Infrastructure Requirements

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emdash™ is a web-based application that runs on Windows. At a minimum It requires one Windows Server and access to a SQL Server database.

As your implementation grows, you can increase the number of servers to allow high availability and additional performance through horizontal scaling. However, for this introductory document we will explain how to set up a simple implementation. In any case, this should be followed initially before adding other servers.

The pre-requisites are:

• Windows Server

1. Windows Server 2012 R2, 2016 or 2019 are supported - the latest is preferred, and the server can be either physical or virtual.
2. Recommended specification is to have >2 cores, >4Gb RAM and a 50Gb+ hard drive.
3. PowerShell v4.0 and above is required.

• Access to a SQL instance to install the emdash™ database

1. This could be on a separate server, or on the VM above.
2. SQL Express would be fine. However, normally we would install the emdash™ database on a separate SQL Server instance
3. Often the SQL instance is shared with the application environments that emdash™ will be managing.
4. We also support Azure SQL Databases - either Managed Instance, or SQL PaaS.

• IIS enabled on the emdash™ Windows Server (Note the attached powershell script will install all relevant roles and features on a Windows 2012 server).

• WINDOWS 2012: Install Windows Roles and Features Powershell Script.
• WINDOWS 2019: Install Windows Roles and Features Powershell Script
• Download and run the relevant version of the script above on the emdash Server to install and configure all Windows Roles and Features). All features apart from FTP are recommended

• A fileshare accessible by a UNC path

1. This could be a share on the VM above or a separate file server or CIFS share.
2. This fileshare will be used to store config files, and the documents associated with the environments being managed.

• A service account for emdash™ in Active Directory

1. This needs local admin access to all servers we are going to manage, and access on the SQL instances (to start with)

• OPTIONAL - An OU in Active Directory that the service account has access to administer.

1. We use this to create AD Groups to control access to the environments, and manage user allocations to these groups. For example, the highlighted OUs should be created:

 

 

 

•  .NET4.5 Role Services enabled as follows in the Add Roles and Features wizard under Server Manager (note these will be installed via the Powershell script linked above):
• Application Server Role
• .NET Framework Features
• Additional Role Services

 

• Add the service account (e.g. SvcEmdash) to the Local Security Policy of the server to allow 'Log on as a Service' rights:

 

• Azure Powershell is needed on the server.  You can download this from Microsoft at https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/powershell-install-configure/

NOTE:  There is an issue with Azure Powershell 1.5.0 and 2.0.0.  We recommend you use v2.0.1 or above

• If you are running Openlink's Endur/Findur product you will also need the SQL Server Native Client installed on the emdash server.  This is so the the 'doit' database upgrade scripts can run.

You can download the SQL Native client from Microsoft here.

To install the SQL Native Client, expand the 'Installation Instructions' section on page in the above link.  You can then scroll down to find the following section:

We recommend you choose the X64 package.

• One final step is to put the path to the 'osql.exe' executable in the PATH on the emdash Server. This is necessary if you are managing Endur/Findur using emdash.

You can update the PATH environment variable on the emdash server to a UNC path to the 'osql.exe' file anywhere on the network.  This executable is often found on SQL Server instances, such as

"\\<servername>\c$\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Tools\Binn\"

To add it to the path:

• Start -> Run -> sysdm.cpl to open up System Properties
• Click on the 'Advanced' tab, then the 'Environment Variables' button
• Update the Path variable in the bottom section of the resulting dialog by appending the path to the osql.exe preceded by a ';'

• Click on OK and OK to confirm both dialogs.

 

Now you are all set to continue with the emdash™ installation!