Application Support Note

ASN-2004-115

Networks Installed by 3rd Parties

Last Reviewed: 05 November 2004

Products affected: axis diplomat

Description: Networks Installed by 3rd Parties.

1. Introduction

Systems AXIS Ltd will install axis diplomat onto existing networks provided that all equipment meets the minimum specification laid out in TechBase Article ASN-2004-111. 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 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 website, 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 TCP/IP (often refered to simply as "IP") and it is therefore essential that all workstations as well as the server are configured to include the IP protocol. IP is a default protocol and so it will only not be available if someone has made a deliberate decision to disable it.

You will need to define a share for the partition or folder 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. 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-axial cabling is used throughout any networking installation.

Servers are mission-critical and should be specified and built as such. In addition to the specific minimum requirements outlined in ASN-2004-111, we also make the following general recommendations:

• Use SCSI hard disks
• Use tape backup devices - DDS/DAT or AIT 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
• Do not use servers as workstations!
• A UPS (uninterruptable power supply) is vital.
• Use a reputable backup package such as Veritas BackupExec
• Use a Virus Protection package such as CA eTrust that is automatically kept up-to-date with the latest virus signatures
• Provide a mechanism for remote online support (we recommend use of an RDP client in conjunction with the Administrative Console or Windows Terminal Services)

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.

Revision history:

1.2	22/06/2004	Document updated for axis diplomat 2004
1.1	14/12/1998	Document reformatted
1.0	11/11/1998	First draft