Install and Update

Technology Platform

BusinessPlus is a Web-based n-tier architecture solution that utilizes a Microsoft SQL database management system.

• The BusinessPlus client tier collects and presents data to the end user and supports Mac and Windows based laptops and personal computers as well as a variety of tablets and mobile devices with Internet access through a common browser.
• The BusinessPlus application tier executes complex business rules based upon requests from the client tier and using data retrieved from the data tier. BusinessPlus handles content processing and is built on ASP.NET MVC, C#, C++ programming languages and utilizes AJAX technologies to allows web pages to be updated asynchronously.
• The BusinessPlus data tier executes data-centric logic and fulfills requests for data from the business logic tier and utilizes a Microsoft SQL relational database.

Optionally, IBM Cognos business intelligence (BI) is utilized for reporting capabilities.

Hardware Platforms and Operating Systems

General Support

PowerSchool closely follows the support lifecycle stated by the platform vendor, both for new releases and support termination. For new releases, expect 1-6 months to transpire between a release's general availability and our official support. This allows time for dependent third-party vendors to also release supporting products and our internal Quality Assurance to complete integration testing. For many products, we often wait for the first Service Pack or maintenance release before committing support.

Servers

General Recommendations

A properly tuned system will not be I/O bound but given the relatively high transaction volumes and report requests that can occur, we strongly suggest RAID 1+0 (Striping and Mirroring) and not RAID 5. The challenges with RAID 5 lie in its inherent lack of granularity; depending on the implementation, this can greatly hinder your options when trying to spread I/O.

It is important that I/O be spread over a large set of drives (and not exceeding 50% of the controller's capacity). With the large drive capacities today, avoid the temptation to use a smaller number of drives. For all but the smallest systems, two CPUs should be a minimum.

UNIX

As of the 7.9.10 release, UNIX systems are no longer supported.

Windows & SQL Server

PowerSchool first provided a Windows 2000 Server version of BusinessPlus with the 7.4 Release. SQL Server database is the only Windows database solution supported on this platform. There are no plans to support other databases on the Windows platform (e.g., Informix).

64-bit

Since BusinessPlus does not require the large address spaces provided by 64-bit operating systems and compilers, there are no plans to provide a 64-bit version of the product. BusinessPlus does support running under a 64-bit operating system, but only as a 32-bit application.

Windows Servers

For hosting applications, PowerSchool recommends a minimum of three servers running Windows 2016 Server.

Each server should be configured with (at the least):

• 2 * Quad Core or better processors
• Dual gigabit NIC cards
• 2 disk drives in a mirrored RAID configuration
• 16 GB or more of memory

The three servers are used as follows:

• Two for production (one as the primary production server and one for redundancy)
• One for a test environment

In addition to the minimum of three servers, a server should be added for each additional increment of 100 concurrent users. The test environment can be used to test configuration choices, train new users, and stage software upgrades.
The servers are configured as a server farm using network load balancing (NLB) so the servers appear as one virtual machine with automatic fail-over support. This configuration also simplifies server maintenance and upgrades. Technically, NLB splits network traffic and not the actual CPU or Database I/O load.

Workstations

PowerSchool recommends that the desktop computer be Windows 10.

Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows 2008, Windows 95, Windows 98, ME, NT, XP, Vista, 8.0 and 8.1 are not supported.

The minimum expectations for desktop hardware are listed in the table below.

Web-based applications are supported on earlier versions of Windows as long as the appropriate browser and hardware requirements are met. Support is based on the version of BusinessPlus running, not the time at which support is dropped.
Vista support was added with the 7.7.2 Release. There are six different versions of Vista; we provide support for the Vista Business version.
Windows 7 support was added with the 7.9.6 Release.
Windows 8 support was added with the 7.9.8 Release.
Windows 8.1 support was added with the 7.9.9 Release.
Windows 10 support was added with the 7.9.10 Release.

