V-Suite CORE Database Server
This installation topic describes installation and configuration details of the V-Suite CORE Database Server. The database server provides data services to connected V-Suite CORE clients and to V-Suite CORE Services. Customers who do not have a Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise/Standard Edition license may choose to install Microsoft SQL Server on the same computer as the Visionaize Enterprise Server (VES). You must manually install and configure the Microsoft SQL Server.
In this topic
- Requirements
- Install Microsoft SQL Server
- Configure SQL Server TCP Port
- V-Suite CORE Database Folders
Requirements
System Requirements
- Microsoft SQL Server 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017 0r 2019 (Express edition is supported, Standard or Enterprise Editions are recommended).
- Please consult Microsoft documentation for hardware and software requirement based on your version of SQL Server
These minimum requirements only apply for a SQL Server instance for V-Suite CORE. Please note that the SQL Server Installation for V-Suite WEB has additional requirements. Customers who plan to install a SQL Server instance for both V-Suite CORE and V-Suite WEB must meet the following minimum requirements: |
Network Requirements
There is a substantial amount of network traffic between V-Suite CORE clients and database server and although a connection through VPN is supported it is highly recommended that V-Suite CORE clients connect to the database server over a high bandwidth, low latency network connection.
SQL Server Installation
Although it possible to configure V-Suite CORE VES with an existing (shared) Database Engine Instance, it is highly recommended that you install a V-Suite CORE dedicated instance. Refer to this Microsoft article for more details on database engine instances.
It is assumed that you have either downloaded the SQL Server Installer from the Microsoft download center or have purchased Microsoft provided installation media. Users not familiar with SQL Server installation should consult the following procedure.
This procedure is based on the SQL 2014 SP2 installer but is typical for SQL 2016, 2017 and 2019 with some exceptions.
After you have installed Microsoft SQL Server on the database server, you must make sure to configure the (windows) firewall to allow access to the database services.
For local installations, you must run setup as an administrator. |
Click Installation in the left-hand navigation area, and then click New SQL Server stand-alone installation or add features to an existing installation.
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Click Next to continue to the Feature Selection page. |
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If you install a SQL Instance for both V-Suite CORE and V-Suite WEB also select the following:Integration Services
Click Next to continue to the Instance Configuration page. |
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Make a note of the instance name, you will later need it to configure VES.
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Click Next to continue to the Database Engine Configuration page. |
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Click Next to continue. |
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V-Suite CORE communicates with the Microsoft SQL Server Database Engine via TCP. Each SQL Instance on the database server will use a different port. The default instance of the Database Engine uses port 1433, but that can be changed. Instances of SQL Server Express and named instances of the Database Engine use dynamic ports ('VSUITE' is a named instanced). That means that every time that the Database Engine starts, it identifies an available port and uses that port number. If the named instance is the only instance of the Database Engine installed, it will probably use TCP port 1433. If other instances of the Database Engine are installed, it will probably use a different TCP port. Because the port selected might change every time that the Database Engine is started, it is difficult to configure the firewall to enable access to the correct port number. Therefore, if a firewall is used, we recommend reconfiguring the Database Engine to use the same port number every time. This is called a fixed port or a static port. Refer to this article to configure an SQL Server instance fixed port. If V-Suite CORE is connecting to a named SQL instance it will also need to communicate with the SQL Browser Service via UDP port 1434. Refer to this article for detailed information about configuring Windows Firewall to allow SQL Server access.
V-Suite CORE Database Folders
Before you configure VES you must create V-Suite CORE default data folders. Create these folders on the database server where you have installed Microsoft SQL Server. The following is an example of how you could organize these folders:
It is recommended that you create 3 separate folders, one for the Project Databases, one for the VES Administration Database and one for the Project backups and Satellite databases. This is not a requirement but as a minimum you should separate the backup folder from the database folder(s) so that the backup folder can be shared and is accessible by the V-Suite Administrator (in order to be able to load/exchange backup files). The database folders do not have to be shared but you must make sure that the SQL Database Engine service has the appropriate access rights to the database folder and backup folders. Refer to this article for configuring the file system permissions for SQL Server 2012 and up.