This section provides background information and guidance on the software and hardware environment required for supporting installations of PhixFlow.
The diagram above illustrates a typical process of gathering requirements, and drawing from this:
- the choice of platform software (operating system, database)
- network topology
- server sizing.
One important aspect of assessing your requirements is to avoid over specifying the resources needed to run PhixFlow, as much as to ensure that sufficient resources are provided. In most virtualised environments, which the vast majority of PhixFlow installations will run in, altering CPU and memory are straightforward. We have provided guide sizings below, but it is possible to set resources at a starting level, and increase and decrease in response to the observed perforamnce of the system. In this way, you can control costs in balance with meeting the needs of your solution. Establshing the requirements clearly at this stage helps to find this balance and measure the system against these requirements as the solution is established.
The table below illustrates where there are strong links between requirements and platform planning outcomes, but it is useful to consider
| Requirement | Description | Strongly linked to |
|---|---|---|
| Security considerations | Does the solution handle sensitive data?
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| Recovery (RPO, RTO) | Resilience to system and data loss - Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) |
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| Phyiscal location of users | Is there a large user base, and this is geographically scattered? If so, over what regions? Are a lot of the users home works, with variable and unpredictable home internet connections? |
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| Performance requirements |
| |
| Current infrastructure | Fit it with current standards and skills |
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| Coroporate software licensing | Cost considerations - can we use existing licences for operating system and database? |
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The following links cover each of the above planning outcomes.
System planning