1.3 Installation Prerequisites for Portability Suite Server Hosts

Portability Suite Server is the runtime execution engine underlying both PlateSpin® Migrate and PlateSpin® Protect products. For trouble-free operation of the Portability Suite Server, it is recommended that you install it on a dedicated physical or virtual machine. Specifically, do not install the Portability Suite Server on a machine that is:

The following topics provide additional information about installation prerequisites for Portability Suite Server hosts.

1.3.1 Prerequisites for Windows Server 2003 Systems

Before starting the installation of the Portability Suite Server on a Windows Server 2003 system, ensure that the following prerequisite software components are installed on the intended Portability Suite Server host, in the specified order:

  1. Microsoft IIS 5.0/6.0 (with ASP.NET)

  2. Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, SP2 and later. Download a copy from the Microsoft Download Center.

If you are installing the Portability Suite Server on a 64-bit Windows Server 2003 system, you must configure IIS to run in 32-bit mode. For details, see Knowledge Base article 20915.

1.3.2 Prerequisites for Windows Server 2008 Systems

Before starting the installation of the Portability Suite Server on a Windows Server 2008 system, ensure that the prerequisite .NET Framework and Web Server (IIS 7.0) features, roles, and services are installed on the intended Portability Suite Server host.

Download Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 from the Microsoft Download Center.

The following procedures assume that you are installing the required items for the first time following the installation of the operating system. For detailed information, see your Windows documentation.

Installing Web Server (IIS 7.0) and the Required Role Services

  1. Log in to your intended Portability Suite Server host using the built-in Administrator account, also known as Local User Administrator (LUA), and launch the Server Manager (Start > Administrative Tools > Server Manager).

  2. Use the Server Manager’s Add Roles Wizard to install the Web Server (IIS 7.0) role (in the Server Manager (hostname) tree in the left pane, right-click Roles and select Add Roles).

  3. At the wizard’s prompt, select to install also the required Web Server dependencies (Windows Process Activation Service along with the Process Model and Configuration APIs items).

  4. On the wizard’s Role Services page, select to install the following services:

    • In the Web Server group:

      • Items under the Common HTTP Features node: Static Content, Default Document, Directory Browsing, HTTP Errors, and HTTP Redirection.

      • Items under the Application Development node: ASP.NET, .NET Extensibility, ISAPI Extensions, and ISAPI Filters.

      • Items under the Security node: Basic Authentication, Windows Authentication, Digest Authentication, Client Certificate Mapping Authentication, IIS Client Certificate Mapping Authentication, URL Authorization, Request Filtering, and IP and Domain Restrictions.

    • In the Management Tools group:

      • IIS Management Console

      • IIS Management Scripts and Tools

      • Management Service

      • Items under the IIS 6 Management Compatibility node: IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility, IIS 6 WMI Compatibility, IIS 6 Scripting Tools, IIS 6 Management Console

  5. Review your selections and complete the installation.

Installing .NET 3.0 Features

  1. Log in to your intended Portability Suite Server host using the built-in Administrator account, also known as Local User Administrator (LUA), and launch the Server Manager (Start > Administrative Tools > Server Manager).

  2. Use the Server Manager’s Add Features Wizard to install the required .NET Framework 3.0 features (in the Server Manager (hostname) tree in the left pane, right-click Features and select Add Features).

  3. On the wizard’s Select Features page, select the .NET Framework 3.0 Features item.

    This automatically selects all items in that group: .NET Framework 3.0, XPS Viewer, and WCF Activation (along with the HTTP Activation and Non-HTTP Activation subitems).

  4. Review your selections and complete the installation.

1.3.3 Enabling Support for FIPS-Compliant Data Encryption Algorithms (Optional)

Portability Suite supports data encryption algorithms that are compliant with FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards, Publication 140-2).

If compliance with FIPS is required, it must be enabled on the intended Portability Suite Server host prior to the installation of the Portability Suite Server. This is because Portability Suite runs in FIPS-compliant mode only if it detects that a workload’s operating system is running in FIPS-compliant mode.

NOTE:FIPS-compliant mode has a performance impact and might slow down the data transfer rate up to 30%.

To enable FIPS-compliant algorithms:

  1. On your Portability Suite Server host, install the Microsoft .NET Framework security update KB928365 released on July 10 2007.

  2. Enable FIPS-compliant algorithms in the security options of your Portability Suite host’s local security policies:

    1. Run secpol.msc and browse to Local Policies > Security Options.

    2. Enable the System cryptography: Use FIPS compliant algorithms for encryption security option.

  3. Configure ASP.NET for FIPS support:

    1. Access the machine.config file located in the following directory of your Portability Suite Server host:

      ..Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework\vX.X.XXXXX\Config

    2. Add the following under the <system.web> element:

      <machineKey validationKey="AutoGenerate,IsolateApps" decryptionKey="AutoGenerate,IsolateApps" validation="3DES" decryption="3DES"/>

  4. Save the machine.config file.