- 1 SAM server (This will have alert central & web console)
- 1 NPM server ( this will also have Netflow, Config Manager & IPSLA)
- 1 SQL Ent ( NPM & SAM both point to this)
- Have poller engines for SAM ( I believe since i do not have unlimited license for NPM I cannot have multiple pollers right ???)
I would recommending installing NPM and SAM on the same server(s) so you can have the single pane of glass view into both network/servers/applications/etc. If you do decide to install SAM and NPM onto seperate servers, keep in mind that they cannot share the same database. They can share the same database server, but not the same database. Which means the only way to acheive a single pane of glass view would be through the use of the Enterprise Operations Center (EOC). Since you own a SAM ALX (Unlimited License) you can leverage the additional pollers for NPM as well as SAM. Though you will still be limited to a maximum of 2000 monitored SNMP interfaces provided by your NPM SL2000 license.
- Can NPM & SAM point to the same SQL or they need their own, what is preferable
Yes, both NPM and SAM can share the same SQL Server, but when installed on separate machines they cannot use the same database. It's generally preferred to install SAM and NPM on the same machine, using the same database to provide a single pane of glass.
- How to decide on how many poller engines we need and how to scale, what are the considerations ?
This is typically determined by how many components/elements/etc are being monitored. For a full list of poller capacity drivers please read the Scalability Engine Guidelines document. You can also keep an eye on your polling completion rate under [Settings -> Polling Engines] to determine the load on your polling engine
- Are there any white papers or references on implementations in other organizations or best practices ?
There are various references in each products Administrators Guide as well as Blog Posts, Product Blogs, videos, webcasts, and expansion guides that cover different deployment scenarios and provide best practice recommendations.