Application Support Note

ASN-2000-115

Networks Installed by 3rd Parties

Last Reviewed: 05 November 2004

Products affected: AXIS Diplomat Accounts 7.3/7.4

Description: Networks Installed by 3rd Parties.

1. Introduction:

Systems AXIS Ltd will install AXIS Diplomat Professional 7 onto existing networks running Windows 95/98 (peer to peer), Windows NT 4 Server or Novell Netware 4.1. We do, however, have a number of requirements and recommendations, which are described below.

If Customer Services staff travel to site to install software and find that these requirements have not been met, we reserve the right to abort the installation until the deficiency has been met. Time spent on aborted installations in this way will still be chargeable.

Where problems occur subsequent to installation of AXIS Diplomat Professional which can be shown to be due to requirements or recommendations not been met, the customer will have the option of asking the original network installer to rectify the problem(s) or of paying standard consultancy rates for Systems AXIS to investigate the problem(s).

Problems can also occur from a large number of external factors such as power supply irregularities, radio frequency interference (RFI), variances in bus specifications and tolerances on clone PC's, overheating, etc. Where Systems AXIS need to abort an installation, or rectify or investigate a recent instllation, due to external problems which are not caused by software/hardware supplied by Systems AXIS, time spent will be charged at our standard rate in force at that time.

AXIS Diplomat is a client/server application. This means that it will put a much higher loading on the network than other, office productivity applications, such as word processing, email, CAD or DTP. The fact that these applications may appear to work reliably is no indication that the network is robust since they put virtually no load onto the network. Client/Server applications, such as AXIS Diplomat, use a centralised database which is shared by all users. Thus every user is using the network virtually continuously, from the time they load the application until they close it.

2. Requirements:

Specific details of installation requirements are given in the AXIS Diplomat Installation Guide. This guide is supplied with new or upgraded AXIS Diplomat systems and is also available on the support section of our web site, www.axisfirst.co.uk.

A network may be configured using differing protocols - primarily IPX, NetBEUI and TCP/IP. AXIS Diplomat communicates with its server-side application using IPX and it is therefore essential that all workstations as well as the server are configured to include the IPX protocol. IPX is a default protocol and so it will only not be available if someone has made a deliberate decision to disable it.

The AXIS Diplomat Installation Guide contains full details on the specific parameters required of the IPX protocol (frame type, maximum connections and maximum sockets).

You will need to define a share for the root directory of the partition which contains the AXIS Diplomat programs and data and ensure that users and supervisors have the appropriate access rights as described in the AXIS Diplomat Installation Guide. For this reason, we recommend that a separate partition is created for the AXIS Diplomat software and data.

3. Recommendations:

We strongly recommend Category 5 cabling rather than co-axisal cabling is used throughout any networking installation.

Servers are mission-critical and should be specified and built as such. In addition, Microsoft have a limited supported hardware list for Windows NT 4 and this should be followed. In particular, we recommend that the following minimum specifications are used for Novell Netware and Windows NT servers:

• Use SCSI hard disks (preferably Ultra Wide)
• Use DAT backup devices, DDS2 or DDS3, depending on the quantity of data to be backed up.
• Only use network cards from a reputable manufacturer.
• The server must have plenty of memory (128Mb of RAM is an absolute minimum for reliable operation of a Windows NT server).
• Do not use servers as workstations!
• A UPS (uninterruptable power supply) is vital.
• Use a reputable backup package - we recommend Cheyenne ArcServe or StacReplica.
• Use a Virus Protection package - we recommend Cheyenne Inoculan.

Please note that these are not particular requirements of the AXIS Diplomat package - our experience simply tells us that any network which does not follow these recommendations will be unreliable and/or failing to deliver the performance it is capable of.

If you ever need to send a backup of your system to Systems AXIS for support or data conversion purposes, you will need to ensure that the backup is in a form which is readable by us. Due to the proliferation of tape media and backup software, you should consult the Application Support Note "Tape Formats Supported by Systems AXIS".

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THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. SYSTEMS AXIS DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. IN NO EVENT SHALL SYSTEMS AXIS Ltd OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS OR SPECIAL DAMAGES.

Published by Systems AXIS Ltd. AXIS, AXIS Envoy, AXIS Ambassador, AXIS Diplomat and the AXIS logo are trademarks of Systems AXIS Ltd.REAL/32 is a trademark of Intelligent Micro Software Ltd. All other product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

© Copyright 1998 Systems AXIS Ltd. All rights reserved

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