How/where should i install components in a client/server environment?

OL Connect Professional General
1

Hi there!

I am new to PlanetPress Connect and this is my first posting here. So hello to everyone and sorry if this has been asked before. The search did not return enough information to answer my question.

Our environment consists of various virtualized servers and some Windows-based desktops (Windows 7 x64), it is an ActiveDirectory environment. Virtualization is VMware, there is no issue with that. This is not about activation. (Maybe those questions will come up later. :wink: )

Our environment has quite high security levels, so i want to achieve communication to the outside world (eg external web) centralized over the server machine, where no regular user has access to. Only this machine has a more open access to public internet. (Regular users are forced to use a proxy.)

This is my question: How or where am i supposed to install the components to get PlanetPress Connect up and running and accessible from all the workstations?

As of now my knowledge is like this, PlanetPress Connect consists of the following components.

Contained in the PlanetPress-Installer “PlanetPress_Connect_Setup_x86_64.exe”:

  • Connect Designer
  • Connect Server
  • MySQL Product

Contained in the PlanetPress Workflow-Installer “PlanetPress Workflow.exe”:

  • PlanetPress Workflow (and all the submodules)

From the document i gathered that the server machine can be either a windows server or a windows desktop machine. So i installed Windows 7 Pro x64 and want to use this one as the server. For further reference lets say this machine is named srvplanetpress.

Apart from that one lets say i have two client machines pcuser1 and pcuser2, both running Windows 7 Pro x64.

I want employees user1 and user2 to be able to access and work and do whatever is required from their respective machines.

So, where am i going to install what?

I read documentation over and over again, but could not find a deeper explanation of the components and their role in the big picture.

Thank you for your help,

Sebastian

2

Hello Sebastian,

You’re correct that the documentation doesn’t really provide a good overview of the moving parts, not unless you really know what you’re looking for. Let me give you a quick overview, and if you have further follow-up questions you can simply comment below.

So essentially, every component can be on a separate machine. So they way it works is:

  • Connect Designer installs may send their templates and other data to a Workflow installation on a local server.
  • Workflow can interact with the Connect Server component on the same network.
  • Connect Server may connect to a MySQL that is on a separate machine.

This can all be on the same machine, it can all be on different machines, or you can mix & match however you want.

As far as an explanation of what they do, here’s the gist of it:

  • Connect Designer is used to create: The data mapping configurations, the templates and the job and output presets. They can be used directly from there (you can produce Print and Email output straight from Designer), or sent to Workflow for automation.
  • Workflow does the automation part. Receives a trigger, runs a process. All the “Connect” tasks that use the files created in Designer, will actually execute on the Connect Server. The config for what server is used (default localhost of course) is in each task property, or globally in the Settings.
  • Connect Server executes essentially all the tasks used by Workflow/automation. As it does so, data is saved on the MySQL Server (records, record sets, print content, etc),
  • MySQL can be on a separate server. However, you cannot separately install MySQL from the installer… You’ll have to simply do it manually using official binaries from Oracle (it’s free), or use an existing MySQL server if you happen to have one set up. External MySQL config is done during installation of Connect Server.

Now, your other concern if I understand is, what users need access to. Users that are designers or data specialists (aka, those who use Connect Designer/DataMapper) will need a connection between their machine and the Workflow server (this is setup in the Access Manager of workflow, and I believe port 5863).

Users that are automation specialists (most likely an IT person) need the same access but will be using Workflow. Or they can just directly access the Workflow machine via RDP.

Connect Server managers need direct access to the server. MySQL administrators can use a client such as MySQL Workbench to connect to the database.

I hope this all helps, let me know if you need more details!

~Evie

3

Hi Evie,

thank you a lot for your detailed explanation. It helps a lot.

If i am right, i will come to this scenario, referring to the names i used in my initial post:

  • Srvplanetpress will have a local installation of Connect Server, MySQL Product, PlanetPress Workflow
  • The users desktops (pcuser1, pcuser2) will then have a local installation of Connect Designer

“The way it works” clears things up, i know now better how and what to test, and what to look for in the configurations of the applications. I figure the communication between the components relies on broadcasts, so that only minor network-configuration needs to be done. I will have a look at that now.

Obviously i was wrong with my first install, so i will have to get back to you in order to get the activation right.

Thank you very much!

Best,

Sebastian