System Requirements

Information

• This topic contains
  • a description of technical details of the PLANTA software and
  • an overview of the supported platforms and database systems.

Knowledge of the contents described here is required for the installation or update of the PLANTA software.

The PLANTA project System

Information

• PLANTA project is a 3-tier application and consists of the following components:
  • PLANTA project Server (business layer)
  • PLANTA project client (presentation layer)
  • Database (data layer)
• PLANTA project
  • can be run on a large number of platforms (operating systems) and database systems and is functionally identical on all of them.
  • can usually be run on virtualized systems.

Notes

• The platforms and database systems supported by PLANTA project are subject to regular changes in accordance with the release policy of the suppliers.
• If third party providers decide to stop the support for certain product versions, PLANTA will have to take these products from their list of supported versions as well. Customers can still run the platform in question, however, they do so on their own responsibility. In case of any possible errors, issues or problems, PLANTA accepts no liability.
  • PLANTA can offer support for outdated versions to the customer, however, this kind of support is not covered by the maintenance contract. In such a case, please contact your PLANTA consultant.

Details

• Client and server communicate
  • via TCP/IP protocol.
  • server and database takes place via JDBC.

Delivery

• All files required for software installation and update are available for download on the PLANTA Transfer Server.

Requirements for using PLANTA project

Note

• The following systemic remarks on hardware and software in the PLANTA project environment should be regarded as reference points and tips.

Information

• As for any other software system, the processing speed of PLANTA project depends on the following basic factors:
  • hardware performance (data bus, disk throughput, processor, memory, network)
  • data volumes processed
  • processing functions carried out
• The processing functions which are possible in PLANTA project are roughly categorized by the following criteria:
  • insertion/display/saving of a record
  • generic selection of data from the database
  • display of Gantt charts and utilization diagrams
  • scheduling/replanning

Details

• The question of how a server can be configured optimally for the PLANTA project application can be answered to a large extent under the following conditions:
  • There is generally reliable information on the number of users and on how they will use the system in terms of the
    • type of functions performed
    • number of functions performed
    • times of day/calendar cycles when the functions will be performed
    • time-critical functions from a user demand perspective
  • Details on the data volumes to be processed within the time-critical functions are available. Here, significant factors are:
    • number of projects/tasks
    • number of resources being planned
    • project durations
    • any possible individual data or data included in the processing from other applications (to which there are interfaces)

PLANTA Client

Caution

• For performance reasons, we strongly advise against making the client available to users via a network drive. This can also lead to errors in connection with the use of certain web components (charts, PLANTA secure).

PLANTA Server

Information

• We recommend that you install the database selected for PLANTA project on a separate database server, however, it can also be installed on the PLANTA project Server.
• The following information applies to the application server only.

Caution

• The server installation on Linux in conjunction with an MSSQL database is now possible.

Software requirements

Hardware requirements

PLANTA Server and PLANTA Online Help

Note

• The PLANTA project application server must have access to help.planta.de (IP address: 3.65.222.100) to be able to open the context sensitive help via the F1/F2 buttons directly from the system. 

Database Requirements

Note

• Up to now, the best experience was achieved with Linux in connection with Oracle.
  • If you can choose between Windows and Linux, we recommend using Linux.
• After successful installation, about 20GB of space should remain available on the hard drive as a reserve.

Oracle Database

Oracle Client

Not required anymore

Microsoft SQL Database Server

For the operation of PLANTA project with an MSSQL database, the following is required:

• Character set: 
  •  WIN1252
    • Sorting: Latin1_General_CI_AS
• Authentication:
  • SQL server authentication on the basis of user name and password.
• The following settings have to be applied when creating a database user manually:
  • DEFAULT_DATABASE = [model],
  • DEFAULT_LANGUAGE = [Deutsch],
  • CHECK_EXPIRATION = OFF,
  • CHECK_POLICY = OFF
• Create a new database with the name of the user and make the following settings:
  • COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL = 100,
  • ANSI_WARNINGS = OFF,
  • ARITHABORT = ON,
  • AUTO_CLOSE = OFF,
  • AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS = ON,
  • AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS = ON,
  • AUTO_SHRINK = OFF,
  • CONCAT_NULL_YIELDS_NULL = OFF ,
  • CURSOR_CLOSE_ON_COMMIT = OFF,
  • CURSOR_DEFAULT = GLOBAL,
  • NUMERIC_ROUNDABORT = OFF,
  • QUOTED_IDENTIFIER = OFF,
  • RECURSIVE_TRIGGERS = OFF,
  • AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS_ASYNC = OFF,
  • DATE_CORRELATION_OPTIMIZATION = OFF,
  • PARAMETERIZATION = SIMPLE,
  • READ_WRITE ,
  • MULTI_USER ,
  • PAGE_VERIFY = CHECKSUM
• PLANTA project user/login:
  • Create a user with "dbo" default schema for the database to be used for PLANTA project.
    • Set the user language to "English" and the "two digit year cutoff" option of the newly created database to "2069".
    • Rights (Owned Schemas/Role Members):
      • db_owner
• Assign the database to be used for PLANTA project to the login as the standard database.
  • Settings:
    • Permission to connect to database = Grant
    • Login = Enable

Note

• The maximum number of connections must be configured to be sufficiently large.
• Depending on the setting of the Expected utilization parameter, at least 25, 100, or 250 connections must be allowed for each PLANTA project installation.

Backup/Maintenance of the Database

Information

• PLANTA stores user data only within the database.
• The database is not run by PLANTA but by the customer. This includes backup as well as regular maintenance and optimization work on the database (e.g. optimizing the performance by setting and removing indices due to changed data volume).
  • These database activities have to be executed by administrators with respective knowledge and skills. Alternatively, PLANTA can be charged with these tasks. In this case, please contact your PLANTA consultant.

Backup

• For a backup, it is necessary to save the following components:
  • the user data of the database user used by PLANTA (PLANTA uses one database user for any access)
  • the technical data of the used PLANTA release (program, standard Python code, individual Python code) of Client and Server
• A backup that works for the described data is required for the operation of the PLANTA software.

PLANTA Web Client

Application Server 

Software requirements 

• The web interface for PLANTA project is made available via registry.planta.services in the form of a Linux-based docker image.
  
  • For access, please contact your PLANTA consultant.
• For deployment in productive environments we generally recommend that you use a proxy server. Here are some things to be taken into account:
  • Each browser session maintains an active connection to the application server.
  • The browser connection uses the WebSocket standard.
  • Connections must always be routed to the same application server instance (sticky sessions).

Hardware requirements

• The latency between browser and application server is decisive for a good user experience. The average latency should therefore be lower than 150 ms.
• On the part of the backend, the web surface application server establishes a connection to the PLANTA project server per client session. Here, low latency is beneficial as well. Since latencies add up, a latency of < 10 ms is of advantage.

Terminal Devices

Software requirements

• Unlike the PLANTA project application itself, the web client does not require a designated platform.
• In general, end devices with a larger display will provide a better user experience..

Hardware requirements

• In general, faster terminal devices provide better user experience, however, due to the chosen basic architecture, the main load will be handled by the server. This enables you to work fluently even on devices with moderate performance.

Supported Interfaces/Third Party Products

PLANTA project supports the following products:

Additional requirements for PLANTA Hybrid

Note

• If you plan to use PLANTA in a hybrid way, the conditions for PLANTA pulse must be met in addition to aforementioned conditions for PLANTA project. You will find all required information on this subject under System Requirements in the PLANTA pulse help area.