Important Notes

No changes to the system requirements from the previous release.

Upgrades

Before we can proceed with the update, please ensure that all the requirements in the below document for the relevant version are addressed. Confirmation must be provided by your IT during the update process. Please contact us at support@practiceevolve.com.au if you require further assistance or clarification.

Server Specifications

Microsoft Infrastructure

Important!

Do not install PracticeEvolve or the SQL Databases on the same server with Microsoft Exchange or on a Domain Controller.

Workstation Specifications

Microsoft Infrastructure

* Please note Windows Small Business Server 2011 ( SBS) is not supported as it does not meet the minimum .Net Framework requirements. Microsoft ceased full support of Windows 7 on January 13th, 2015, with extended support continuing until January 13th, 2020. While PracticeEvolve currently works with Windows 7, due to lack of full support from Microsoft, we cannot guarantee full functionality after extended support ceases.

** Microsoft Office applications must be the Desktop version installed on the user machine, terminal server, or
remote session as Web-version services offered as part of Office 365 are not currently supported.
The supported versions for MS Office products are the same as Microsoft support life cycle for their office products. For example, Office 2007 is not supported since 2017 and Office 2010 is not supported since October 2020.

Additional Services

1. Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS DTC) Service. The service needs to be running on both the application server and the SQL server. This is required to ensure cheque requisition and other accounting operations can run successfully.
   
   
2. Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Analysis Services OLEDB Provider, 64-bit (SQL_AS_OLEDB.msi). This should be installed on both the application server and client machines. This is required for various analytical functions available in the software. This is not dependent on the version of SQL installed and can be downloaded here:
   https://www.microsoft.com/enau/download/details.aspx?id=42295
   
   
3. Install SQL Server Management Studio. This needs to be installed to allow us to manage the database, SSMS provides tools to configure, monitor, and administer instances of SQL Server and databases. The latest version can be downloaded from here:
   https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssms/download-sql-server-management-studio-ssms?view=sql-server-2017

Network Transport Protocols

The following network protocols are used in Office Evolve.

1. Practice Evolve Documents
   • TCP Port 6087, 6090
2. Practice Evolve Accounts
   • TCP Port 8001, 8003
3. .Net Remoting over TCP/IP
   • This is used in all remote procedure calls between the client and the server.
4. Static IP Address is required on the Server and the Internet Router, if not using a Domain name
5. FTP – Port 21 is used to FTP client product updates from the server machine.

Bandwidth Guidelines

We can offer guidelines based on usage scenarios. All values we provide are dedicated to running Practice Evolve alone. This does not consider other network activity that users may perform or is required by existing infrastructure.

The bandwidth required by a Practice Evolve deployment will vary largely depending on the number of users, the information stored, and the end usage of the product. On site testing and resulting network configuration changes will help define the best requirements for network bandwidth. The primary bandwidth usage will be transporting client files stored in Office Evolve to and from the server.

On average we recommend an availability of 50KBps per user. You can multiply this by the number of users to determine the minimum bandwidth required to sustain concurrent use. At this speed, a 1MB document will take 20 seconds to download.

If you require faster speeds such as 100KBs per user, you can multiple this again by the number of users to determine your network requirements.

Please refer to the examples to below:

Firm Office with 1MB files

Allow 10-15MB daily network bandwidth per user for system with...

• 5000 Office Evolve Customers
• 10000 Office Evolve Projects
• Average usage of Diary, Internal Mail, Timesheets, Workflow
• One Office Evolve Client shutdown and restart

Allow 25MB daily network bandwidth per user (with average file size of 1MB)

• 15 Document Opens
• 5 Document Checkouts
• 5 Document Check ins

See below table for reference:

Client Portal

The web-based collaboration platform can be hosted on the same server as our services, or a separate one. Both choices are equally performant with the following requirements.

1. The portal runs as part of our standard services and will listen on TCP port 9000 be default
2. A reverse proxy will need to be setup to point to the above (http://localhost:9000). Any service that is compatible with the above Server specifications is suitable. Some examples of free software that provide this functionality include IIS or Node.js
3. SSL Certificate is required for the https connection across the internet. We believe an encrypted connection is paramount to security. If you do not have a certificate, Let’s Encrypt is an example of a free service
4. Flexibility to support your custom web address for users to access the portal. E.g. https://portal.practiceevolve.com.au

The nature of resource usage is difficult to estimate. This will vary largely depending on network traffic, including frequency of document exchange. We recommend the following for each increment of concurrent users to the portal based off current trends.