System Requirements
The Keyfax system requirements.
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The Keyfax system requirements.
Last updated
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Sizing a server or workstation is not an exact science so you should design it with the ability to scale and you should implement monitoring so you know when and where to scale.
Basic considerations for sizing and topology include:
Number of concurrent connections.
Amount of data involved.
Usually having 1 server (e.g. combining IIS and SQL) is not a good idea because there is no redundancy.
More generally, what are your availability requirements?
Do you need a load balancer?
If you are going to run a public-facing webserver, a database will reside on a separate system with a firewall between it and the web server.
With the ongoing high-paced delivery of newer, faster hardware and the usual plethora of options, we take the view that any workstation/server requirements planning where stock MS Enterprise solutions are deployed should be in excess of the minimum Microsoft® recommendation.
Note: the Keyfax products/configurations you intend to run give rise to varying requirements e.g. staff/contact centre Repairs, Enquiries (or both), Repairs and/or Enquiries Online etc.
The Keyfax Client is supported on workstations running Microsoft® Windows® 8, 8.1, 10. The Client is only required if 'browser to browser' integration (e.g. webservices) is not available.
The Keyfax workstation presentation layer uses browser technology to deliver the GUI. Although other browsers are supported for , Keyfax in-house solutions running Keyfax version 4.3.2.0 or greater support the following browsers.
Desktop
Edge & Edgium
Chrome
Firefox
Safari
Opera
Mobile
Stock browser on Android 4.0+
Safari on iOS 7+
Keyfax should support the latest versions of each major platform’s default browsers. Note that proxy browsers (such as Opera Mini, Opera Mobile’s Turbo mode, UC Browser Mini, Amazon Silk) are not officially supported by Keyfax.
Earlier Keyfax releases support Internet Explorer 7.0 or greater.
This will vary depending on the required host integration but will be between 1-3MB
The Keyfax Client installation deploys an ActiveX control which hosts an IE window used to run Keyfax and communicates with an ASP.Net application running under Internet Information Server (IIS). The protocols utilised are HTTP for script navigation and XMLHTTP for passing application status and XML packets to and from the Server.
NOTE Some Anti-virus applications can affect the performance of the XMLHTTP protocol. It is advisable to add the Keyfax intranet site to Anti-virus trusted zone if performance becomes an issue._
As with any workstation, the higher the specification of the processor(s) and memory; the faster the performance of installed applications and browsers. As with the deployment of any new service or application it may be necessary to review workstation specification. Any workstation that is currently handling the host system's requirement is unlikely to be affected by the utilisation of theKeyfax service.
Keyfax is a web-based application requiring Windows® 2012 Server/Advanced Server (32 or 64 bit).
The file size of the ASP.NET Components, templates, HTML files, associated images and repairs policy files are around 170MB. This size can vary if additional components, images and/or policy files are included. In considering your data storage arrangements, it is best practice, in general, to keep data and system files separate in the case of a drive corruption/crash you can get easy access and for quick restores, security, etc.For operation of the website and to allow space for upgrade backups, Admin installations and Log files, at lease 1GB is required.
Requires Microsoft® Internet Information Server (IIS) version 5 or greater running on Windows® 2012 Server/Advanced Server (32 or 64 bit).
Requires version 4.8. for Keyfax engine version 4.1.5.0 (and newer).
Keyfax will run in an active-active load balanced configuration but would require ‘sticky-sessions’. A load balancer or router with sticky-session support is able to route a specific user to a single server, using the HTTP session or IP address.
Keyfax requires the server is configured with access to an Email Server and authorised to send both internal and external emails. We recommend this is accessed via a local SMTP service configured within IIS.
It generally follows that the higher the specification of the processor(s) and memory; the faster the delivery of web content to the client browsers. In any situation, we would recommend a specification in excess of the Minimum Microsoft® recommendation.
An example specification (April 2017) currently in use in a high-volume site (350 diagnostic jobs per day) is:
Windows Edition: Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter (64 bit)
Processor: Intel® Xeon® CPU E5-2640 0 @ 2.50GHz 2.50GHz
RAM: 4-6GB
Keyfax requires a Microsoft® SQL Server database and is supported on SQL Server 20014 SP4 platforms or greater.
