MWeb™ Server Requirements

Introduction

MWeb runs on your Windows server (or multiple servers for MWeb Universal 2.0 and later). The server(s) may be used for other purposes as well, depending on their power and the amount of activity you expect. MWeb may be run on a hosted server if the hosting company supports the requirements.

Your server and its software are not part of the MWeb product. We assume you have or will acquire a server and the technical knowledge to configure and maintain it. We regret that predicting load or specifying hardware are outside our expertise; we strongly recommend your IT staff or a web-hosting consultant be involved in choosing the server.

Whenever you install software to a server, there is potential for problems. There may be issues with security or with pre-existing IIS setup. Therefore we recommend that a server technician install MWeb (plus any database software you need); a non-technical person may not be able to understand the options and messages. (However, it is quite easy and straightforward for a technician. Furthermore, once it is installed, no ongoing technical ability is required.)

For Enterprise, all software required comes with MWeb and Windows Server, unless you choose to use the optional SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, or DB2.

For Universal, all software required comes with MWeb and Windows Server, except for the software required to access your databases, such as ODBC drivers.

Hosting services

If you plan to use a hosting service, make sure they meet all these requirements. We believe #4 is impossible to find on a shared server, ruling out this option for Universal. For Enterprise it will prevent using MWeb Reporter, although the rest of Enterprise will run on a shared server. Numbers 3, 5, and 8 may also be hard to find on shared servers.

One other problem with shared servers is that sometimes all sites on the server share certain storage areas. This may cause MWeb to fail if another site is using incompatible versions of software MWeb needs. We cannot be liable for any costs incurred if your chosen hosting service has this limitation.

For all these reasons, we do not recommend using a shared hosting service.

Cloud computing services

We are currently experimenting with using Amazon's EC2 cloud-computing service to eliminate the need for MWeb sites to acquire web-servers. Besides not having to acquire, install, and configure a web-server, the main advantage of EC2 is that it can grow or shrink in capacity as the demand changes.

The lowest-cost option using EC2 comes to $1,095/year, plus bandwidth and storage charges. Therefore it is not a low-cost solution. (One small Windows instance @ $0.12/hour x 24 hours x 365 days = $1,051/year.)

There may be additional costs for the database software (SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, or DB2).

Requirements

Notes

* MWeb Universal integrates databases that may be hosted on multiple servers ("database servers"). In addition, the MWeb Universal Main Module runs on a server, which may be (but need not be) one of the database servers.

1. Enterprise: You may use Windows Server Web Edition for MWeb Enterprise, except that although we have been told by Microsoft that MWeb Reporter will run under Web Edition, we have not yet tested this.

Universal: We have been told by Microsoft that MWeb Universal, including item 4 above, will run on Windows Server Web Edition. We will be testing this soon.

2. Enterprise: You should be able to use Apache or any other web-server instead of IIS, as MWeb programs are standard CGI programs compiled as Windows EXEs. We have not yet tested this.

Universal: MWeb Universal has been tested under Linux and Apache, and these will be supported in a future release if we get sufficient requests for this.

3. All programs are delivered as compiled Windows EXEs.

4. Various CGI programs must be allowed to start non-CGI programs. These non-CGI programs are used for long-running processes that would time-out if they were run as CGIs. Examples are programs to create indexes and statistical reports. All programs are delivered as compiled Windows EXEs.

Enterprise: MWeb Reporter will not run if this requirement is not met, although the rest of Enterprise will.

Universal: Required. It is very unlikely a shared-hosting service would permit this unless it is a virtual server.

5. Enterprise: If you plan to use MySQL, MWeb uses the MyISAM server engine. This means you must have permission to upload the database files created by PPS to the server. This has been denied by some hosting services.

Enterprise: In order for MWeb to resize images for certain displays, it must be allowed to read the image files using the file system (unless you include image dimensions in your data).

6. It can be a convenience for Systems Planning to have FTP access to your server, but this is not required.

7. We highly recommend this feature so we can receive reports of software problems that users may not tell you about. It is required if you wish MWeb Enterprise users to be able to email pages and feedback.

8. Universal: You will need the appropriate software on the Database Servers for your databases, such as the MySQL server and ODBC driver if you have MySQL databases. Universal uses only ODBC to access your Databases.

Enterprise: If you plan to store the MWeb database in Foxpro tables, you will need the Microsoft Visual FoxPro ODBC driver version 6 (a free download from Microsoft). The other database technologies available (SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, and DB2) require you to acquire and install the appropriate database engine and/or ODBC driver. You may use the free version of MySQL; the others may or may not be free (check the vendor's licensing requirements).

9. Enterprise: Database size is approximately 1 to 3 megabytes per 100 Primary Records, depending on the data and your choice of database software. We can be more specific about database size once we have seen your requirements and data.

10. Space required can be calculated by taking the average size of the files (don't forget thumbnails too) and multiplying by the expected number. Images and media may be stored on any servers connected to the Internet. These servers need not run Windows. All that is required is that the images and media have URLs. (Media are not yet supported for Universal.)

11. If the server fails, we cannot reconstruct your configuration data, logon files, search histories, and other valuable information.