Planning Civic Platform Installation

The System Planning Guide contains detailed information to determine the appropriate network topology for your agency.

Topics:

Set up environment

  1. Review the hardware and software requirements of your deployment topology (see Supported Environments).
  2. Contact Accela Customer Support to obtain the installation files and supporting product documentation. Get access to one of Accela's authorized FTP sites to transfer the installation file to the target system before proceeding.
  3. Obtain an Accela software license key for the current release. Contact Accela Customer Support at 1-888-722-2352 ext. 5. Office hours are Monday through Friday, 4:00 A.M. – 6:00 P.M. Pacific Time.
  4. Perform a full backup of Accela software, database, and any adapters (see Backing Up Civic Platform and use internal guidelines for backing up and storing data). Also back up any customized or third-party adapters inside the Wildfly server, then redeploy the adapter after installation completes.
  5. Remove non-useful instances of Civic Platform (see Installation Maintenance).
  6. Remove conflicting programs using the same port numbers planned for Civic Platform. View the current port number usage by the command netstat -an or a third-party tool like FPort.

  7. Before running the installer, prepare the list of configuration settings (see Configuration Checklist).

    When installing any application, there are many processes that can potentially cause problems. It is not possible to list all potential conflicting software, but these guidelines include some best practices.

    • Reboot the Civic Platform server prior to install to allow any PendingFileRename operations.
    • Stop any running Civic Platform services if present.

    • Stop any anti-virus software, particularly real-time protection.

      Note: Be sure to restart any services stopped after installation completes (including Civic Platform services, anti-virus software, and any others).
    • Run the installer with administrator permissions.
    • Unblock files or run streams after downloading.

Install base components

  1. Run the Civic Platform base installation program to install the family of Civic Platform products and related third-party software (see Installing a Base Civic Platform).
  2. Use the Civic Platform installer to install a new database, or to update an existing one (see Managing a Civic Platform Configuration).

    Optional: Use the Civic Platform Database Update installer or a manual procedure to update an existing database (see Manually Upgrading the Civic Platform Database).

  3. Run the installer to deploy Civic Platform application code (see Installing the Latest Application Code).
  4. Log in to Civic Platform and import the Accela software license key obtained from Accela Customer Support (see Importing the License Key).
  5. Set up a firewall. For Civic Platform and add-on port configuration settings, contact Accela Customer Support at 1-888-722-2352 ext. 5. Office hours are Monday through Friday, 4:00 A.M. – 6:00 P.M. Pacific Time.
  6. Check the Civic Platform directory structure. Installation Directory Structure explains the Civic Platform directory structure.
  7. Perform post-installation configuration. Modify settings in the application server, the web server for the Civic Platform features to function correctly (see Post Installation Server Configuration).

Install additional Civic Platform tools and functionality

  1. Configure an SMS adapter web service for integration with SMS text messaging services (see Configuring the SMS Adapter).
  2. Install and configure the ad hoc report tool for the ad hoc report feature (see Installing Ad Hoc Report Tool).
  3. If using JDBC thin driver for connecting with the database for Civic Platform (Oracle 11g), install the Oracle OCI driver configuration tool on all the Civic Platform server instances (except for the database server) (see Installing Oracle 11g OCI Driver Configuration Tool).
  4. To enable the Nearby Query functionality, run the Nearby Query installer to upgrade the database with new geometry information columns (see Upgrading the Database for Nearby Query Support).

Prepare the Civic Platform client

  1. Configure settings in the browser for the Civic Platform features to function correctly (see Browser Settings).
  2. Install Adobe Acrobat X Pro and .Net Framework 4.0 Client Profile, and then run the Accela Electronic Document Review installer (see Electronic Document Review Client Installation).
  3. Install the Accela Document Scan client (see Accela Document Scan Installation).
  4. Set up the cash drawer for printing receipts in point of sale (POS) operations (see Setting Up a Cashier Station).
  5. Install and configure an Intermec SR30 Handheld Scanner on client machines, so users can read and retrieve system generated invoices by scanning barcodes on invoices (see Configuring Barcode Scanner).