Frequently Asked Questions - LiquidOffice Server Specification

The recommendations for a LiquidOffice Server are as follows:

LiquidOffice Server Requirements

• Dual core Xeon CPU
• 2GB of RAM (or 4GB if database resides on the same server)
• 1.5GB free hard drive space
• CD-ROM Drive

Operating System

• Windows 2000/2003 Server
• Sun Solaris 9 or 10
• Linux Red Hat 4

Database Server

• Microsoft SQL Server 2005
• Oracle 9i or 10g

Web Server

• Tomcat 5.5 (Default)
• BEA Weblogic 9.0/9.2
• IBM WebSphere 6.0/6.1

This article will describe the key hardware and software recommendations for your server hardware to help you make the most of your new or existing LiquidOffice forms processing and workflow system and minimise the possibility of problems in the future.

Understanding The Server's Function

The LiquidOffice server not only stores all the forms and processes but is also responsible for rendering them for clients and running much of the script and processes behind them. Form routing, exports, eMailing and many other behind the scenes processing is done by the server. For this reason, it is important to pay careful consideration to both RAM, processor performance and hard drive speed.

Splitting the components of LiquidOffice across multiple servers is also possible to increase performance, make management simpler and to help find and resolve performance bottlenecks. The three main components (processing server, presentation (web) server and SQL) can be installed on to separate servers. On larger systems with many users or where performance is important, separating the LiquidOffice process and web components from the SQL database would be the recommended configuration.

Memory

A clean install of Windows 2003 Server will typically use less than the first 512MB of RAM for normal operation. This means that whatever is left can be used by SQL Server and the LiquidOffice server. On a clean, dedicated server, a total of 2GB (512MB for Windows, 1GB for SQL and 512MB for LiquidOffice) should be OK for a simple installation. If other applications are running, such as Exchange or on-line de-fragmentation tools it is important to have more memory. Many LiquidOffice users or use of the LiquidOffice Process Server will also require additional memory.

It is possible to have more than one instance of SQL running and each will require its own memory. Multiple databases on one "instance" share memory but SQL can have several isolated installations on the same server called "instances". Some applications such as Network Associates Protection Pilot virus scanner management tool may install their own instance of SQL to store information and statistics which will require its own memory in addition to the LiquidOffice instance!

SQL Server will automatically use all available memory, so if you have 2GB of RAM in your server and SQL is using up all available memory it doesn't necessarily mean that expanding your memory will result in a performance increase.

Hard Drives

Although the requirements suggest up to 1.5GB of hard drive space is required, even a full LiquidOffice installation takes up less than 512MB. The additional space is required for storing the online form templates and the data retrieved from online form submission.

As storage is cheap and it is impossible to buy a hard drive smaller than about 120GB now, the space is rarely the issue but this doesn't mean the hard drives should not be given careful consideration. As hard drives are the only part of a server with physically moving parts they are the slowest and often the bottle neck to performance. It is essential to have some form of fault tolerance on your servers hard drive configuration. For more information please see our Server Storage FAQ.

As the hard drive will be one of the main limiting factors on your servers performance it is well worth considering the latest SAS drives.

Processor

With the right operating system, web server and SQL server version, full 64bit and dual processor support is possible with the LiquidOffice server. The speed of the processor will also have an effect on performance but for a simple forms only LiquidOffice server a Pentium 4, 3GHz or above will be suitable. More complex installations will require multiple core processors, probably in the form of Intel Xeon processors.

Windows

We recommend Windows 2003 or 2008 Server for LiquidOffice. Any edition including Standard or Advanced will work OK. We recommend making sure all the latest updates are installed from the Windows Update web site.

SQL Server

Although LiquidOffice can be installed on the free SQL Server Express Edition for small systems or testing, we recommend the full versions of SQL Server 2005 or 2008 (Workgroup, Standard or Enterprise) for larger LiquidOffice systems.

Summary

Whilst we can confirm LiquidOffice will run on most standard server level hardware, it is impossible to provide specific guidance here. A basic eForms LiquidOffice server could run quite well on a Pentium 4, 3GHz server with 2GB of RAM and mirrored 80GB SATA hard drives but equally a LiquidOffice server being accessed by fifty users utilizing the workflow engine, would need a dual core Xeon with 8GB of RAM and SAS hard drives as a minimum.

ePC are here to help guide you through a LiquidOffice implementation, so please contact us and through a short conversation we can provide much more targeted guidance to ensure you get the best from your system.

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