Planning the installation

To ensure a successful implementation of Flow you should carefully plan the installation of the software to ensure it supports your needs. Your use of Flow is unique to your company and you should ensure it is installed in a way that supports your requirements.

There are some general rules to follow when installing Flow;

Flow is compatible with certain operating systems

Flow is only compatible with Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, Windows XP professional, Windows 2003 Server, Vista, Windows 2008 Server. Flow is a 32-bit application however it can run on 64-bit computers capable of 32-bit compatibility mode

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Flow is capable however of reading data from other operating systems. For instance it can read data from Informix or MySQL installed on a Linux machine. It can access any machines that are accessible via the network

FlowService can operate only on the number of computers for which you have licenses

FlowService can only run on the same number of computers as you have licenses - One License = One Computer. You should decide which computer is going to be your Production computer which will run FlowService and execute the Actions you have configured within Flow.

This does not prevent you from having development or test computers running FlowService, however these computers must be used solely for the purpose of developing Flow configuration, or for testing that configuration. People creating configurations within these test environments can publish these configurations to the Production computer.

You will most likely need some form of Internet access

Flow applications require Internet access to check the validity of your software license. As well you will likely create configurations that need some form of internet access eg download a file from ftp, send an email to a user etc. You should ensure that any computer running a Flow component has at least access to send outbound to the Internet. For computers running FlowTransportWeb you will definitely need inbound access from the Internet.

Consider the following requirements and determine which ones apply to you. These options are not mutually exclusive so if multiple ones apply to you simply piece them together to get a complete picture of your installation.

I have simple requirements and want to administer and operate Flow on the single computer

Install Flow on the required computer. Ensure the computer has Internet access. Access Flow by logging into that computer

I need multiple people to configure and administer Flow

There are three options for providing access to Flow for multiple users.

Install on a central server and have users login to the server (either at the console or via remote access like RDP) to administer Flow. If via RDP then multiple users can access Flow at the same time. All users will share common configuration like System Connectionsand access the same Configuration Databases

Install on a central server and share the Program Folder over the network. Users can access Flow through the shared network folder. Multiple users can access Flow at the same time, and they will all share common configuration like System Connections and access the same Configuration Databases

Install on central server and user computers. The central server is the Production computer and the user computers are development/test computers. Users have complete control over their own installation of Flow and can run their own Configuration Databases. Users can also work on shared configuration databases by storing these on the Production computer (a user just needs a System Connections pointing to the shared configuration database)

I need to connect to one or more host systems

Most likely your requirement for Flow is to integrate with your host systems like Financial or CRM systems. Flow can integrate with many different host systems, however depending on the system there may be some special requirements. .

Check with the provider of your host system to see what is needed to integrate with the system. It may be as simple as having the client library of the database installed, or may require additional components from the host system.

You may be able to integrate with the host system over the network therefore Flow can be installed on a different computer to the host system, however certain host systems require their application to be installed on the same computer as Flow. For example to integrate with QuickBooks you must have the QuickBooks application installed on the same computer as Flow (this means both Flow and FlowService (and any other components) that need to execute Actions configured against QuickBooks)

I need trading partners to send/receive data from me over HTTP or SOAP (ie over the Internet)

Installation depends on whether you are performing inbound or outbound connections.

For outbound connections (ie posting a file to a remote HTTP server) you need to ensure that Flow and FlowService have access to the Internet. Development or Test computers would also need Internet access to simply the testing of Actions.

For inbound connections (ie a trading partner posting a file to your HTTP server) you need to ensure that FlowTransportWeb is installed on a computer that is accessible from the Internet. This will mean that IIS Server needs to be installed on that computer, and that your firewall is configured to allow traffic to the IIS Server.

You may wish to operate FlowService on a computer that you do not want accessible from the Internet. In this case install Flow on that computer, and then relocate the FlowTransportWeb to the other computer (Refer Manual Installation). You could also install the complete Flow system on the other computer but you would need to ensure you disable FlowService to avoid licensing issues.

I need to run a test and production system

You can operate one Production computer for each license that you obtain. A license allows you to operate other Development or Test environments. This is similar to the above requirement for multiple people administering Flow.

Firstly install Flow on the Production computer, and then run the install program on the Development/Test computers. Any configuration performed on the test environments can be published to the Production computer.