System Requirements

IDI Desktop Client Workstations

NETWORK REQUIREMENTS (BANDWIDTH)

The CostGuard® client is a real-time smart client that streams data to and from IDI’s datacenter. The client user experience can be affected by the quantity and performance of the bandwidth available, very similar to how networks can affect Voice over IP experience. In order to provide the best experience to client users IDI makes the following recommendations:

CSR/ADMIN USER

1.5 Mb minimum available synchronous bandwidth per 25 users.

POS USER

1 Mb minimum available synchronous bandwidth per 2-3 POS Terminals.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

• Available Bandwidth: The bandwidth recommendations here are available bandwidth. Customers should be aware how much of their Internet bandwidth is already consumed by existing communications. In addition, customers hosted in IDI’s datacenter will have new bandwidth requirements for other IDI-related activities beyond what is needed for the client. These other activities may include SQL database replication, UDR file transfers, vendor integration, or network element provisioning.

• Bursting: Certain IDI client operations may be data intensive. The bandwidth recommendations provided are based upon average usage. The more bandwidth available for clients to use during a bursty, data heavy operation the better the response time will be for the client user.    

• Latency/Packet Loss: Maximum latency to IDI datacenter should be 250ms. Recommended is 100ms or less. Packet loss to IDI datacenter should be < .5%    

• Proxy/Filtering Solutions: Routing IDI client traffic through proxy or filtering solutions is not recommended. Proxy filtering solutions may introduce delays in client response times. Solutions which alter or insert information into web requests may prevent proper client communication altogether.    

• Wide Area Networks: The best IDI client performance can be achieved when client locations can access the Internet locally. Wide Area Networks which require all Internet traffic to be routed to a central location either via dedicated lines or Virtual Private Networks may introduce delays in client response times.    

• Synchronous Bandwidth: The IDI Client performs operations which may send (Upload) as much data as it receives (Download). Bandwidth solutions which are asynchronous typically provide fast download capacity with a much smaller upload capacity and may not be suitable for CostGuard client use. IDI recommends synchronous bandwidth be used for client communications.    

IDI Platform Launcher Service

PURPOSE

The CostGuard Launcher Service is a Microsoft .Net-based Windows service that is installed onto a server located on the customer’s local network. The Launcher service communicates with the customer’s SaaS hosted environment and maintains a synchronized master cache of application files needed by client machines. Any software updates that include new client files will automatically be pulled down by the Launcher Service.

When the customer runs the CostGuard Launcher from a workstation its first step is to verify that its own local cache of client files is up to date. It does this by connecting to the Launcher service and verifying its own files versus the master ones on the server.

If any files are found to be missing or out of date the client downloads these to it’s local cache from the Launcher Service machine.

Using the Launcher Service allows customers to minimize the amount of Internet bandwidth and time needed to update client workstations during new installs or after software updates. Customers can install multiple Launcher Services to support separated networks and locations.

NOTE: This is only suggested for organizations with a large population using CostGuard Client rather than IDI’s web application suite. Individual client access can also be achieved through menus available in IDI’s web applications without a local Launcher Service installation.

REQUIREMENTS

IDI Web Platform

REQUIREMENTS

Remote Provisioning Service

PURPOSE

The Remote Provisioning Service is an IDI application hosted by the customer and provides a secure way to provision their local network elements. The Provisioning Service can access provisioning targets by any means available to the hosting server such as the customer's local IP network or by direct connections (i.e. serial cable).

REQUIREMENTS

Database Replication Target Server

PURPOSE

This server is required by customers utilizing the optional Database Replication Service and will hosted the replicated database.

REQUIREMENTS*

* The above hardware requirements are only the minimums needed to allow the replication process to occur without being affected by hardware performance issues. These requirements do not factor for any additional resources needed for customer utilization of the SQL Server for data query purposes

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

In determining the exact hardware requirements for their replication target server the customer must weigh the base requirements plus any additional resources needed to support their own use of the data. IDI cannot provide definitive guidance on overall sizing for the target replication server since each customer has their own requirements for how they plan to utilize the replicated data and therefore the hardware needed can vary greatly between them.

The following examples are for demonstrative purposes only and do not necessarily represent a individual customer’s requirements:

• Low Utilization- Replication used only as a data backup or for light, occasionally queries        

  • Minimum Requirements listed above

• Medium Utilization- Multiple users though not frequent concurrent query processing. Moderate tempdb usage, 10k average rows returned        

  • Quad Core Server, 24 GB RAM, 2 or more physical disk partitions

• High Utilization- Significant number of users running concurrent complex, processor intensive queries, high tempdb usage        

  • Quad Core Server, 32 GB RAM, high capacity disk I/O