Activ! Suite CPE Server Preparation Guide What you need to know to prepare your server. May 2008
CPE Server Preparation Guide ii VPI 160 Camino Ruiz, Camarillo, CA 93012-6700 (Voice) 800-200-5430 805-389-5200 (Fax) 805-389-5202 www.vpi-corp.com Copyright 2008 Voice Print International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
CPE Server Preparation Guide iii Table of Contents Introduction... 1 Server Requirements:... 1 Base Server Preparation... 2 3 rd Party Applications... 2 Anti-Virus... 2 Backup... 3 Monitoring Software... 3 Activ! Voice Preparation... 3 Activ! View Preparation... 3 V-Portal Preparation... 3 Remote Support Access... 4 Remote Desktop Control/Terminal Services:... 4 Summary... 4 Appendix A - Anti-Virus Policy... 5 REAL-TIME Scanning ( On Access Scanning )... 5 Scheduled Scanning... 5 Manual Scanning... 5 Appendix B - Using Remote Desktop/Terminal Services... 6 Instructions... 6 Server Configuration... 7
CPE Server Preparation Guide 1 Introduction Congratulations on your purchase of Activ! Suite. This document will provide you with the information you need in order to prepare your equipment for a successful installation and avoid any costly delays. Activ! Suite is a bundle of three applications: Activ! Voice - Digital Voice Recording Activ! View - Screen Capture V-Portal Application Framework Activ! IQ, Search and Playback These applications are normally installed on a single server. However, specific customer requirements can be met by dedicating these applications to their own servers. If you have any question about how your system needs to be configured which are not addressed in this document, please contact your Project Manager. Server Requirements: VPI has successfully tested Activ! Suite on many different hardware platforms from HP, Dell, and IBM. Hardware platforms are usually based on the channels to be recorded, storage, archiving, and redundancy requirements, etc. Your Sales person and/or Project Manager should be consulted when determining which hardware platform is best suited for your requirements. Please contact your Sales representative or Project Manager for a list of tested and approved hardware platforms. Operating System & Components Processor Archiving Uninterruptable Power Supply Activ! Suite supports: Microsoft Windows 2003 Server 32bit* SP1/SP2 Microsoft Windows 2003 Server R2 32bit* SP1/SP2 IIS 6.x Internet Explorer 6.x *64 bit version is not supported. Site dependant. Hyper-threading is not supported. Purchase of the DVD-RAM archiving feature requires a compatible drive. Cartridge format DVD-RAM drives supported: Panasonic 9574 Panasonic 9576 Up to two drives are supported. These drives require a 5.25 chassis expansion slot for installation or an external USB 2.0 or Firewire chassis. The server is required to be attached to a UPS system to avoid data corruption when not shutdown correctly. Failure to use UPS may result in void of warranty.
CPE Server Preparation Guide 2 Windows Updates Constraints Expansion Environment The Operating System patches are the responsibility of the customer. VPI recommends keeping the Operating System up-to-date on all patches released by Microsoft. VPI highly recommends that customers check w/ VPI Customer Support before installing patches. Your Project Manager will notify you if there are any patches that have known issues during the installation phase. There have been no known issues with any patch for any version of Microsoft Windows todate. 3 rd party applications and hyper-threading. Please read the relevant sections in this document. Please verify expansion slot requirements with your Project Manager. Some features are only available using PCI and/or PCI-X expansion slots. Servers are designed to run in clean cool environments. Requirements to place the server in any other type of environment need to be discussed with your Sales Agent/Project Manager. Base Server Preparation The following are general guidelines for storage configuration. Your project may have special requirements. Your Project Manager will notify you of any special requirements. Standard storage Drive C (Operating System), 16 gigabytes Drive D (Database), 16 gigabytes Drive E (Short term), 16 gigabytes Drive F (Long term), remaining physical space. Resilient storage RAID 1 Drive C (Operating System), minimum 16 gigabytes 3 rd Party Applications RAID 1 or 10 Drive D (Database), 16 gigabytes Drive E (Short term), 16 gigabytes Drive F(Long term), remaining physical space. The server provided should be configured as an Application Server running absolutely no Domain/Network services (ex: Active Directory, DNS, and WINS). The server is required to be dedicated to run Activ! Voice only and no other Non-VPI Corporation ( VPI ) application should be running on the server without written approval. Anti-Virus Since data that will be stored on an Activ! Suite server is very important, we highly recommend that Anti-Virus (provided by customer) be installed on the server. However, Anti-Virus software is designed to take control of the handling of files for the operating system as it scans each file for viruses. VPI has a very strict policy that must be followed to ensure there will be no conflicts that may cause system instability.
