VPRM. Operating Environment Guide. VPRM Workbench Release 9.7. Issue 1

VPRM Operating Environment Guide VPRM Workbench Release 9.7 Issue 1

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Contents CONTENTS INTRODUCTION... 1 TECHNICAL ARCHITECTURE... 2 ARCHITECTURE DIAGRAM... 2 Oracle Database Server... 2 Oracle Application Server... 2 Client (PC) tier... 3 Flexman Server... 3 ARCHITECTURE CONSIDERATIONS... 4 Flexman... 4 Achieving flexibility when running VPE and VPRM... 4 Location of webdata folder... 4 Static IP Address... 5 HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE... 6 INTERNATIONAL OPERATING SYSTEM SUPPORT... 6 CHARACTER SET SUPPORT... 7 ORACLE DATABASE SERVER... 8 Hardware and Operating system... 8 Software... 8 Disk Space... 8 Configuration... 8 ORACLE APPLICATION SERVER... 9 Hardware and Operating system... 9 Software... 9 Disk space... 9 Configuration... 9 CLIENT PC... 10 Hardware... 10 Display... 10 Disk space... 10 Operating System... 10 Browser... 10 Software... 10 Optional Software... 11 INTEGRATION AND INTERFACES... 12 COMMUNICATIONS... 13 SINGLE DATABASE SERVER... 13 MULTIPLE DATABASE SERVERS... 13 CLIENT CONNECTION... 14 Bandwidth and Delay... 14 Connection Type... 14 VPRM@site... 14 IT skills in remote office... 15 Issue 1 i

Introduction Introduction This guide is intended for IT managers and support staff who are planning to implement VPRM. Technical Architecture gives an overview of the major hardware, software and network components Hardware & Software gives detailed requirements of the hardware, operating system, software packages & version numbers Communications identifies the network requirements This issue of the Guide identifies the platforms which AVEVA is planning to support for VPRM 9.7. Where AVEVA has current reservations about specific component releases these are highlighted in the text. AVEVA reserves the right to modify this document to reflect any additional findings during final testing of the VPRM 9.7 release. Issue 1 1

Technical Architecture Technical Architecture This section gives an overview of the major hardware, software and network components required to implement VPRM. Architecture Diagram Main Location eg Design Office Database Server Database LAN Application Server Application software Software execution Oracle Net traffic HTTP traffic Dial-up Location eg Material Inspector Extranet or Internet VPN Laptop / PC client PC clients minimal local software Linked Location eg Design Sub-Contractor, Construction Site, Client Office Intranet (WAN) or Internet VPN PC clients VPRM is implemented using the Oracle three-tier architecture, which consists of the following components: Oracle Database Server The database server runs 10gR2 database, which contains the data and a portion of the application logic. Oracle Application Server The Application Server contains the bulk of the application logic, and runs the Oracle Application Server product, which consists of the following key components: Web Cache, which improves server performance and hands-over requests to the Oracle HTTP Server. Oracle HTTP Server, which provides a listening service using the Apache web server technology. This hands-over requests to the Forms Server Forms Server, which deploys Forms applications with database access to Java running in a web browser. Once request has been passed to the Forms Server all communication is then direct to the web browser The Forms Server Runtime process executes the application logic. The Reports Server, which provides an easy to use and administer solution for reporting. VPRM reports run by initiating a request to the Oracle Reports Server process. The report output is returned to the client, normally in PDF format for viewing/printing using Acrobat Reader. The Application Server communicates with the database server via the Oracle Net protocol. Issue 1 2

Technical Architecture Client (PC) tier The client runs a web browser and downloads the Java-based Forms client (Java applet) on demand. These forms are rendered and controlled in the browser using the Oracle Jinitiator. This simply presents the user interface for the server-side application. It communicates with the Application Server using a HTTP connection. Flexman Server VPRM licensing is managed by the Flexman Server using the Flexlm product. Prior to running VPRM the Flexman 3SP1 software should be installed and license keys obtained. This is described in the document flexman.pdf on your product CD. Issue 1 3

