A Sharepoint implementation consists of Domain Controllers, Exchange servers, SQLSERVER hosts, Sharepoint Front End Servers and Web Application Servers. It is quite a challenge to determine how many instances you need of each type. You would not want poor performance because you deployed too few. On the other hand deploying too many can incurr high extra costs for licenses you do not need.
mBrace provides the following approach to cope with this:
Step 1: Set up a configuration with the absolute minimum of server instances
Step 2: Install the mBrace Agile Performance Test Tool
Step 3: Create one or more use cases with all freqently used transactions
Step 4: Determine how many users are going to aply these uses cases (the Load model)
Step 5: Do a performance test with the mBrace Agile Tooling on the use cases (Example: Video #1)
Step 6: Do a Capacity Optimization Scenario with the Tool (See Video #4 for an example)
After Step 6 you have accurate insight in the numbers of server instances and licenses