CPE Server Preparation Guide 3 The minimum configuration requirements may be found in Appendix - Anti-Virus Policy. This policy will also be covered during your onsite installation, and a signature will be required acknowledging the policy set forth by VPI. Backup Third Party backups are recommended by VPI based on the importance of your data. It is the sole responsibility of the customer to backup the data on the server. VPI recommends removable media archive (DVD-RAM). Third party backup software requires access to files in order to back them up. The database files are not released while the Activ! Suite applications are running. Therefore, the file will not be able to be backed up by software. Please consult with VPI Support before installing any backup software. Monitoring Software VPI does not have any policy restricting the use of third party monitoring utilities for SNMP trapping. A few examples of such software include Insight, or Tivoli. It is highly recommended that you inquire about any software that you plan on installing on the server to verify that there are no known issues. Some software can be processor intensive, which will take away needed processing power for Activ! Suite. Activ! Voice Preparation Service Permissions Database The Activ! Voice service needs network service rights, read/write rights to the various folders on drives D, E and F, and access to the optional archive device. Local System is typically used to run this service. The Activ! Voice RDBMS service runs under the Local System account. Activ! View Preparation Permissions Database V-Portal Preparation Activ! View is an application that executes under a logged in user account. For this reason, it is recommended that an Account (either Local or Domain) is created (i.e. VPADMIN ) for this purpose. This User account requires local Administration rights to the Operating System. If a domain account is used, we highly recommend removing all domain rights (i.e. Domain Users, etc) to this User account to ensure security of the domain. The Activ! View RDBMS service runs under the Local System account. V-Portal is an application framework that hosts individual applications such as Activ! IQ. Operation IIS Security Permissions V-Portal is an Internet Information Services (IIS) web application. IIS version 6 is required for this application. IIS clustering is not supported. V-Portal supports HTTPS. It is the customer s responsibility to secure the proper certificate if this mode of operation is desired. V-Portal uses helper services to interact with Activ! Voice and Activ! View. These services require read/write rights to these systems for proper operation. Local
CPE Server Preparation Guide 4 Database System or a customized account with the proper rights may be used depending on site configuration. The Activ! View RDBMS service runs under the Local System account. Remote Support Access VPI s Warranty and Maintenance contracts require remote access to support our products. Since a member of our Technical Support Staff will be accessing the desktop of a logged in server, it is highly recommended that the account used to log into the Operating System restrict domain rights to ensure security of your domain/network. VPI offers several different methods of remote access, including: Itivity Itivity is VPI s preferred remote access as it guarantee s the most security for our customers. To use this product, we would install a client onto the server. The client has two different modes: Attended Unattended Remote access is available at the customer s discretion. Remote access is always available. Webex Dial-up VPN Itivity utilizes port 443 to communicate to the Itivity Server (VPI controlled). Port 443 is the HTTPS port for internet traffic and typically does not require any changes to be made to your firewalls. You browse through Internet Explorer to http://voiceprint.webex.com and a support session would be established for us to gain access to your system. This requires that you provide a modem for the server, an analog line and remote control software such as PCAnywhere (Host only). The drawback with this method, is a very slow connection speed. Some customers choose to provide us with a VPN account to access their network. VPI requires that this VPN account only have access to the systems that we will be supporting. Once we are connected to the VPN, we can either use or Remote Desktop Control (per the VPI Remote Desktop Control Policy) to access the server. Remote Desktop Control/Terminal Services: Please reference section Appendix - Using Remote Desktop/Terminal Services for proper use. Summary This guide provides answers to many of the questions that arise during the preparation of the server by the customer prior to the scheduled installation. Completing the items discussed in this guide will save time, costs, and insure a smooth installation of VPI products. Please contact Customer Support for any technical questions that may arise.
