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Voyager Infinity System Requirements

This document outlines important system requirements that must be met in order to ensure robust and reliable operation of Voyager’s software products. The first section provides general information for all of Voyager’s software and subsequent pages contain product-specific information. Please ensure you’ve read all sections for the product(s) relevant to your implementation.

Network Connections

All wired network connections are fully supported and we recommend 1GB network cards for workstations.

Wireless (Wi-Fi/WLAN) networks are not supported as connection stability and performance cannot be guaranteed.

All Voyager products are not supported when used natively over a wide area network (WAN). To achieve WAN usage, Voyager products must be deployed via Terminal Services/Citrix/Remote Desktop or such similar thin-client technology. See below for more information.

Server vs. Peer-to-Peer

For 4 concurrent users or less, it is not necessary to have a dedicated server running a server operating system – e.g. Windows Server 2003. A workstation running any of the versions of Windows as listed later in this document can be used as the ‘server’ but for the specification of this PC, please refer to the “Server” section.

SQL Server

Voyager Infinity requires Microsoft SQL Server – 2008 / 2008R2 / 2012. See later for more information on the editions and options available.

Microsoft Office:

Voyager Software only supports the latest Microsoft Office packages with our software that are supported by Microsoft directly. **

Microsoft Office 365 and Voyager Software: The 365 solution provides a cloud environment for emails and general documentation. Voyager’s applications cannot be installed in the cloud environment so in order for Voyager’s products to work with this solution you must have a full installation of Office 2007 SP2 or Office 2010 (32 bit) on your PC’s. If you purchase the 365 solution for midsize businesses and enterprises, a compatible installation of Microsoft Office 2010 is provided.

Please note that while Voyager Infinity offers full compatibility with Office 365, Office 365 has usability limits and as such some emails may get stored in the drafts/outbox and will not be sent whether from Office 365 itself or from Infinity.

The limits are detailed here.

Email Setup:

Voyager Infinity only supports Microsoft Exchange email accounts (Exchange 2007 & Exchange 2010). Outlook Express (XP and older), MS Mail (Vista/7) applications and Microsoft Workgroup Post Offices (WGPO) are not supported.

For Voyager Infinity we recommend Exchange for lighter day to day emails and any that need to be logged in the sent items folder. We recommend SMTP for large mailshots and to send emails if MS Exchange is not used as long as there is a configured SMTP server.

Anti-Virus Software:

You are strongly advised to install and frequently update anti-virus software. It is recommended that the software you choose be from a reputable firm with the facilities to produce regular anti-virus data file updates. Free antivirus products are not recommended for businesses.

Database Backups:

Voyager Software does not take responsibility for this vital task and will assume that our customers’ data is adequately protected at all times. Voyager Support will only be able to restore the Voyager applications if required and not any data in the data directory. Voyager recommends backups onto removable media (e.g. DAT Tape) using reputable products such as Computer Associates ArcServe or Symantec Backup Exec. Offsite storage of this removable media should also be considered.

Voyager Remote Access Tools:

Voyager Support uses ISL Light to connect to customer systems for remote support (see for more information). It needs no installation and can be downloaded in only a few seconds from Voyager’s website as/when required under the guidance of our Support Team.

This requirement is a condition of the support agreement and enables our engineers to remotely diagnose and fix any issues that may arise and hence avoid any unnecessary onsite visits that will incur additional charges.

In order for our Support Team to give an even more effective response you can provide us with direct dial-in access to your server/database machine via Remote Desktop, VPN, VNC or other web based remote access tools such as LogMeIn. If you wish to provide this detail, then please contact the Support Team for more information.

User Account Control (UAC)

This feature is recommended to be disabled during the installation of Voyager products where possible.

Touch Screen Monitors

Voyager Infinity supports touch screen monitors.

Server Requirements

| |Minimum |Recommended |

|CPU |P4 or equivalent |2 * Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor |

|Memory |2GB |4GB+ |

|Free Hard Disk Space |20GB |Over 50GB |

|Screen Resolution |1024 x 768 |1024 x 768 or higher |

|Network Interface Card |100/1000Mbit/s |100/1000Mbit/s |

Supported Operation Systems: Windows 2003/2008/2012 Server (All Editions)

Supported SQL Server editions: SQL Server 2008/2012 / SQL Server 2008 R2 (All Editions) *

NB SQL Express is limited to 1Gb of physical memory and significant performance improvements will be seen when using Workgroup edition or better. Also, SQL Express does not have the ability to automate backups.

Required Software:

Microsoft .NET Framework version 4

Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 5 or later (32bit Only)

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 Service Pack 1 or higher (required for Microsoft Management Console)

TCP/IP networking

Microsoft Windows Installer 2.0

Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.8 SP1

NB Exchange integration requires Exchange 2007 SP1 or later (including access to Exchange Web Services)

Please note: that the maximum allowed database size in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express is 10 Gigabytes. If your database size exceeds this you will be unable to add more data to your database until it is migrated to the full version of SQL Server 2008. However, it is only anticipated that the Infinity database will grow to this size in exceptional circumstances

Workstation Requirements

| |Minimum |Recommended |

|CPU |P4 or equivalent |Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor |

|Memory (available) |1GB |2GB+ |

|Screen Resolution |1280 x 768 |1280 x 768 or higher |

|MS Office |2007 |2007 or later |

|Network Interface Card |100Mbit/s |100/1000Mbit/s |

Supported Operation Systems: Windows XP Pro, Vista (All, Except Basic), Windows 7/8 (All, Except Starter)

Required Software:

Microsoft .NET Framework version 4

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 Service Pack 1 or higher (required for Microsoft Management Console)

TCP/IP networking

Microsoft Windows Installer 2.0

Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.8 SP1

Windows Terminal Server / Citrix

| |Minimum |Recommended |

|CPU |P4 or equivalent |Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor |

|Memory |4GB |4GB+ |

|Free Hard Disk Space |20GB |Over 50GB |

|Screen Resolution |1280 x 768 |1280 x 768 or higher |

|Network Interface Card |100/1000Mbit/s |100/1000Mbit/s |

Supported Operation Systems: Windows 2003/2008/2012 Server (All Editions)

Please note: We do not recommend MS Exchange and full SQL Server to be running on the same machine due to their independent need for server resources.

