Moving from AWS to dedicated on-site hosting

[Isaacdvory]

Hello,

I wanted to ask the forum opinion on switching from AWS to an on-site hosting.
Currently we are using r5.2xlarge, which is 8v cores and 64 memory and we are having a lot of issues with out-of-memory when the tasks are running to pull the data or when the users are browsing the app - no more than 5 users, and in my opinion, not a huge amount of data, I think the largest QVD is 2GB and in total maybe we have 10GB of data? I don't know if it a good measure but ... 

Anyway, the cost is about $800 a month, and the CPU it uses is 8259CL. 

Since most of my users are on-site users, would it make sense to buy a regular PC and deploy it on it?
It doesn't have to be an actual server computer, I was thinking AMD 9950X (or last gen 7950x), 128gb memory , no graphics card (will I get any benefit from RTX A4000?), 1tb ssd, good power supply and that's it... 

Does it make sense or am I missing something?

[M_B]

I believe installing Qlik Sense Enterprise is going to require Windows Server. Some things to consider:

1- Hardware and drivers: The problem you might run into is "unsupported" hardware which might cause you driver issues (mainly with the main/mother-board). I do not know if Windows Server will complain about running on desktop hardware. Maybe you can avoid some problems by running the environment in a VM?

According to Microsoft, these are the hardware requirements:

Hardware requirements for Windows Server | Microsoft Learn

You can go with the 16/32 EPYC CPU but that will require a server main/mother-board that are probably only sold through official partners.

2- Support: While it might be possible to accomplish what you are asking about, any attempt to ask for support might be met with a lot of "Oh sorry we do not provide support for this configuration" but that is speculation on my part.

I am by no means an authority on this stuff. Hopefully someone can provide you with a better answer.

[Levi_Turner]

You have two types of questions here: will it work and is it supported.

Will it work? Likely. Qlik Sense Enterprise - Client Managed supports all x64 chips. As a matter of practice many of us at Qlik run Client Managed on our laptops.

Will it be supported? My guess is you may run into challenges here. As a matter of practice, we support the Windows Server OS for production scenarios (ref). The chipset hasn't been tested formally by our Scalability labs (ref for top performing servers).

Pragmatically, the best option for your use case would be to deploy Qlik Sense to a VM which will permit you to add more resources as your use grows / use case changes. As you mentioned, you are encountering resource scarcity on your AWS deployment. At minimum, I'd upsize the EC2 instance, validate that 128GB of memory is sufficient prior to any hardware purchase. Otherwise you have an overly powerful desktop which is insufficient for your needs.

And to answer the question about the GPU, no, Qlik Sense will not use it.

[Isaacdvory]

Thanks for the info, I'm glad I asked this here as I didn't think on the aspects you guys brought up.

Do I understand correctly that I could run it on regular windows 10-11 as well? (per you laptop comment). I see there are some requirements for installing windows server that I was not aware of, but generally speaking if I could run on regular windows that would be idle for me I guess. 

What do you mean by "support"? In the 3+ years we are using qlik, I don't remember any support calls to actual qlik company (or however it works) , we mainly talk with our dev about any incorrect data that we might see, but that's not qlik issue to my understanding, just the code he wrote....

I wasn't the one that installed this, so I have no idea how it works in terms of licensing and moving it from one server to another (which I know happened once, but again I wasn't the one who did it) .
Is licensing or re-deploying something I should check in advance?

Qlik currently works on EC2, it doesn't work badly, it always had some issues with being "heavy" but only recently really started to struggle with memory and crashing constantly. I was thinking about doubling the ram there to see the affect, but since it only just started giving us issue, I figured 128gb or 196gb(Which I can get with AMD 9950x) would be more than enough for the coming years, and the price for that PC, let's say $2500 will be an investment that will pay for it self in 3-4 months if we remove AWS all together...
so to my understanding, as long as it will actually works and run, the performance will be better for sure , because both the CPU is much stronger and the memory is at least doubled, right?
If we buff the specs like that and the performance is still an issue, we probably need to optimize the code and I would still rather do it on a local server and stop paying AWS, either way I don't see a benefit for the AWS for us at the moment, because I don't see a reason we need a stronger machine then what I specced.
If I were to go with actual server specs, like threadripper, the price will easily triple and the gamble of "will it be enough" will be much higher, so that's my thought process....

[M_B]

By support I mean, say if someone needs to remotely provide assistance to fix or modify something in the Windows environment, and saw that the installation is Windows Home instead of Windows Server, they might just say "Sorry we cannot provide support for this case." or something. If they need to open gpedit.msc, they would not be able to on Windows Home. They can get it to work with a workaround but that is considered a liability. Windows Pro has it enabled by default but you never know what else it might be missing when needed. I don't know if Qlik support or Microsoft support (if ever needed) would assist in a non-supported environment.

For example, we had setup our Qlik environment with MFA. It required a few sessions with the MFA provider and our Microsoft support provider. They both needed to make adjustments, installations and modifications in order to get things working. It would have been very difficult if we were not running Windows Server.

If you still want to go with this setup, gather some more information about your environment needs. The worst that can happen is that you will have a $2500 PC that can be still used for other things.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Take the time to read some of the info in the links @Levi_Turner provided.

(System requirements for Qlik Sense Enterprise:

This section lists the requirements that must be fulfilled by the target system in order to successfully install and run Qlik Sense.

Platforms:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2016
• Microsoft Windows Server 2019
• Microsoft Windows Server 2022

For development and testing purposes only:

• Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit version only)
• Microsoft Windows 11)

As you can see Windows 10 and 11 are for development and testing only. This is what I meant by them possibly refusing to support a production environment running on one of them.

[Isaacdvory]

Thanks again for the help.

If I manage to install windows server on regular PC, should I expect any issues with Qlik?

[M_B]

You are welcome. I do not think you will have issues with Qlik as long as you manage to get the drivers working on Windows Server.

Wonder if @Levi_Turner can confirm this for you.

[Levi_Turner]

Again let's separate out what will run ("work") and what is supported (i.e. should you run into a bug, will Qlik remedy the bug). Installation of a Windows Server OS on non server hardware is a conversation for Microsoft. It'll likely work based on past experiences, but past results aren't indicative of future returns. Will Qlik Sense run? Sure. Will it be stable? Who knows. There's a reason why servers use ECC memory. An in-memory data analytics tool is incredibly sensitive to the fidelity of the hardware maintaining an accurate state.

This a design which could work totally fine for years (I know of customers running QlikView 9 on laptops stuck under desks for years and years and years) or could be an absolute nightmare if you get stuck in a gap of support between the desktop hardware that you're buying and the server software you're deploying.

It may be worth reaching out to your Qlik Sales representative or Qlik partner to discuss whether Qlik Cloud is a better option.

[ChadGregory]

I was also dealing with high costs and performance problems and decided to set up my own server with a high-end PC. I used an AMD 5950X with 128GB RAM, an SSD, and a reliable power supply. The setup worked great and significantly reduced costs. However, if you’re considering a more traditional approach, you might want to look into managed hosting options like CybroHost. I found their service to be really reliable for my needs and it might save you from dealing with hardware issues and ongoing maintenance. Just something to consider if you want a hassle-free solution.

[Isaacdvory]

I will have a conversation again with my team to see what's the best for us.

@Levi_Turner - if I get ECC memory for the non-server hardware, will that mitigate some of the concerns?