Supported Financial Applications

1. Epicor 7.4, Epicor 10
2. JIWA versions 6.1.5.3 and 7.1, 7.2 
3. MYOB AccountRight/Essentials Desktop and Cloud Setups.
4. NetSuite
5. SAGE
6. Xero
7. Configurable Output File sent via Email or FTP (OPEN or Encrypted)

1. Database Names cannot contain special characters. In particular, the period (".") will cause crystal reports to fail.
2. Use a naming convention that will allow you to clearly see Training, Testing and Production Systems. Use abbreiations that will make it easy to identify backups etc.
   1. Example 1: Company Name: "Fiji National Providend Fund", use database name "LinkSOFT-FNPF" for Production and "LinkSOFT-FNPF-Training" for training database 
   2. Example 2: Company Name: "Jacks Retail Pte Limited", use database name "LinkSOFT-JacksRetail" for Production and "LinkSOFT-JacksRetail-Training" for training database
   3. Example 3: Company Name: "Johnson and Johnson Vision Care", use database name "LinkSOFT-JohnsonVision" for Production and "LinkSOFT-JohnsonVision-Training" for training database
3. Use a Server Naming Vonvention like:  "DBSERVER-ABC"  where "ABC"   is your abbreviated company name.
4. Avoid long names
5. Use "Proper Case" to make the names easy to read

Linksoft Server Sizing

Below is the recommended hardware requirements for LinkSOFT Applications. Select the scenario that best suits your needs and seek advice from an authorized representative before making your purchase.

1. Size Classification

Select the overall class of server required for your environment. The table below is based on transaction volume and concurrent user requirements. Once you have chosen a server class, you can view the recommended sizes from table 2 below.

In summary, here are the classes:

1. Entry-Level - minimum specification for running LinkSOFT - typically 1 or 2 stations per site
2. Mid-Range - mid-size customer needs - typically 10 POS stations per site with 1 or 2 sites
3. Enterprise 1 - high user counts, high volume situations - Typically 15 + stations per site with up to 10 sites
4. Enterprise 2 - higher user count, higher volumes - Typically 50+ stations per site with 50+ sites
   

2. Installation Options
LinkSOFT can be configured to run as a Standalone system or in a networked environment.

1. If you are using Point of Sales, your POS stations can be connected to a SERVER, or the Station can be configured to run as a Standalone Machine.
2. If you are using the LinkSOFT Payrol, HR and other components, you will access LinkSOFT using a WEB Browser. In this case, you just need a Web Server.

3 Server configuration recommendations

1. Windows Server 2019 for high volume systems. Windows 10 PRO for smaller setup
2. SQL Server 2017 or higher (Express edition is supported. Please refer to Microsoft documentation for a comparison of features and licencing)
3. Data files for SQL server should be kept on a separate drive with high IO performance

3.1 Internet Information Systems (IIS) Configuration
LinkSOFT requires a web server configured on either a standalone Installation, or on the company Web Server. The following configuration needs to be turned on the web server:

1. DOT Net Framework (installed automatically with the LinkSOFT Installer)
2. SAP Business Objects - Crystal Reports Runtime (installed automatically with the LinkSOFT Installer)
3. IIS configuration (Refer to figure 1 below). This needs to be configured by your systems administrator as the Web Server usually resides on a separate server.

Figure 1 - IIS Web Server Settings

4. Transaction Volume

4.1 Number of Users
The number of users parameter refers to the maximum number of users likely to be active at any one time. This number can be difficult to calculate since users can vary significantly in their demands on the system. A user running a report will use more server processing power and more disk activity than a user who enters an occasional purchase order. The figure that should be used for this table is an equivalent number of reasonably active users. If most users are highly intermittent, the equivalent number will be slightly lower; if most users will be running large, complex reports, the user count should increase slightly.

Table 1: Server groups by Users and Transaction Volume

Transactions Per month
U s e r s		< 5,000	5,000 to 20,000	> 20,000
	< 10	Entry Level	Entry Level	Enterprise 1
	10-50	Entry Level	Mid-Range	Enterprise 1
	50-150	Mid-Range	Mid-Range	Enterprise 1
	150-250	Mid-Range	Enterprise 1	Enterprise 2
	250 +	Enterprise 1	Enterprise 1	Enterprise 2

5 Stations Recommendations
Since workstations will always be based on a single user, there are two categories, Entry level (< 15,000 transactions per month) and Mid-Range (> 15,000 transactions per month). POS Stations can setup as a Standalone system, where the database resides on the POS station instead of a Backend Server.

Table 2: Station Recommendations

6 Backend Server Specifications (Payroll, HRIS, ERP etc)
Each of the four server classes identified above is specified in more detail below. Within each class, a lower and higher specification is provided (except Entry-Level). The exact configuration can be chosen according to whether the user count and transaction volume is at the lower or higher end of table 1.

Table 3: Backend Server Recommendations

7 Database Backups
It is extremely important that your business information is backed up on a regular basis. The frequency and type of backup should be discussed with your implementation team, but one or more drives on the server can ensure a timely backup is completed. For large volumes, it is often possible to use more than one drive for the backup - reducing the time taken to complete the process. It is also possible to backup to the local disk, and then copy the file elsewhere for storage.

There are two backup processes that needs to be considered:

1. Automated backups that the SQL Server agent runs and stores locally on a disk
2. Offsite backup storage

For SQL Server agent backups, it is recommended that a separate drive is installed on the Database Server. This drive is a temporary drive to hold backups before they are taken off site for secure storage.

8 Database Performance
Relational Databases are advanced systems that sometimes require tuning for optimal performance. Since the introduction of SQL Server 7.0 and followed by SQL Server 2019, the database engine has become largely self-configuring and self-tuning. However, it is still useful to perform some level of tuning on a SQL Server database, particularly in the area of database input/output (I/O) operations to the physical disk subsystem. The driving focus of performance tuning is to reduce I/O so that buffer cache is best utilized. If performed by an experienced professional, tuning can substantially improve performance on your hardware. Note that there are many considerations, which are outside of the scope of this paper, that are involved in maintaining the server at peak performance.