Detailed Server Specifications Example

These server specifications show a sample medium to large scale agency deployment where there is a need for multiple highly available production servers to be present to meet the user load and needs. In this example, there are 3 Civic Platform presentation layers available for the consumption of agency users. For external users, 6 servers divided for use among Accela Citizen Access, Accela Mobile Office, and the combined Accela GIS/Accela Gateway servers exist. These DMZ facing presentation servers are backed by 2 load balanced business application servers. A sample non-production environment is shown that has a much smaller scale where services have been combined onto fewer virtual machines. This is generally typical as fewer users access these environments. Staging environments generally mimic full-scale production. Not represented above are SQL Server database servers, Crystal Servers, nor EDMS Servers as all are assumed to be present.

Note: 50GB of disk space per virtual machine is generally considered to be the C drive for Microsoft Windows 2012R2 and the rest is considered to be the D or data drive.

Detailed Server Specification Sample: All listed servers have a server type of Virtual Guest and run an OS Version/Platform of Windows 201x.

Environment Server Name Applications Installed / Required # of CPUs RAM4 Storage Total Notes
Production CP1 Civic Platform 8 32GB 80GB Runs core services (Web, Classic, BIZ)
Production INDEX1 Accela Index Service 8 12GB 90GB Runs core indexer service
Production ACA1 Accela Citizen Access 16 32GB 80GB  
Production BIZ1 Accela Business Server 8 16GB 80GB Supports ACA, AGIS, AMO, Gateway Presentation Layers4
Production IIS1 Accela Gateway, GIS4 4 12GB 80GB  
Production AMO1 Accela Mobile Office 8 24GB 80GB  
Production ADS1 Accela Document Service 8 16GB 80GB3 Should use a UNC path for file storage when there is more than 1 server
Production ePlanCheck ePlanCheck 4 10GB 80GB  
Production Adhoc1 Adhoc Reporting 4 12GB 80GB IIS server for Adhoc Reporting application
Non-Production1 DEV-ePlanCheck ePlanCheck 4 10GB 80GB  
Non-Production1 DEV-CP-1 Civic Platform 8 24GB 90GB Runs core services (Web, Classic, BIZ)
Non-Production1 DEV-INDEX1 Accela Index Service 8 12GB 90GB Runs core indexer service
Non-Production1 DEV-ADHOC1 Adhoc Reporting 4 12GB 80GB  
Non-Production1 DEV-IIS1 ACA, AMO, Gateway, GIS4 4 12GB 80GB All IIS applications combined

1 Non-Production environments (for example, TRAINING, TEST, etc.) can be duplicated from the DEV example.

2 A 3rd CP presentation layer may be optional. The extra layer certainly helps distribute users, but is mostly there to maintain the concept of N+1 (if a single server should fail or go offline, there are always 2 servers supporting the core application). However, in many agencies, an acceptable recovery point to get back to normal operations is merely restarting the server.

3 Storage Total changes depends on actual number of documents and their combined size.

4Check .NET compatibility of each Accela product before combining services on a server. Separate as needed to like systems.