Hardware Requirements

The following serves as a hardware checklist for use prior to installing Umbria.

Development/Test Server Requirements

The following chart shows the recommended hardware specifications for a Development or a Test server.

Component	Umbria Web Server (one or more)	SQL Server (dedicated or shared)	Umbria App Server (one or more)
Machine	Virtual or physical	Virtual or physical (physical recommended)	Virtual or physical
Free Disk Space	250 GB	500 GB	500 GB or more
RAM	8 GB or more (16 GB + for Profitability Module)	16–32 GB (depending on size)	8 GB or more
Cores	4 or more (dedicated)	4 or more (dedicated)	4 or more (dedicated)
OS Type	Windows 2008 R2 or above (64-bit) for all machines Server 2012/2016/2019 recommended
SQL Server	N/A (SQL Server Integration Services required for Profitability Module)	SQL 2016 standard edition or above- See Standard section	N/A
Internet	Required during first install	N/A	Required during first install

 

A Test server could potentially have less hardware than specified here. However, we strongly advise against this, as any work done by Prosperoware's consultants on a Test server not meeting the above requirements will take longer to complete. Consequently, the client will receive a bill with a higher rate.

 

Warning: If the dev and test system are to be shared on the same server, those systems will have the following drawbacks:

• Systems sharing the same server, must be the same version of Umbria. This sets the time restrictions for nightly imports, and what changes or updates can be applied, on either of the systems.
• Systems sharing the same server share the same hardware resources, e.g. the same server for the Umbria web server and Umbria agent service. This can cause resources to be allocated to one piece of the software, and can cause waits or performance problems for other aspects of the system. For example, if one system is running an intensive background services job, it can render the web UI unusable for dev/test or both systems while the operation completes.
• Systems sharing the same server, allow only one of the systems to use Elastic search functionality. Only one elastic search database can be on each server. Having elastic setup on both systems on a shared server, can lead to elastic corruption or improper search results pulling from both servers.
• SQL Standard edition supports up to 128 GB; See Standard section

Note:Umbria is fully compatible with SQL 2019, Windows Server 2019, Azure iAAS, Azure SQL, and Azure Managed SQL.

 

Production Server Requirements

The following chart shows the recommended hardware specifications for a Production server.

Component	Umbria Web Server (one or more)	SQL Server (dedicated or shared)	Umbria App Server (one or more)
Machine	Virtual or physical	Virtual or Physical (physical recommended)	Virtual or physical
Free Disk Space	250 GB	500 GB. Better performance is achieved by more IOPS and storage tier	500 GB or more
RAM	8 GB or more (16 GB + for Profitability Module)	See chart below	8 GB or more
Cores	4 or more (dedicated)*	See chart below	4 or more (dedicated)
OS Type	Windows 2008 R2 or above (64-bit) Server 2012 recommended
SQL Server	N/A (SQL Server Integration Services required for Profitability Module)	SQL 2016 standard edition or above- See Standard section	N/A
Internet	Required during first install	N/A	Required during first install

For the Production server, it is recommended to increase the number of cores based on the amount of data in the system to improve statistics and indexing processing.

For the Profitability Module: A production system could potentially use the bare minimum specs if the amount of data imported is very small.

When determining specs, select the higher statistics that apply to your system: number of time entries or number of matters. If in the highest statistics category, add RAM or cores based upon the formula below.

 

 

Production SQL Server Hardware Requirements

To determine the appropriate hardware requirements for your Production server, refer to the following table, which lists memory and CPU requirements based on the number of time entries or matters that you intend to import and maintain in Umbria. If the number of time entries and matters in your billing system correspond to two different requirement levels, use the higher of the two. SQL Standard edition supports up to 128 GB; See Standard section

Time Entries (Millions)	Matters (Thousands)	Memory	CPU Cores
< 5	< 20	16 GB	8
5–7.5	20–60	24 GB	12
7.5–10	60–100	32 GB	16
10–20	100–150	48 GB	24
15–20	150–200	64 GB	24
20–25	200–250	72 GB	32
25+	250+	96 GB; per 10 mil time entries or 100k matters over number on left, add 16 GB RAM	32; per 10 mil time entries or 100k matters over number on left, add 8 cores.

 

SQL Server Standard vs Enterprise

SQL Server Standard supports 128GB RAM max, and technically any limit of CPU since SQL is CPU based licensing. Enterprise supports the OS Maximum limit of RAM.

To view the Microsoft datasheets containing this information, view them here: SQL Server 2017 Editions, and Datasheet

 

Azure Requirements or Questions to Run Umbria:

• Umbria 2020/2021 is supported to run on Azure Iaas.
• The web server OS can be Server 2012/2016/2019 on Azure Iaas
• The agent server OS can be Server 2012/2016/2019 on Azure Iaas
• The SQL server can be Azure SQL.
• The Azure Configuration Guide for Umbria is here.
• Azure can import from on premise time and billing sites just like the existing on prem Umbria systems. The on premise server IP would need to be allowed in Azure.
• The ping time of Azure depends on the Azure tier you choose. We’ve tested using Standard edition and S2 service objective, and highly recommend staying away from S1 service objectives as they lack the resources needed for timely imports. This is Microsoft’s Pricing and tier explanation page for SQL Azure: Microsoft Pricing Tiers. For example, check the option with 8vcore for a production system. For ping times, Azure supports the following limits per service tier. We would support whatever Azure offers: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/management/azure-subscription-service-limits.
• Differences for Azure SQL and Azure managed is outlined here: Azure Comparison tool

Other Hardware Considerations for Best Performance

The application and system performance also depend on other hardware, behind the server.

• Disk speed: The SQL server will perform better if it runs from disks that have fast read/write speeds, a large cache, and, in the case of HDDs, a high rotational speed. For Production systems, Tier-1 (SAS) drives or SSDs with 100,000 IOPS (Input/Output operations per second) are required.
• Network speed, latency: All servers, especially the web server, require a reliable network connection. Teaming multiple network adapters together, Gigabit or higher Ethernet, or Fibre Channel 1 GBps or higher are best.
• Shared server issues: If any of the servers (especially the SQL server) are shared, issues may arise if the physical machine is hosting other VMs that are extremely resource intensive. Examples include other SQL machines, time and billing systems, or servers that are using a majority of the cores/RAM or network/disk bandwidth.

For information on the Hardware requirements for Umbria Analytics setup, read here.

Active Directory Requirements

Umbria utilizes the Microsoft AD API. Support requirements are below, and apply only if Active Directory sync is enabled.

• Domain Controller: Any version of the Microsoft AD Domain Controller is supported.
• Functional Level: Not Applicable. Umbria uses LDAP path logic, that passes the domain or forest information.

For information on the Functional level support from Microsoft, read here.