Difference between revisions of "AquilaCRS Pre-requisites"

Revision as of 09:50, 19 February 2014

Overview

The following steps install and set up your iBID software:

1. Create the Database
2. Install the Application Server
3. Install Desktop software

MS SQL Server 2005 or later

The AquilaCRS (IBID) application server requires an MS SQL Server 2005 or later database. The app server supports SQL Server Express editions or above, and requires one of the SQL Server x86 or x64 Native Client drivers to be installed on the application server machine.

• The database connection method is TCP/IP. In the case where SQL Express is installed, the TCP/IP protocol must be enabled and ports correctly configured for each IP address.

• The application server (AquilaServer) will require it's own SQL Server user profile to access the database.

Physical or Virtual Server

The application server component needs a server machine which can be either physical or virtual, shared or dedicated. The application server component can co-exist with other systems and will happily co-exist with any previous BIBID server installation, so it is possible to re-use an existing server.

The database can be hosted either in your existing SQL server cluster or on a separate server, which can be the same server as the app-server software component.

• The server machine can be physical or virtual.
• Running server editions of Windows, version 2003 or later.
• Minimum RAM 4Gb
• Requires 4Gb free disk space (estimated data transfer and future years database size)
• App Server requires ~50Mb free disk space

Desktop Software Installation

Per user

The "per-user" installation can be installed by anyone without requiring administrative rights on the computer. Each user on that PC would need to install their own copy. Each user needs to have permissions to download this file and will need to run the simple setup program. Installing this way means that the software can be automatically upgraded.

All Users

The "all users" installation installs to the Program Files and requires local administrative rights to install. Standard users do not have these permissions, so automatic software updates cannot be applied. Therefore this type of installation requires a manual upgrade.

Citrix/Thin Client

For Citrix or other thin client & virtualised environments please use the "all-users" installation. This type of deployment requires a manual upgrade which would need to be applied by the IT department. The upgrades are simple wizard type and take just minutes to complete.

Automatic Software Updates

The Application Server component requires a manual upgrade, and this is usually handled by the IT department.

The Desktop Software can be upgraded automatically, but where necessary manual upgrades only take minutes to perform.

In order for the desktop software to be automatically updated, the software program must be installed to a folder that is writeable by the user. The URL of the automatic update web service must not be blocked by your IT department either. The domain name for the automatic update service is www.nbid.org.

For more information on writeable folders that are shared between users, please read the Shared writeable folders.

For those that have installed the all users version, i.e. for Citrix or other thin client solutions, you will need to manually upgrade the application.

Web Service URL's

AquilaCRS needs to access certain web services, & the following domains need adding to the whitelist on your firewall/proxy server in order to prevent system failures:

1. https://nww.ibid.mdsas.nhs.uk - the current base URL for the National Database - please note the use of SSL.
2. www.NBID.org - this web service provides software updates & updates to other URL's.
3. www.EvolutionHealthcareSystems.co.uk - for bug reporting, help files and helpdesk systems.
4. www.ibidb.org - this is the information website for the iBID database, & is where software is made available and service reports are obtained.

Failure to allow these websites through firewalls and proxy servers can adversely affect the performance and data commissioning abilities of the software