System requirements, pre-installation, and post-installation checklist

Before you start your Control Center on-premise installation, check the necessary system requirements and perform a pre-checklist to avoid any problems during and after your installation.

Pre-installation checklist

Available access to the Windows accounts with administrative privileges and SQL system administrator

Warning

When installing Loftware software to multiple servers, manage all servers through the same Windows domain.

You don't need an Internet connection to the Windows Server where you installed your Control Center.

Prerequisites for the Microsoft SQL Server

  • The Control Center database requires that you install SQL Server with case-insensitive collation.

  • Enable the SQL Server Browser service, if you use instance names. This makes the instances visible to external clients.

  • Enable the TCP/IP protocol for your SQL Server, if you install the SQL Server on a different machine than the Control Center page. Start SQL Server Configuration Manager, expand SQL Server Network Configuration and enable the TCP/IP for your server/instance.

  • Enable the inbound connection towards the SQL Server. Start Windows Firewall with Advanced Security and add a new Inbound Rule to allow the program sqlservr.exe to accept incoming connections. You can find the program in the folder C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL<version_number>.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\Binn.

  • If the RPC port on the server that hosts your SQL database is blocked, the installation of your Control Center fails. Check that the RPC port on your SQL server is open. The RPC port number is usually 135 or 445, depending on your system configuration.

Installing Control Center on a Windows Server with enabled Remote Desktop Services (Terminal Services) role

Switch the Remote Desktop Server to Install mode before you install the applications on the server:

  1. In Control Panel select Programs.

  2. Select Install Application on Remote Desktop Server.

  3. Browse for the installation executable, click OK and follow on-screen instructions.

Note

This tool is available only when installing the terminal server. It automatically puts the terminal server into execute mode when application installation is complete.

Post-installation checklist

Open ports in the firewall

Allow the following inbound communication:

  • 80 TCP (If you use HTTP protocol): Inbound connections to the Control Center. The browsers on the workstations open the Control Center page.

  • 443 TCP (If you use HTTPS protocol).

If you use HTTPS traffic (SSL/TLS), enable it for all sites

To encrypt the traffic between Loftware clients and Control Center, enable HTTPS protocol for both sites, where Control Center runs:

  • Default Web Site: Exposes the connection to the main Control Center UI.

  • EPMWebDav: Enables integration of the Documents storage in Loftware clients through WebDAV protocol.

If you enable HTTPS support, disable HTTP traffic. The clients cannot use both protocols at the same time. Remove binding to the HTTP protocol for both sites in IIS.

Enable full access permissions to the Loftware System folder

Loftware client requires full access (read, write, delete) to the System folder.

The system folder is at this location:

%PROGRAMDATA%\Loftware\Loftware \

This is usually not an issue, because folder %PROGRAMDATA% has write permission by default.

Open ports in the firewall

If you use Windows Firewall and it is running, installation adds the exceptions to the list of allowed incoming connections. If Windows Firewall is off, the exceptions are not added automatically.

Support for WebDAV to use files in the Documents storage

Install the WebDAV support to each machine that needs to access data inside a Documents storage repository. Windows desktop OS have WebDAV support already installed. Add the WebDAV support for Windows Server OS manually. To enable WebDAV in Windows Server OS, see Installing support for WebDAV to access documents in Documents storage in Control Center or from File Explorer.

Note

The "clients" are not only the Loftware Desktop Designer applications but any software accessing the storage in Documents, including Loftware Automation or even File Explorer.

If you use a proxy server, exclude local traffic from proxy

Bypass proxy server for local addresses or the client might not get the license from the Control Center, and files in Documents storage are not available.

Add Control Center to the Trusted sites

Add Control Center to the list of Trusted Sites in your browser. This allows the Documents storage plugin to run in your browser.