Technical Architecture Architecture Considerations This section gives general recommendations for common architecture questions. Flexman Where Flexman is already implemented it is recommended that the existing license file is extended to include the VPRM licenses. For customers new to AVEVA products, Flexman can be installed on any robust server within the LAN the Oracle Application Server is recommended where VPRM is the only application present. Achieving flexibility when running VPE and VPRM VPE and VPRM are web-enabled products, making use of the Oracle 3-tier architecture. Both products require an Oracle Application Server and an Oracle Database Server. AVEVA Product development roadmaps are planned in order that compatible versions of VPE and VPRM are available at around the same time, in order that customers can install both products on the same servers, minimising the hardware and Oracle costs. However, recent experience has shown that for some customers a more flexible approach is needed, particularly when the customer wishes to benefit from new features provided in one product, but is unable to upgrade the other product. Examples of this are: Upgrading both products at once is considered too large a change. The customer would prefer to stagger the upgrades to reduce risk and allow staff to absorb the changes. A project is at a critical stage and the customer is unwilling to upgrade one product. AVEVA is unable to synchronise release dates owing to commitments for other customers AVEVA recommends that as a general rule, customers should implement VPE and VPRM on separate servers. What are the options? A customer implementing both VPE and VPRM, or wishing to upgrade one or other product has the following options. 2 Application Servers, 2 Database Servers o Complete flexibility o Higher cost of hardware and Oracle licenses 2 Application Servers, 1 Database Server o Reasonable flexibility o Moderate cost of hardware and Oracle licenses 1 Application Server, 1 Database Server o Inflexible upgrading requires careful planning taking into account all projects. Unlikely to benefit from new product features immediately o Minimise hardware and Oracle licenses Location of webdata folder When planning the VPRM 9.7 implementation IT staff will need to consider whether the webdata folder can be located in the standard configuration, on the Application Server under <VPRM Home>. In a production environment, the webdata folder should have (at least) daily backups. Issue 1 4

Technical Architecture Static IP Address It is recommended that the Database Server and Application Server are configured with a static ip address (as for any production server). For Oracle Application Server 10gR2 this is now more critical than in the previous AS product. For Off-Network installations and support for DHCP please review the document Oracle Application Server 10gR2 Forms and Reports Services Installation Guide 10g (10.1.0) for Microsoft Windows The document is available on the CD: Oracle Application Server Forms and Reports Services 10gR2 (10.1.0.2.0) Documentation Library. Issue 1 5

Hardware and Software Hardware and Software This section gives detailed requirements of the hardware, operating system, software packages & version numbers required to implement VPRM. International Operating System Support Where the text identifies operating systems (e.g. Windows XP) or 3 rd party packages (e.g. Office 2007) then VPRM has been comprehensively tested with the English versions. Support for other specific languages is identified in the specific VPRM Release Notes Statement on Internationalisation, and bulletins will be issued as new platforms become supported. Issue 1 6

Hardware and Software Character Set Support Customers installing VPRM should consider: What language(s) the database will need to support Whether data will need to be imported using the Excel import feature The following table identifies the options available for the languages tested by the VPRM team, and the configuration settings required. Native Language Database character set Font alias req d Additional configuration needed for User Locale 1 English UTF8 (Note A) No No 2 English WE8ISO8859P1 (Note B) No Yes e.g. AMERICAN_AMERICA. WE8ISO8859P1 3 Western European (e.g. Spanish, German) UTF8 (Note A) No Yes e.g. SPANISH_SPAIN.UTF8 4 Western European (e.g. Spanish, German) WE8ISO8859P1 (Note B) No Yes e.g. SPANISH_SPAIN. WE8ISO8859P1 (Note D) 5 Other (e.g. Japanese, Korean) UTF8 Yes Yes e.g. JAPANESE_JAPAN.UTF8 Notes: (A) UTF8 is recommended for all new databases, allows storage of all characters, single-byte and multi-byte (B) WE8ISO8859P1 is supported for existing databases, allows storage of Western European languages e.g. accented characters, (D) Configuring the Language and Territory for the NLS_LANG in the additional configuration will localise the VPRM session (i.e. the Date Format, Oracle Error messages) for the users who select this language as their preference Issue 1 7

