Understanding the workgroup model

In the workgroup model, Meridian is configured to meet the following needs:

• Less than 50 Meridian vault users, excluding Meridian Explorer repository users, which can be many more.
• Single site.
• Add-on modules such as the Meridian Asset Management Module, Publisher, and Global Collaboration Framework are not used.
• Minor or no customization is implemented.

A typical configuration to meet the needs of a workgroup would look similar to the following figure.

Since all components are installed on a single server, that server should be dedicated to Meridian and host no other significant applications or services. The DBMS in this configuration can be either the embedded Hypertrieve database engine (preferred), or SQL Server or Oracle if standards conformance is required and a separate database server is not available (see Understanding the department model). However, if all components are installed on a single server, special attention must be specified to memory management, as described in Understanding the effects of physical memory.

Configuration of the Meridian application server should include the following items.

• The maximum cache size of each vault should be 1 GB or less unless the High Performance Option is enabled. The combined sizes of all vault database caches plus user session memory must not exceed the amount of application virtual memory provided by the operating system.
• The High Performance Option is recommended when the combined size of all vault database caches exceeds the amount of application virtual memory provided by the operating system. This requires more than 4 GB of RAM, which itself requires specific versions of Windows Server.