Prerequisites
Before installing Visual KPI it is necessary to have system:inmation installed on your machine and also a SQL Server instance. It is also required to make some changes to the operating system environment for Visual KPI to operate correctly. Full instructions on these prerequisites are described below:
system:inmation
Before Visual KPI can be used, a full version of system:inmation should be installed, including the Communication Service, that delivers information through the HTTPS protocol.
For a detailed description of the system:inmation’s setup procedure, please refer to the chapter Installation in the System Documentation. An online version can be found at the inmation website here.
| From system:inmation v1.30, the inmation Communication Service (or Webservice) is replaced by the inmation Web API service. |
MS SQL Server
Visual KPI stores configuration and data in a MS SQL Server database. During the installation of Visual KPI a database will be created on the selected SQL Server instance, requiring dbo rights on the server at least during the installation period. An existing server instance can be used for this, and MS SQL Express versions are sufficient to work with Visual KPI. To get the latest version of MS SQL Server Express, go to the Microsoft SQL Express download page. In this document the installation of MS SQL Server 2016 Express is described. The steps for installation should be similar for other editions of MS SQL Server. Right click on the setup file and select Run as administrator command from the context menu.
Select the Custom installation option type from the options dialog.
Choose a directory for the extracted files and click Install. The installation files will be extracted and the SQL Server Installation Center will be opened automatically.
Click on the New SQL Server stand-alone installation… and wait until the SQL Server 2016 Setup opened. Accept the license terms by ticking the box and click Next. On the Microsoft Update page, tick the box to use Microsoft Update to check for updates and click Next. On the Product Updates page click Next. The Install Rules page may show warnings for the Microsoft .NET Application Security of the Windows Firewall, they can be ignored if Visual KPI and the SQL Server are run on the same machine.
Click Next. On the Feature Selection page, uncheck the SQL Server Replication and leave all other options default. Then click Next.
On the Instance Configuration page select the Default instance option and leave the other options default.
| Should you have other SQL Server instances already installed, you will probably need to change this to a named instance. Subsequent configuration steps would have to be adjusted accordingly in this case. |
Click Next. Leave all options on the Server Configuration page default and click Next. On the Database Engine Configuration page, change the Authentication Mode to Mixed Mode and specify a password for the SQL server’s ‘sa’ (System Administrator) account.
You may also need to add the local "Administrators" group to the Specify SQL Server administrators box. To do this click Add to bring up the Select Users, Computers, Service Accounts, or Groups dialogue.
If your host machine domain is not automatically selected you will need to click on Locations to change from Entire Directory to your host name.
Click OK to return to the Select Users or Groups dialogue and type "Administrators" into the Enter the object names to select box. Click Check Names to find the Administrators group for your domain.
Click OK to return to the Database Engine Configuration page of the setup. Leave all other options default, then click Next to start the installation process. Once the installation process is complete, click OK. A restart may be required.
Then click Close and restart your machine if indicated.
Operating System Environment
Visual KPI requires some Windows environment features, like MS IIS and .NET runtime to be activated (technical details can be found at the Transpara website). In this section, we describe how to setup the environment correctly for the Windows 2016 and 2012 server operating system and Windows 10 (for other operating system versions, the steps required to set up the system environment may be different).
Windows 10 Environment Setup - Turn Windows Features On
When installing Visual KPI on a Windows 10 operating system, follow these steps. Firstly, log in to Windows with an Administrative account and in the Control Panel go to Programs > Programs and Features and select Turn Windows features on or off from the side menu:
This opens the Windows Features dialogue where the different features can be activated. Expand the .Net Framework 4.6 Advanced Services tree and make sure the* ASP.NET 4.6* feature is switched on. Also, under WCF Services, tick the HTTP Activation and TCP Activation boxes.
Scroll down to the Internet Information Services (IIS) section and expand the tree menu. Ensure the Web Management Tools checkboxes are all selected.
Scroll down again and under World Wide Web Services, tick the boxes for ASP.NET and *ISAPI *as shown in the screenshot below.
Finally, under Common HTTP features; Health and Diagnostics; and Security select the boxes as shown in the screenshot below.
Once all the features are switched on, click OK to apply and wait for Windows to complete the changes. Click Close, to close down the dialogue.
Windows 2016 Environment Setup - Sever Roles
Log in to Windows with an administrative account and start the Server Manager, usually found in the Taskbar and/or the Windows Start screen. In Server Manager go to the Manage→Add Roles and Features to start the wizard:
In the Wizard skip the Before you begin page in case it is shown, and select the Role-based or feature-based installation on the Select installation type page and click Next.
On the Select destination server page select the server you want to install to and click Next
In the Select server roles page check theWeb Server (IIS) option. A pop-up might appear asking to "Add features that are required for Web Server (IIS)?". Click Add Features and then Next on the Wizard page.
On the select features page, Select ASP.NET 4.6 and under WCF Services select HTTP Activation and TCP Activation. Click Add Features if any Add Roles and Features pop-ups appear. Click Next in the Wizard Page to move to the Role Services step.
In the role services, select the features in "Common HTTP Features" and "Health and Diagnostics" shown in the screenshot below:
Scroll down in the Select role services to Security and select "Request Filtering" and "Basic Authentication".
Scroll down in the Select role services to Management Tools and select all the features shown in the screenshot below then click Next:
Click Install on the Corfirm installation selections page. The installation progress is monitored on the Installation progress page. Click Close when the installation is complete.
Windows 2012 Environment Setup - Server Roles
Log in to Windows with an administrative account and start the Server Manager, usually found in the taskbar and/or the Windows Start screen.
In Server Manager go to the Manage→Add Roles and Features to start the wizard.
In the Wizard skip the Before you begin page in case it is shown, and select the Role-based or feature-based installation on the Select installation type page and click Next.
On the Select destination server page select the server you want to install to and click Next.
In the Select server roles page check the Application Server and Web Server (IIS) options.
You might see a popup about required features for the Web Server role, like shown below.
Click Add Features, and then Next on the wizard page. On the select features page, select ASP.NET 4.5. Also select HTTP Activation and TCP Activation below the WCF Services sub option.
You might see another popup about required features for the HTTP Activation feature, like shown below.
Click Add Features, and then Next on the wizard page. Click Next again on the Application Sever page and check the Web Server (IIS) Support option on the Select role services page.
You might see another popup about required features for the* Web Server (IIS) Support* feature, like shown below.
Click Add Features, and then Next on the wizard page. Click Next again on the Web Sever Role (IIS) page and Next again on the Select Role Services page. Then click Install on the Confirm installation selections page.
| If your windows installation does not have the roles/feature packages residing locally on the host, you might have to change the source path in order to add roles/features. |
The Installation progress page is displayed. Click Close once the installation is finished.