Hardware and Software Oracle Database Server Hardware and Operating system Either Recommended: Dual Core Processor Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition SP2 - or - Sun Sparc or UltraSparc running Solaris 10 Software Oracle Database 10g Standard Edition Release 2 (10.2.0.1)+ Oracle Database 10g Release 2 10.2.0.3 Patch Set 2 (5337014) + Latest OPatch for 10.2.0 (6880880) + October 2008 critical patch for 10.2.0.3 Patch set 27 (7353782 Windows Only) Recommended: Character Set UTF8 - or WE8ISO8859P1 Disk Space Oracle Database Software: 1GB approx VPRM Training Database: 2GB approx VPRM Production Database: (see Configuration below) VPRM Database Server components: 30 MB approx. Configuration Sizing of the server is very dependent upon the number of concurrent VPRM users, the number of Oracle instances running and what, if any, other software and user communities are using the server. Recommended configurations are given below, for assistance in sizing a system please contact AVEVA support. In a production environment, the database server should have archivelog enabled and (at least) daily backups. Recommended Test/Demo Configuration Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition SP2 1 Dual Core Processor or Equivelent 2GB RAM SATA2 Disk min 40GB Recommended Minimum Production Configuration Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition SP2 1 Dual Core Processor or Equivelent min 2 GHz 2GB RAM Approx 50 concurrent end-users Disks SCSI or SAS RAID-0+1 recommended, 4 disk array (e.g. 4*72GB disks) Issue 1 8

Hardware and Software Oracle Application Server Hardware and Operating system Dual Core Processor Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition SP2 (recommended) (Note A) Note A. See topic Location of Webdata Folder. Software Oracle Application Server 10g (10.1.2.0.2) Forms and Reports + Oracle Application Server 10g (10.1.2.3.0) Patch set 3 (5983622) + Focus Patch (7351564) - Forms and Reports Services Install (Note B) Note B. VPRM is supported for use with the Oracle Application Server Forms and Reports install only. A complete Application Server Enterprise install could also include the Infrastructure component which makes for a more complex environment; in particular some of the configuration files are stored in the infrastructure environment and would not be updated using the VPRM Installation program. Disk space Oracle Application Server: 820MB VPRM application software: 330MB Webdata folder: This area contains all VPRM Project documents and report output files, size will be dependent on the number and size of Projects. Configuration Recommended configurations are given below, for assistance in sizing a system please contact AVEVA support. In a production environment, the application server should be backed up after any configuration changes but a daily backup is not necessarily required. However also see topic Location of Webdata folder. Recommended Test/Demo Configuration Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition SP2 1 Dual Core Processor or Equivelent 2GB RAM SATA2 Disk 40GB Recommended Minimum Production Configuration Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition SP2 1 Dual Core Processor or Equivelent 2GB RAM Approximately 50 concurrent end-users Disks SCSI or SAS RAID-1 recommended, 2 disk array (e.g. 2*72 GB disks) or Raid 0 +1 if webdata is stored on the AS (e.g. 4*72 GB disks) Issue 1 9

Hardware and Software Client PC Hardware 1 Dual Core with 1GB RAM (recommended) Intel Pentium 4 with 512 MB RAM or better (minimum) Display The recommended environment is a 19" monitor or better running in 1024 by 768 (XVGA) resolution or better using Normal size (96 dpi) fonts. It is possible to configure VPRM to use large size (120 dpi) fonts which affects all users. This is described in the Installation Guide. Disk space Oracle Jinitaitor: 30MB Client Jar Cache: 5MB Operating System Windows XP Professional SP2 or SP3 (recommended) or SP1a or SP1 - or - Windows 2000 SP3 or SP4 Browser Internet Explorer 7.0 Internet Explorer 6.0 SP2 or SP1 as appropriate to the Windows operating system version Software Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0.1 or higher Microsoft Office Excel & Word: Microsoft Excel 2003 SP3 + compatibility pack Microsoft Word 2003 SP3 + compatibility pack --or-- Microsoft Excel 2007 Microsoft Word 2007 Issue 1 10

