Issue link: https://insights.oneneck.com/i/1364590
How Min, Buffer, and Max Settings Can Affect Your Xi Frame Costs The purpose of the min, buffer, and max settings, combined with the ability to schedule exceptions, is to allow you to flexibly address user needs while allowing you to control costs by minimizing the number of sessions sitting idle. Note that even with no users on the system, if min is set to 5 you always have 5 sessions running—waiting for users and incurring costs. Similarly, if buffer is set to 5, once users connect, you continue to have 5 sessions sitting idle (until max is reached). You can minimize costs by setting both min and buffer to zero, but this forces each user to wait approximately 2 minutes for an instance to start to connect to a session. A good rule of thumb is to set min and buffer to the number of users likely to log in during a 2-minute period. Schedule exceptions to increase min and buffer for periods when many people connect. Note that in most cases, you want max to remain the same at all times. If you reduce the setting during some intervals, instances will be unnecessarily terminated only to be re-provisioned when the setting increases, incurring unnecessary instance usage on your account. Most Xi Frame accounts observe user activity and fine tune the default settings and exceptions as clear patterns emerge. Utility Servers A Utility Server is a stand-alone, general purpose server that can be added as an option to your Xi Frame account. Utility servers are useful for supporting more complex user application environments and typically run 24 x 7. Common uses are as backend servers for client-server applications, license servers, or file servers. By default, utility servers are configured as relatively low-powered instances, but you can request any type of instance you need. Utility Servers are accessed from the Frame Dashboard, where you can power them on and connect to install applications. Connecting to External Networks Your Xi Frame account is always configured to run as a secure, isolated environment. For example, in AWS your Frame environment runs as a VPC; in Azure your environment runs as a VNET. In all likelihood, you'll need your Xi Frame environment to connect to other parts of your operations, either in the cloud, on-premises, or both. Depending on the particulars of your Frame account, you can configure your environment with: • Peer-to-peer connections to other cloud environments • Virtual private network (VPN) connections to on-premises datacenters | 21