What is Microsoft SQL Server and what do I need?

Our Voyager Professional product runs on a combined programming language and database called FoxPro (9). This has performed well for us over the years but the power and flexibility of Infinity has meant that we needed to upgrade the database engine. Microsoft (MS) SQL Server is highly robust, scalable and used by millions of people around the world daily.

SQL Server is available in over a dozen versions/editions. Fortunately for the needs of our clients we only need to consider 2 (or possibly 3) editions. Infinity supports both SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2012.

Unfortunately it’s yet more complicated in that for each of these editions there are different licencing options available and you may find you have SQL Server in one form or another with your servers Operating System (e.g. SBS or Small Business Server), or it could have been required by another application you are running. It’s certainly advised that you have your IT support team check this out.

If you don’t have SQL Server then we’ll take you through the options available step by step below:

Step 1 – Choose the edition you need

The differences between the editions can be seen in detail here (v=SQL.110).aspx but to summarise between the editions you are only really considering Express and Standard - anything else is overkill.

1) SQL Express Edition. This is a full version of the core SQL Server engine that has the distinct advantage of being free. However it also has some significant limitations namely it can only ever utilise 1 socket or 4 cores of your serves processor(s), it will only use 1GB of your server memory (which is the biggest drawback and can significantly impact performance) and has a maximum database size of 10GB. Further it does not have the ability to automate back-ups as it does not have the SQL Agent management tool.

2) SQL Server Standard Edition. This supports up to 4 sockets or 16 cores of your processors, can use up to 64GB of Memory and the database size can be 524PB (a lot!) The drawbacks are that it isn’t free – see step 2, and that both it and MS Exchange server will both try and use as much memory as they need to which can cause a management overhead. To this end, it is not recommended that both MS Exchange and MS SQL are installed on the same server.

Whilst we would recommend SQL Server Standard Edition for all installations, the minimum requirements for clients with 1-10 users is for SQL Server Express Edition, with Standard Edition being the minimum for over 10 users.

Step 2 – Choose the licence you need

1) SQL Express. It’s free!

2) SQL Standard-Retail version-User based. Effectively this is buying SQL server off the shelf. You need a server licence and an individual Client Access Licences (CAL) per user. As an example for 10 users you would be looking at something like £715 for the server licence (with one CAL) and £166 each for the remaining CALs. i.e. about £2210.

3) SQL Standard-Retail version-Server based. As above but you don’t need CALs. Instead this type of licence is all based around the processor(s) in your server. You would be looking at about £5720 for 4 cores (which is the minimum) but you can add as many users as the server can support for this. Additional cores can be supported at around £2860 per 2 cores. i.e. £5,720 minimum.

4) SQL Standard Embedded User based. Exactly the same product as option 2 but is “embedded” with Infinity. i.e. your right to use SQL Server lives and dies with Infinity – and in fact you’re limited to only using it with Infinity and not for any other applications..  Voyager can supply both SQL 2008 R2 and SQL 2012 under this model and there’s no significant difference between the two for typical users other than the price.  SQL 2012 is £145 per user, SQL 2008R2 is £125 per user.

5) SQL Standard Embedded Server based. Exactly the same as option 3 but is embedded with Infinity as above. For SQL 2012 this would be £4400 for up to 4 cores, for 2008R2 it would be £4000. Additional cores are £2200 & £2000 per pair of cores for 2012 and 2008R2 respectively.

If you were looking at the embedded option to make the server based licensing option effective you would need to be, or be confident of growing beyond, 32 users.

Step 3 – Embedded maintenance?

As Microsoft ISV partners whilst we can supply all of the options above, the embedded options are only available through Voyager due to the nature of the licence type. There is an additional option on these licences known as embedded maintenance. Under this scheme for a supplementary annual fee we can supply you with you latest versions of SQL Server when they are available without you having to purchase the licences again. There are some rules to this however. The maintenance plan must be taken at the time of purchase – i.e. it can’t be retrospectively applied and there must be no lapse in the plan to the upgrade point. The current costs for this are £20 per user (CAL) for SQL 2008R2 and £25 per CAL for SQL 2012.

And that’s it! We realise that there’s a lot to take in and we’re happy to talk you though the process when you are ready.

Once you have chosen from the steps above you need to let us know what options you are going for so we can make sure that everything has been covered.

Please note that Microsoft change their licence prices monthly and hence our pricing will change in line with their adjustments. To this end any prices quoted for SQL Server will only be valid until the end of the calendar month in which the quote was provided

Finally, if you are purchasing SQL Server from us, it would also still need to be installed /managed by your IT support in line with the rest of your systems / backup processes / etc, Voyager will supply the licences only and SQL Server support is not covered by your Voyager support contract.  

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