CPE Server Preparation Guide 5 Appendix A - Anti-Virus Policy Since Anti-Virus software is processor intensive and virtually takes full control of the Operating System for file handling, there are minimum configuration requirements that need to be followed when installing Anti-Virus software on a system running any Voice Print Server Application. Deviation from these requirements set forth in this policy will void your Warranty/Maintenance Agreement. Any work required on a server that has not followed these requirements will be billable in hourly increments. Exceptions to this policy need to be approved by Voice Print International s Vice President of Support Services. It is the customer s responsibility to adhere to this policy until such time that an exception is granted in writing. REAL-TIME Scanning ( On Access Scanning ) You must exclude the following file extensions/drives from REAL-TIME scanning: Extension Description.GDB Firebird/Interbase Database Files.GBK Backup Firebird/Interbase Database Files.PCM Voice Print Audio Files in Short Term Buffer.TMP Voice Print Audio Files in Short Term Buffer.LTS Voice Print Audio Files in Long Term Buffer.AVI Video Files for Screen Captures.DAT Archived Video Files for Screen Capture.XML Data file for associated Video.WAV Audio files used by V-Portal G: DVD-RAM drive 0 H: DVD-RAM drive 1 Failure to exclude these extensions/drives may cause VPI services and application to act in an unstable manner including, but not limited to, the application disappearing, Dr. Watson errors, and Microsoft Blue Screens which will directly impact Voice Recording or Screen Capturing. Scheduled Scanning Anti-Virus software is processor intensive during scanning, so it is very imperative that scanning is scheduled for a timeframe where little to no activity is occurring. This could have unknown adverse effects depending on processor speed, RAM, Channel Count, and total amount of concurrent recording channels/screens. Scheduled scanning can only be done with the exclusions defined above, unless Activ! Voice, Activ! View, and V-Portal has been shutdown. Shutting down any of these applications will STOP these products from functioning and is ultimately the customer s choice. Manual Scanning If you wish to scan the entire system including the exclusions above, it is important that each application is shutdown correctly. Please see the Administrators Guide for instructions on Shutting Down each application. It is the customer s responsibility to ensure each application has been shutdown prior to scanning.
CPE Server Preparation Guide 6 Appendix B - Using Remote Desktop/Terminal Services Microsoft Remote Desktop allows administrators to remotely access a server. A normal connection creates a virtual session. This session is separate from the console session that is started when you login from the keyboard. Some Activ! Suite components, such as Activ! View, run under a logged user account under the console session. In order to administer the server it is recommended that Remote Desktop clients connect in console mode. This allows the machine to be administered as though you were standing in front of it (a.k.a Console ) and prevents accidentally running another instance of the Activ! View application which can have unpredictable results and will likely result in a crash of the application and recording downtime. Instructions Voice Print recommends using the Remote Desktop Connection client command line utility built into windows XP and Windows 2003 (mstsc.exe) with the /console switch in order to administer a remote Activ! Voice server running Windows 2003. Please note that the TS clients for Windows NT/9x/2000 do not support the /console switch. Procedures for running this utility are as follows: 1. Click the Start menu 2. Choose Run 3. Enter mstsc /console in the resulting dialog. 4. Enter the voice print server name to connect to in the resulting window 5. You are now connected to the Activ! Voice logger as though you were standing in front of the machine 6. YOU MUST LOG ON TO THE MACHINE USING THE ACCOUNT THAT IS CURRENTLY LOGGED ON Logging in with any other account will log the current user off and close the Activ! View application resulting in recording loss.
CPE Server Preparation Guide 7 Server Configuration All port mapping must be disabled on the Voice Print server running Terminal Services. 1. Click the Start menu 2. Choose Programs 3. Choose Administrative Tools 4. Choose Terminal Services Configuration. 5. Choose Connectrions on the left. 6. Right Click on t the RCP- Tcp line. 7. Choose Properties.
CPE Server Preparation Guide 8 8. Uncheck everything under Connection and Check all Disable Port Mapping check boxes on the bottom.