There are many variables which determine storage requirements, - these include the number of Script Types/Sets, their content, associated Messages, Tasks, Order/Task history, housekeeping and archive retention periods, levels of activlity etc. Over and above this, the Keyfax database may co-exist with other databases and the sum total must be considered.
Generally, if a database contains a single set of diagnostic scripts and no history it will be around 30MB. Allowing for growth, e.g. where history is recorded, 20GB of capacity is normally ample.This can grow, together with its transaction log file over a period of time, so backup and maintenance plans must be established and monitored by your Database Administrator.
In considering your data storage arrangements, it is best practice, in general, to keep data and system files separate in the case of a drive corruption/crash you can get easy access and for quick restores, security, etc.
For the benefit of system architects/planners, to illustrate, the typical storage arrangement for a high activity site (500 transactions per day) would be:
Drive C: Size40GB Description Operating System (assuming a minimum of logging activity and housekeeping of WIndows Updates)
Drive D: Size 30GB Description SQL Data (assuming a single Keyfax Database)
Drive E: Size 20GB Description SQL Logs
Microsoft® SQL Server® 2014 or greater should be installed on a server, whose specification is in excess of the minimum Microsoft® recommendation. The SQL Server® instance used by Keyfax must be installed with mixed-mode Authentication.
NOTE For newer versions of Microsoft® SQL Server not listed above, we endeavour to ensure that the Keyfax product range remains compatible but should issues arise, we will, on a best-efforts basis, ensure any problems are resolved.**
An example specification (April 2017) currently in use in a high-volume site is:
Windows Edition: Windows Server Standard (64 Bit)
Processor: Intel® Xeon® CPU E5645 @ 2.40GHz 2.40GHz
RAM: 38GB
A file server is not normally a requirement but common files used by more than one workstation or Keyfax Administrator can be installed on a File server. These include; policy files, images, reports and configuration files. This prevents duplication and allows all users to have the most up-to-date information at any time.
Most shared configuration files are located in a virtual folder on the IIS Server. Shared administration Console files (Reports, Help files etc.) can be installed on a file server, although be default these files will be installed to a sub folder on the Administrator's PC.
As with any File Server, generally (and barring network latency), the higher the specification of the processor(s) and memory, the faster the delivery of files to clients will be. Therefore as a minimum, a Server with a single Intel Pentium 4 processor and 2-4GB of memory is recommended.
Keyfax script maintenance and user security is maintained from an Administration Console application installation. Microsoft .Net Framework 4.8 is required on IIS server(s) and all client machines running the Administration Console.
The Administration Console requires a 64 bit client.
The Keyfax Administration Console application will require approx 350MB of hard disk space.
The Administration Console application requires a higher specification platform than a PC running only the client Keyfax installation. As a minimum, a single Intel Pentium 4 processor, 2GB of memory and a display resolution of 1280 x 1024 is recommended_. External internet access is required to benefit from our online Help pages, intelligently linked to key areas within the Keyfax Administration console._
.NET Framework 4.8 Full Framework
NOTE From version 4.1.4.0, Admin Tools will not run on Microsoft Server 2003. On newer operating systems, in order to correctly display the Test Page, User Maintenance and Message Editor pages, it has been necessary to run it in Compatibility mode. This has also been the case on one instance of Windows 7 where it was necessary to switch the application to Windows XP Compatibility.
Although difficult to predict usage, e.g. number of users, number of transactions, peak periods etc, we have taken measurements that should provide a reasonable guide.
In this case, a Client was submitting 6460 repair requests over one month (approx. 294 per day).
You can see that over the month there is a total transfer of 928MB + 832MB = 1760MB (Mega Bytes) or 1.76 GB of data.
As far as latency is concerned we get a very fast PING response from the server (which is remote to our office in a datacentre) of 24ms which at the time of testing was faster than google.co.uk and bbc.co.uk. Obviously the customer connection plays a big part in this figure as well as the hosts network capability.
As you can see from the monthly graph, bandwidth usage is minimal with an average IN/OUT of under 3Kb (kilobits per second). The server has bandwidth of up to 100Mb (megabits per second) available to it but is using a tiny fraction of this. Even the peak over the month is only 0.5 Mb.
