As part of the Jumpstart team, I help our customers in their CLM adoption and deployments. Customers raise questions on the sizing of their CLM environment, the topologies to adopt, etc. The questions I hear most often are:
- “How many users (total or concurrent) can my CLM environment support ?“
- “RTC rollout at our company is close to reach a second milestone (additional teams will use the tool). What planning (HW/SW) should we have wrt. these modifications?
- “We have this huge number of CLM (RTC/RQM/RRC-RDNG) artefacts. Will my CLM environment still handle this without any performance degradation as we continue adding artefacts into our repository ?“
- “What are the intrinsic CLM product limitations and – if one is concerning me – what approach should I adopt to keep on working smoothly with my CLM ?“
- etc.
First of all, depending on the CLM version you’re running, central places to check are the CLM 2011 Sizing Guide and the CLM 2012 Sizing Guide which include an “Artifact Sizing Guidelines” section summarizing “the recommendations on artifact sizing that will ensure optimal performance of the repository when the data sizes increase significantly“.
Foreword to the reader:
- This post follows the “cheat sheet/how to” format I’ve used in earlier posts for CLM Reporting or OSLC-related topics. As a consequence, if you’re already familiar with this post (and know exactly what you’re looking for), you may want to navigate directly to the tables: JTS table, RTC table, RQM table, RRC/RDNG table.
- If you’re interested by a similar content for Enterprise Modernization products (i.e. RTC EE, RDz, RD&T, RAA, etc.) by IBM Rational, check this dedicated blog post.
Now back to the core of this post:
Tables are provided. OK. But what do we call a Limit and an Alert zone ?
- Quantified data: the (maximum) number of….
- Limit: a hard limit of the product. Meaning that you cannot go beyond this value.
- Alert zone: based on experiences with customers, internal tests and development teams, it’s around these values that we start seeing performance issues. If you’re approaching these values, we’d suggest you monitor your system closely to detect any performance degradation before it becomes critical. WARNING: while provided figures are educated guesses and practical rules of thumbs, you could still find that your environment functions perfectly beyond these limits (e.g. if your environment is particularly fine-tuned). In a similar way, some intense CLM usage could show that these recommended values are too optimistic…
As a consequence, it’s important to understand this post is NOT an attempt for replacing existing resources (see the References section) that provide extensive views on CLM performance and tuning topics. We encourage administrators and project managers to read them as they both include finer-grain information and insist on the key aspect of not loosing the “bigger picture”.
What’s the use of the following tables then ?
Answer: they’re here to HELP YOU quickly figure out if you’ve reached some known CLM limitation or if you’re getting close to a threshold (again: on the basis of a typical/average environment) requiring due monitoring of your environment. To this regard, these tables are COMPLEMENTARY with existing resources and concentrate information ALREADY available but yet disseminated on multiple medias/sites/forum posts/etc.
What if… you can’t find what you’re looking for in the following tables ?
Answer: in such case, there MAY not be soft/hard limit on it. You should check the References section at the bottom of this post and check for the latest information (esp. from the CLM sizing guides).
Ξ
| JTS | |||
| Quantified data | Limit | Alert zone | Reference(s) |
| Concurrent user sessions | – | 400-2000+ | Purple Book |
| Jazz user id length | – | 250 bytes | Jazz.net forum |
Ξ
| RTC |
|||
| Quantified data | Limit | Alert zone | Reference(s) |
| Concurrent user sessions | – | 300-500+ (per CCM instance) | Purple Book |
| Example: “CLM Sizing Strategy” (v4.0.6 – April 2014) | – | – | 100-600 concurrent users. See report/environment details. |
| Example: “Performance Report” (v5.0 – June 2014) | – | – | 1200 concurrent users. See report/environment details. |
| Planning – Work-items |
|||
| WIs in a plan (<= v2.0) | 2048 | – | Jazz.net article |
| WIs in a plan (>=v2.0.0.1) | – | 250-500+ (impacts plan display time + questions ability from user to grasp several 100s of WIs in one plan) | Jazz.net forum, Jazz.net forum, Purple Book, RTC 4.0.3 Plan performance improvement |
| WIs in a project area/repository | – | – | Jazz.net forum, Jazz.net article |
| WI attachment size | 50 MB | If increasing this value or systematically using large attachments: be aware of the possible impact on DB growth and CLM performance in general. | See how to change this value in TechNote, Jazz.net forum |
| WI “Estimate” attribute | 1 year | – | Jazz.net forum. A presentation-enforced limit. |
| WI custom attribute length > Small String (*) | 250 bytes | – | Jazz.net article (RTC v4.0) |
| WI custom attribute length > Medium String (*) | 1000 bytes | – | Jazz.net article (RTC v4.0) |
| WI custom attribute length > Large String (*) | 32768 bytes | – | Jazz.net article (RTC v4.0), Enhancement 160469 |
| WI custom attribute length > Medium HTML (*) | 1000 bytes | – | Jazz.net article (RTC v4.0) |
| WI custom attribute length > Large HTML (*) | 32768 bytes | – | Jazz.net article (RTC v4.0) |
| Queries |
|||
| Query results |
1000 results | – | Jazz.net forum. Note: this default value could be increased but be aware of the possible negative impact on usability / server performance. |
| Planning – Timelines | |||
| Timelines | 2048 | (see recommended approach in the forum post’s answer) | Jazz.net forum |
