Install planning

Prerequisites

To plan for the installation of the software, review all relevant sections in the Plan chapter of this guide. In particular, review the sections on system architecture, client types, IT requirements, licensing, cybersecurity, and deployment considerations. Also review the Install and Upgrade chapter which provides details on the installation work-flow.

Setup types

In alignment with the system architectures, the PME Installer provides the following Setup Type options:

  • Standalone Server
  • Application Server
  • Secondary Server
  • Engineering Client

Standalone Server

This setup type is used for a Standalone architecture. For information on PME system architectures, see System architecture.

The Standalone Server installation includes all PME server components, an Engineering Client, and (optionally) a version of SQL Server Express.

Application Server

This setup type is used for a Distributed Database architecture. For information on PME system architectures, see System architecture.

The Application Server installation includes all PME server components and an Engineering Client.

NOTE: Before you can install the Application Server, you must have the remote database server ready with an installed and configured version of SQL Server. Only full versions of SQL Server are supported in this architecture. SQL Server Express versions are not supported.

Complete the following tasks before installing an Application Server:

  • Ensure that the Windows user or the SQL Server user specified on the Database Software page of the Installer is a member of the sysadmin SQL Server role.
  • Ensure that all of the servers on the network can communicate with each other. For information on how to test network communications, see Network communication test.

Secondary Server

Secondary Server installations are not common and are used only in exceptional circumstances. Secondary Server installations require advanced network configuration. Contact Technical Services if you think you need a Secondary Server.

Engineering Client

This setup type is used to install Engineering Clients on client computers for both Standalone and Distributed Database architectures. For information on PME Client types, see Client types.

The Engineering Client installation includes all Engineering tools and applications.

NOTE: You must install a Standalone Server or an Application Server before installing an Engineering Client.

The following dependencies exist:

  • The PME system key, from the Standalone Server or the Application Server is required to install an Engineering Client.
  • For Standalone Servers with SQL Server Express, the TCP/IP protocol must be enabled in the database for Engineering Clients to be able to connect to the server. For information on how to enable this protocol, see Enabling TCP/IP protocol in SQL Server Express.
  • If you intend to use Engineering Clients in a firewall-enabled environment, contact Technical Support for installation considerations.

NOTE: Web clients do not require any software installation. Using a supported browser, Web clients access power monitoring data through the web server running on the PME server. For information on Web Clients, see Client types.

TLS 1.2 and digital certificates

PME supports Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 for encrypted database connections and web client communications using HTTPS.

RECOMMENDATION: Disable TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 if they are enabled.

The default configuration of the software only allows HTTPS connections between the PME application server and the web clients. This requires that a digital certificate issued by a trusted Certificate Authority is bound to the default website. If no bound certificate is detected during the installation of the software, a self-signed certificate is installed. The self-signed certificate is intended as a temporary solution until an authority issued certificate is installed.

NOTE: Plan to have an authority issued security certificate installed before, or shortly after the installation of PME.

For information on how to enable HTTP connections for PME, see Enabling HTTP connections for PME.

Windows Integrated Authentication for SQL Server

NOTE: Windows Integrated Authentication is not supported for PME systems with Secondary Servers.

PME can be installed with either SQL Server Authentication or Windows Integrated Authentication for SQL database server access.

SQL Server Authentication

This is the traditional way of installing PME with database access through both Windows accounts and SQL user accounts. With SQL Server Authentication, the PME installer creates a number of SQL accounts and a Windows account during the installation of the software. These accounts are then used during operation to access the databases. See SQL Server accounts for details on which accounts are created.

Windows Integrated Authentication

With Windows Integrated Authentication PME uses a Windows account, instead of the SQL accounts, to access the SQL server databases. You must create this Windows account before installing the software and provide account details during the installation. The Windows account must have the required access permissions to the SQL Server database. See Windows accounts for account details. See Before Installing the software and After installing the software for more information on Windows Integrated Authentication requirements.

NOTE: When PME is installed with Windows Integrated Authentication, the Windows account that is used to access the database is also used to run the PME services and the IIS Application Pools.

Cybersecurity

Review the cybersecurity information. See Cybersecurity for details.

Miscellaneous

Hard disk drive (HDD) allocation

HDD read/write operations have a big impact on system performance. To optimize your system performance, plan to have different HDDs installed for the system files, the database files, and the Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) files.

The software uses MSMQ for writing device data logs to the SQL database. By storing the MSMQ files on a different HDD from the database files, both can be written to simultaneously, increasing system performance. For details on optimizing SQL Server performance and changing the MSMQ storage location, see information from Microsoft and other sources available online.

Database growth

The database occasionally grows by 10% to create room for additional measurements. This growth operation can occur at any time and can have a significant impact on server and database operation. Therefore, it is recommended that you pre-allocate the hard drive space for the database during the initial commissioning phase of the system. For example, if you calculate that a database will grow to 500 GB over 5 years, it is recommended that you pre-allocate the hard drive space to avoid the effects of the periodic growth operations.

Other

  • Install and configure the Terminal Server component if Terminal Server connection to the PME Primary Server is required. Refer to the “Terminal Server Licensing Overview” topic in your Microsoft Windows documentation to learn about Terminal Server Licensing requirements.
  • Configure the Remote Desktop Connection if you require remote connection to a PME primary server, see support information provided by Microsoft.
  • If you plan to use TAPI modem drivers for Windows (WinModems) in your PME system, install and configure the WinModems. See Adding a modem for more information.

Related topics: