a SQL Server Reporting Server in many cases should be broken off if you are a company of any size. There are of course many variables, so without all the details I cannot give you a precise answer, but I would never put anything on the SQL Server, I have seen too many peformance issues when doing that. SQL 2012 is compatible now with NAV 2009, but keep in mind that is it not FULLY compatible with all NAV 2009. Business Notification, Business Analytics, and Commerce Gateway do NOT work with SQL 2012, so if using any of those products, you need to stay on SQL 2008 R2. I know you are asking about NAV 2013, but wanted to point that out since NAV 2013 is a ways from release yet. NAV 2013 is 64bit on the Middle Tier Server now, so you can scale up the number of users that attach to one Middle Tier as compared to NAV 2009's 32bit architecture. If not using any of the above mentioned products, then going to SQL 2012 is fine, and you can take advantage of the new technology of SQL 2012. I hope it helps you out some.

    Nick

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member on at

    Nick it does help. We will have about 20 users initially. You said 2-5. So 20 really is too much? Also...we do not have 2009 and not sure if we are going to use those reports. Sounds like we can stay with SQL 2008 R2.

    My boss for end of fiscal year purposes bought two big servers that are not in service. I am trying to figure out what to do with them! What are the system requirements for NAV Server 2013?

    Mike

  • Nick Haman Profile Picture
    Nick Haman on at

    Michael,

    With 20 users, you will want a separate 64bit machine for the Middle Tier. I did say 2-5 you "could" maybe do, but I would still stick to a Dedicated SQL Server no matter what, as it doesn't take a Server Class machine to run the Middle Tier for low amount of users. You will in the end just be much happier with Performance. 20 Users you will only need 1 Middle Tier machine, unless you want 2 for the N+1 configuration (failover). We don't auto failover, but you can have one ready, and just change configuration file to quickly change Users over given a complete machine failure, so keep those type of things in mind when setting up the system. SQL Server you have options also for N+1 such as log shipping or mirroring but mirroring has a lot of overhead, and not really suggested. SQL 2012 gives you the AlwaysOn feature of course, new to SQL 2012. Data should be RAID10, with Logs/Tempdb RAID1 or RAID10 and operating System drive RAID1. I know you didn't ask about this, but maybe some decent information. Again, pretty generic but even if using SAN, pretty much a standard setup. Data and Log and Tempdb should be on own physical drives (I know SAN can change that, but if possible separate physical, not logical). You can for sure stay with SQL 2008R2, it comes down to architecture setups and some of the above for your up-time requirements and how you want to handle that. The 3 things i mention that do not work on SQL 2012 are not reports, just so you know, they are different modules, but are not on NAV 2013 as they have replacements, so nothing for you to worry about. You certainly will want to get a partner involved to help you out, as my information here is pretty general, and you will have specific requirements I am sure. Undoubtedly you will use one of the new Servers as the SQL Server (I don't know the specs, I am assuming Server class and will work out, but specs will need to be checked), and the other it depends on what architecture you need for disastor recovery, redundancy, etc.  Here are some links to get you started.

    NAV 2013 requirements:

    msdn.microsoft.com/.../dd301330(v=nav.70).aspx

    at the bottom of the link, you will see "Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 Requirements" link, that will give you hardware requirements for NAV 2013.

    BLOG Site:

    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/nav/

    This has a lot of information, some sub links are as follows:

    SQL 2012 announcement:

    blogs.msdn.com/.../compatibility-update-with-microsoft-sql-server-2012.aspx

    SQL Configuration (This is for NAV 2009, but much will be very similar with NAV 2013, again, one major change is the new 64 bit Middle Tier so that will scale better than NAV 2009)

    blogs.msdn.com/.../microsoft-dynamics-nav-sql-server-configuration-recommendations.aspx

    Nick

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member on at

    Great Nick thanks. Two more: NAV Server 2013 doesn't need its own machine too, does it?? Just making sure. Re: SQL. because our concurrent users won't be higher than 20 for a while, HP told me it was ok to Put the OS on RAID 1 and SQL - all of it - on RAID 5. That is not what you are saying. This HP server is a new GEN8 massive thing. But I am inclined to do your suggestion anyway. FYI.

