DescriptionExample
IP addressDHCP, static192.168.1.5
Web accessfor updates, CA access
(Sub-) domain namesAliases for the apppulse.planta.de
Free networkDocker requires a separate network for internal communication.
The network is purely Docker internal, but to avoid routing conflicts, it should be a free network.
Default:
Web browserSince it is a web application, a web browser is needed for accessing the user interace.
We recommend: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari or Microsoft Edge

The Internet Explorer is not supported. Instead, PLANTA recommends using Microsoft Edge, for example.

Dimensioning appliance (for ca. 50 users):


Requirements
CPUIntel® Xeon® or comparable with at least 2,0 GHz
RAM8 GB
Disk space100 GB

General

Information

  • PLANTA pulse is an isomorphic web application written in JavaScript. For running PLANTA pulse, the following components are absolutely necessary during runtime:
    • Reverse proxy and Load balancer
    • Application server
    • Database
  • Furthermore, users of PLANTA pulse require a client.
  • The application server and the database are not replaceable.
  • PLANTA only supports the operation on Linux with/on node.js and MongoDB.
  • The reverse proxy and client (web browser) components can differ from those used by PLANTA for on-premises installations as long as the same functionality is available:
    • Reverse proxy
      • PLANTA uses Traefik, which provides the following basic functions:
        • TLS termination
        • Load balancing
        • WebSocket Support
    • Client/Web browser
      • PLANTA uses Chrome
      • A browser based on Blink is recommended
      • Other modern browsers like Firefox or Safari are supported as well.

Network

Information

  • PLANTA pulse expects the availability of the following basic services: DNS.
  • It is strongly recommended to use valid certificates for all services used by PLANTA pulse and for PLANTA pulse itself and to renew these automatically.

Network access

  • Reverse proxy and external services
    • If the Reverse proxy Traefik provided by PLANTA is used for TLS termination and Let's Encrypt is used as CA, the appropriate access is required.
  • Client and application server
    • Generally, only requests by the reverse proxy are processed on the application server. These requests can be categorized as follows:
      • Static resources
        • The browser requests resources like images, fonts, HTML, JavaScript files etc. These accesses can partially be responded to by the reverse proxy directly.
      • Accesses to the REST-API of PLANTA pulse
        • External clients can use this interface to access data from PLANTA pulse.
      • Websocket
        • For each user session, a web socket connection to the application server is established (via the reverse proxy) after initializing the client-sided JavaScript code.
        • This connection is the basis for all user interaction and the related application data.
        • The connection persists as long as the client session is active.
        • If the client session is inactive (no user interaction with the JavaScript code in the client), the connection is cancelled, but it can be restored at any time.
  • Application server and database
    • Between node.js and the MongoDB, a session pool is used to avoid too many network resources from being used.
    • Every application server keeps the corresponding connectinos to each node of the MongoDB.
  • Application server and external services
    • Depending on the configuration, different external services are addressed via TCP connections.
      • PLANTA project
        • During hybrid usage of PLANTA project and PLANTA pulse, the web services of PLANTA project are being requested.
      • E-Mail
        • If e-mail notifications are to be sent out of PLANTA pulse, a SMTP service is required.
        •  From Release 30 of PLANTA pulse, the e-mail server used needs to support at least the TLS version 1.2. More Information
      • Telegram
        • If Telegram notifications are to be used, access to the Telegram services are required.

Hardware Requirements

Information

  • Since the CPU and storage requirements depend strongly on the use profile of the users, only experience values can be listed here, which are rather generous estimates.
  • These indications only apply to the application view and are therefore no recommendation for the server configuration.
  • To balance out peak loads, it is recommended to plan at least one CPU core per deployment or to set up one additional PLANTA pulse instance.
  • In the case of very large deployments, it can be necessary to adjust this value accordingly.

Details

  • CPU
    • Per 200 active users we recommend using at least one CPU core and one application server instance.
  • Memory
    • Per 200 active users we recommend at least 2 GB of RAM and one PLANTA pulse instance.

Example

  • For 1200 users, from which 1000 are assumed to be active at the same time, this means:
    • 6 PLANTA pulse instances (5+1)
    • 6 CPU cores (5+1)
    • 12 GB RAM