| SCM | |||
| Files/folders in a single component (CLM 2011) | – | 50K (split into multiple components if required) | Jazz.net forum, Jazz.net article |
| Files/folders in a single component (CLM 2012, RTC 5.0) | – | 100K (split into multiple components if required) | Jazz.net forum, Jazz.net article, Jazz.net forum, |
| Suspended change-sets by individual user | – | 300 (for not slowing down operations) | Jazz.net article |
| Components in workspaces and streams | – | 500 (as tested by IBM) | Jazz.net article , Task 176441 (in progress) |
| Build | |||
| Build definitions associated to a build engine ( < v4.0.3) | 2048 | TechNote | |
| OSLC | |||
| oslc_cm.pageSize parameter (when querying work-items) | 100 | Jazz.net RFE, Jazz.net forum | |
(*): text-based
Ξ
| RQM |
|||
| Quantified data | Limit | Recommendation | Reference(s) |
| Concurrent user sessions | – | 100-150+ (per QM instance) | Purple Book |
| Example: “CLM Sizing Strategy” (v4.0.6 – April 2014) | – | – | 350-500 concurrent users. See report/environment details. |
| Example: “Performance Report” (v5.0 – June 2014) | – | – | 1000 concurrent users. See report/environment details. |
| TER (Test Execution Record) name length | 250 | – | Jazz.net forum |
| TCERs bulk generated from test plan wizard | – | 500 | Work-around article, RQM defect, WAS maxParamPerRequest |
| TCERs bulk changed/removed at once | tbd | tbd | Jazz.net forum, Jazz.net forum, WAS maxParamPerRequest |
| Records in a datapool / test data | 2000 | – | Jazz.net enhancement |
| Character limit: Description field of a Lab Resource | 250 | – | Jazz.net enhancement |
| Number of categories defined on an artifact type | 50 | – | RQM defect, RQM defect |
| Feed entries per page ( < 4.0.4) | 512 | – | Jazz.net forum, RQM defect |
| “Large Record Count” (SQL query result set generated by OOTB BIRT reports) ( >= 4.0.5) | – | 10K | TechNote, Jazz.net defect |
| Attachment size using UI | – | – | Jazz.net enhancement |
| Attachment size using CLI ( Command-Line Interface) ( >= 4.0) | – | 50 Mo | Jazz.net article (for how to change this default value, see the Comments section). Note: if increased, be aware of the possible negative impact on usability / server performance. |
| TCERs runnable off-line and at once (>=4.0) | 50 | – | 4.0 InfoCenter |
Ξ
| RRC-DNG/RDNG | |||
| Quantified data | Limit | Recommendation | Reference(s) |
| Concurrent user sessions (< v4.0.1) | – | 200+ | Purple Book |
| (>= v4.0.1) | – | 400+ | Purple Book |
| Example: “CLM Sizing Strategy” (v4.0.6 – April 2014) | – | – | 300-400 concurrent users. See report/environment details. |
| Example: “Performance Report” (v5.0 – June 2014) | – | – | 400 concurrent users. See report/environment details. |
| Coexistence with DM (Design Manager) on the same box (in v.4.x and v5.0.x) | Incompatible | – | Jazz.net forum (related to the converter component) |
| Instances of RM application per JTS (<= v4.0.6) | 1 | – | 4.0.3 InfoCenter, Jazz.net article, Plan Item |
| RM Projects per RM application / JTS | – | 200+ | Jazz.net article |
| Number of undos in edit mode | – | 20 | TechNote |
| Number of displayable links (>= v4.0.1) |
|
– | Jazz.net forum |
| Number of artifacts selectable in the Artifact view | 50 | – | Enhancement 71080, Jazz.net forum |
| Using ReqIF | |||
| Imports to DNG from DOORS (>= v4.0.1) | – |
|
Jazz.net article, Jazz.net forum |
| max depth supported for import | 3 | – | Jazz.net forum |
References:
- CLM 2011 Sizing Guide
- Rational Team Concert (RTC) 2.0 sizing guide
- The Deployment wiki
- “Jazz Performance: A Guide to Better Performance” by D. Toczala (Feb 2013). A.k.a the “Purple Book“
- “Sizing and tuning guide for RDNG (Rational DOORS Next Generation) 5.0“
Acknowledment/Credit: thanks to the authors of the cited documents above and more generally to the Jazz community who collaboratively provides accurate information through library articles, forums questions & answer, etc..
Stephane Leroy's Blog 
Is there any upper limit on the number of attachments that can be added to a single Work Item?
Hi Russel, wonder the number you’re considering here ? I’m not aware of such limit. I would suggest you ask this question on Jazz.net forum (and possibly contact support if critical to you). Regards, Stéphane PS: pls let me know of the feedback you get as I regularly update this blog post !
Have not had time to compare your numbers with Tim Feeney’s and Ralph Schoon’s but thought this might be a good place to colocate this info
(https://connections.ibminnovateonline.com/files/app/file/5b33a668-95c3-4225-8981-d065c5adec28)
Hi Robert,
the session (ref: DRD-1056) you’re mentioning was part of Innovate 2014 conference and, as such, your link could only be consulted by Innovate attendees with credentials (attempting to provide some more context to other readers here…).
To the core of your comment:
“My numbers” are actual borrowing to publicly available information.
If you compare them with Tim and Ralph’s ones, you’ll see they’re pretty much of the same order.
I’m a long time supporter for having this information collocated in a central place. Good news is that I’m aware of an initiative targeting such consolidation. I don’t know of any ETA for their delivery though.
Regards,
Stéphane
In response to the Alert Zone Comment:
WIs in a plan (>=v2.0.0.1)
250-500+ (impacts plan display time + questions ability from user to grasp several 100s of WIs in one plan)
Though on the face of it, I agree with your observation, it seems to me that the issue is more related to how one defines the Plan Views. Group By and Exclusions along with Colors can manage a large set of WIs in a Plan down to very discreet subsets of WIs.