    This is helping,

    Mike

    P.S. My boss has me shopping for a third server just to put IIS on. That will make 3 new ones and they aren't in service yet. All getting ready for Dynamics and moving our web site internally.

  • Nick Haman Profile Picture
    Nick Haman on at

    When you say NAV Server 2013, I assume you are referring to the same thing I have been saying which is the Middle Tier Service. So I think we are talking the same thing and it should be on it's own Server. So we have a 3-Tier architecture.  SQL Server; NAV Server; Client.    SQL Server is dedicated, NAV Server (Service Tier) is on it's own Server(s) (1 for you since 20 Users); then clients. Client is another story. You have the RTC which is the Full Client, and can be individual to each user, or can be mutlipe users on a Ctrix or Remote Destop box, where you would size out and maybe have 2 machines, possibly 1 for your Users to connect to Citrix or Remote Desktop, depends on machines and types of users, what modules you are using, when you are posting, what setups, etc. etc.. You also now have SharePoint Client and Web Client on NAV2013 which are reduced functionality type clients but very useful for certain Users, again a Partner can help with that decision to show the differences in clients. Web and SharePoint Clients requires IIS, which is also a decision since it requires some setup and administration type work and is also typically a Server to itself. Hopefully that clarifies the NAV Server 2013 question, you are saying the samething as me when I say NAV Service Tier or Middle Tier, all the same thing. Some people are using RAID 5 now, I left this question for last because many people that read this are going to weigh in both ways. RAID 5 is going to be less expensive for sure, less drives needed. RAID10 however is going to typically peform better for writes, and ERP products are very heavy on writes, it will also peform typically slightly better on Reads. ERP products are heavy on both, thus I will agrue that performance will be much better at a slightly higher cost which is well worth it. This is my own perspective though, and you can certainly get other peoples perspective on this. HP may not know what you are specifically using it for? The last Point is RAID10 has better recovery and performs much better if having to replace a drive. Also, better typically for an ERP to have more drives that are smaller, rather than just a few that are very large. You may not need all the additional space of having really large drives, but having more is good since more read/write heads which helps performance. Just my thoughts.

    Nick

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member on at

    Nick:

    Thanks for the requirments, but is the NAV Server itself (Not SQL) also heavy on the writes? Or is that just the SQL? I am have a new server with RAID 5 drives, I could use for this, but will get the extra drvies to do RAID 10 if it would help.

    I will also be running Symantec's AV Managment database/console on the same machines, a CAD Workgroup server and a FAX server. Just FYI.

    Currently the server has 24 Gig of RAM.

    Thanks Mike

    Oh...I ordered a addtional drive for the machine above. My boss wants to make sure it is top performing. It will do RAID 10 now.

  • Suggested answer
    Nick Haman Profile Picture
    Nick Haman on at

    Mike,

    The NAV Server is the where the NAV Service runs, it 'talks' between the Client and the SQL Server, does the request, the processing, but doesn't actually do any writes, as that is the SQL Server that is doing the CRUD (Create/Read/Update/Delete) Operations. However the NAV Server does utilize a lot of memory and CPU for things like Reporting and for executing the code for business logic. So the RAID10 is the Drives is assocaited to the SQL Server, that NAV Server is machine intensive, but not Drive intensive. The NAV Server itself does not need any RAID drives really as no database information will be stored there, so just having a local drive is fine. The only place you need to worry about RAID10 is on the SQL Server drives.You mention having other programs installed on the NAV Server, so for those maybe you need something, but not for NAV. Make sure to size appropriately so NAV is not starved for resources, things like Reporting will take up a lot of processor and memory on that Server just so you know.

    Nick

Under review

Thank you for your reply! To ensure a great experience for everyone, your content is awaiting approval by our Community Managers. Please check back later.

Helpful resources

Quick Links

Responsible AI policies

As AI tools become more common, we’re introducing a Responsible AI Use…

Neeraj Kumar – Community Spotlight

We are honored to recognize Neeraj Kumar as our Community Spotlight honoree for…

Congratulations to the November Top 10 Community Leaders!

These are the community rock stars!

Leaderboard > 🔒一 Microsoft Dynamics NAV (Archived)

#1
HoangNam Profile Picture

HoangNam 7

Last 30 days Overall leaderboard

Featured topics

Product updates

Dynamics 365 release plans