A Scense implementation has minimal requirements on hardware and software. This blogpost discusses the requirements needed for a succesful Scense implementation

Hardware requirements

The hardware requirements for implementin Scense Workspace Magement will depend on the number of simultaneous users. However the following can be used as a guideline for the mimimum requirements.

Component Server Workstation
Processor Pentium 4 (or AMD equivalent) Pentium 4 (or AMD equivalent)
Memory 1 GB 512 MB
Disk space 50 MB (excl. Database) 50 MB
Network 100 Mbit/s 10 Mbit/s

Software requirements.

Scense can be used with the following operating systems:

Operating System Server Workstation
Windows 2000 No Limited*
Windows XP Yes Yes
Windows XP 64-bit Yes Yes
Windows Vista Yes Yes
Windows Vista 64-bit Yes Yes
Windows 2003 Server Yes Yes
Windows 2003 Server 64-bit Yes Yes
Windows 2008 Server Yes Yes
Windows 2008 Server 64-bit Yes Yes
Windows 2008 Server R2 Yes Yes
Windows 7 Yes Yes
Windows 7 64-bit Yes Yes

Windows 3.x, Windows 95, 98, ME, Windows NT 3.x and Windows NT 4.0 are not supported.

Database system Version
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or higher
Oracle 9 or higher **

* Windows 2000 does not support .NET Framework 3.5 which is mandatory for some Scense components.
** Accessing Oracle databases from 64-bit operating systems is not supported

Other requirements

.NET Framework

Scense is built using the .NET Framework 3.5, so it’s required to have this framework installed on the server where the Scense Setup is run, and on the workstations.

Directory requirements.

Scense requires a “User Account Database” to function effectively. An Active Directory from Windows 2000 or higher is required. Scense only supports Microsoft directories.

Network protocols.

For the communication between Client and Server components Scense exclusively uses DCOM.
Communication with the database server is restricted by the possibilities of the selected database solution. TCP/IP is the required protocol for the Scense Community Service, or Network Address- and Active Directory Sites.

Scalability and reduncancy

Scalability and reduncancy can be increased by using techniques like load balancing (starting approx. 2500 concurrent user sessions) or database clustering.