Apple OS X

Apple OS X users have a variety of options depending on their interaction needs with the product. Users needing basic access to reporting or workflow can use the cross-browsers interfaces to CDD and Workflow.
Users with more complex requirements are best served with a Citrix/Windows Terminal Server solution.

SSL and TLS 1.2

BusinessPlus requires that Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is enabled to safeguard sensitive data that is sent between systems. Both Transport Layer Security (TLS) and SSL offer computer network communications security. PowerSchool recommends that TLS 1.2 is in use.
If SSL is not enabled and if TLS is not found, the BusinessPlus installer will issue a warning. However, the install may still continue without these settings found, since the SSL requirement can be met outside of where BusinessPlus is installed (i.e., hardware load balancers).
The software checks a setup item for HTTPS in a URL, and, if found, uses TLS 1.2. If the software does not find HTTPS, it will use HTTP. Code execution will not be blocked if SSL/TLS is not found.
TLS 1.2 is enabled by default on all versions of Windows Server supported in BusinessPlus 7.11 and up.  BusinessPlus programmatically uses TLS 1.2, so no Windows-level setting changes are needed. There should be no further setup outside of installing an SSL certificate into IIS.

System Catalog and DNS

All of the BusinessPlus financial applications require an ODBC Data Source created to allow access to the System Catalog. The System Catalog is a central set of database tables used to manage available connections, CDD Categories and Reports, etc. The installer will prompt for the necessary information to create such a Data Source. This data source provides access to the system catalog. Included on this DVD are Native Drivers for SQL Server.

In most cases, the PowerSchool installation technician will have created the system catalog database. Therefore, you should ask your DBA or the PowerSchool technician for the location of the system catalog database.

The system catalog can be created either in the BusinessPlus database or in a separate database. Creating the catalog in the BusinessPlus database does not compromise security and avoids the steps of creating a system catalog. However, PowerSchool recommends creating the system catalog in its own database named "syscat" for improved modularity and maintenance. Refer to SQL Server documentation for help creating databases. Since many clients refresh their test accounts with production database information, we recommend NOT installing the system catalog in the test database.

After creating the system catalog, launch the Administrative Console to ensure the configuration is correct.

Windows Server Prerequisites

The installer should be run under an account that is a member of the server's local "Administrators" group. This is to ensure that the installer has all the proper permissions to configure the server and install components as needed.

The installer is designed to take a newly installed Windows server and configure it for BusinessPlus. All needed Windows Roles and Features will be automatically installed for the selected BusinessPlus applications.

PowerSchool provides a tool to prep a Windows server for a BusinessPlus installation. This tool is named "BusinessPlus Install Requirements Checker" and may be downloaded from the PowerSchool Customer Portal.

Below is a list of the Roles and Features that may be installed for Web and Application Server installs:

• Web Server (IIS)
• Desktop Experience
• Telnet Client
• Message Queuing
• Remote Server Administration Tools
• Web Server
• Common HTTP Features
• Static Content
• Default Document
• Directory Browsing
• HTTP Errors
• HTTP Redirection
• Application Development
• ASP.NET
• .NET Extensibility
• ASP
• ISAPI Extensions
• ISAPI Filters
• Server Side Includes
• Health and Diagnostics
• HTTP Logging
• Request Monitor
• Security
• Basic Authentication
• Windows Authentication
• Request Filtering
• IP and Domain Restrictions
• Performance
• Static Content Compression
• Dynamic Content Compression
• Management Tools
• IIS Management Console
• Message Queuing Services
• Message Queuing Server
• Role Administration Tools
• Web Server (IIS) Tools
• Ink and Handwriting Services
• Ink Support
• LPR Port Monitor
• Print Server
• LPD Service
• .NET Extensibility 4.5
• ASP.NET 4.5
• HTTP Activation

Deployment Options

PowerSchool software can be installed at your district location, or accessed over the internet as Software as a Service (SaaS). You can select the deployment option that best fits your functional and economic requirements.