Hardware and Software Optional Software Business Objects is the recommended report-writing tool for custom reports. VPRM is supplied with a comprehensive set of universes to support the writing of custom reports at customer sites. The universes are supported for use with the following Business Objects product versions: Business Objects xi Database Client Business Objects 6.1a Client/Server product. Preferred VPRM database Business Objects xi Oracle 10gr2 Client Rel 2 (10.2.0.1.0) + patch set 10.2.0.3.0 Client/Server product. Preferred Database VPRM database Client Business Objects 6.1a WebIntelligence Oracle 9i Client Rel 2 (9.2.0.1.0) + patch set 9.2.0.8.0 This is a 3-tier architecture product which accesses universes in a Business Objects repository. VPRM universes are supported for use with WebIntelligence versions which are compatible with the BusinessObjects client/server product versions listed. VPRM 9.7 universes are compatible with Business Objects 4.1.3 although this release is no longer supported, and future compatibility cannot be assumed. Report Tables Users who wish to create and/or run customised reports based on the Report Tables will require the following software components. For further details see Report Tables User Guide. An ODBC compatible application, such as MS Excel MS Query (an optional component of MS Excel and other MS products) Microsoft ODBC (installed with Windows or MS Query). Note that the standard driver Microsoft ODBC for Oracle has been trialled by the VPRM team. Oracle 10gR2 client Issue 1 11

Integration and Interfaces Integration and Interfaces At the time of release, VPRM 9.7 is compatible with the following AVEVA products: AVEVA PDMS 12, 11.6.SP4 and 11.5.SP2 on Windows Platforms only AVEVA PDMS-VPRM Gateway version 5.1.0.3 (future release) 5.1.0.2 AVEVA VPE Workbench 5.7 (future release), 5.6.SP1, 5.5.SP1 (Note: 5.6.SP1 & 5.5.SP1 cannot be on the same Application Server as VPRM) PDS 7.3 and 6.1.1 Flexman 3.1 or 3.1.SP1 For more information and updates refer to the Compatibility Matrix on the AVEVA Customer Support Web Site. Issue 1 12

Communications Communications This section identifies the network requirements Single Database Server The Oracle Database Server and Oracle Application Server must be in close proximity (in network terms) preferably on a common high-bandwidth backbone within the same computer room. Multiple Database Servers VPRM allows multiple projects to be located on different database servers, sharing a common material catalogue and vendor database, using the Oracle Snapshot feature. Where this architecture is used, the database servers must be connected either within a Local Area Network, or via a high bandwidth, low delay, Wide Area Network. Each database server will require an Oracle Application server on the same Local Area Network. Issue 1 13

Communications Client Connection Bandwidth and Delay VPRM has been tested satisfactorily using a delay simulator on line speeds down to 200ms and bandwidths down to 64kbps. AVEVA is confident that VPRM will run satisfactorily using a 56kbps USA dedicated link. When using slow lines it is recommended that the Oracle Jinitiator component is pre-installed rather than being downloaded on demand when VPRM is first invoked. During "real use" benchmarking, the following per-user transfer rates were observed: Forms data entry and query Average of 8 kbps Forms data entry and query with Word and Excel interactions Average of 20 kbps SITE data entry and query, some Excel and reports Average of 12 kbps Based on these trials AVEVA believes that a 128kbps dedicated line would support 5-8 highly active users, or 6-12 real users. Further testing is ongoing. AVEVA s understanding is that there is wide, and reasonably satisfactory, experience of running similar applications in this architecture over dial-up lines. Connection Type VPRM requires that the Application Server is configured for HTTP connections. This means that VPRM can be used in the following environments: Local Area Network Company Intranet/Wide Area Network Via the internet using Virtual Private Network (VPN) - this is AVEVA s recommendation when connecting via the internet. It is also possible to configure VPRM for use over the internet using HTTPS, however this setup requires strong Oracle Application Server/Apache skills and may have contractual implications. Please contact AVEVA support for further information. VPRM@site Main Location eg Design Office LAN Application software Database Server Database Application Server Software execution Oracle Net traffic HTTP traffic PC clients minimal local software Regular updates Inaccessible Location (or poor communication) eg Construction Site LAN DB & App servers Issue 1 14

Communications This option is available where the project is executed in two offices (home and remote) and there is no suitable communications available. The home office carries out design and procurement activities, and the remote office carries out site activities. The home office exports material requirement and purchase order information, which is transferred to site at regular intervals, e.g. by sending a CD via courier. A complete VPRM installation is required in both offices (Database Server, Application Server, PCs). IT skills in remote office The remote office will require local applications support and Oracle DBA/Application Server support during office hours, preferably based in the remote office. Issue 1 15