Here are a few things you’ll need to know and have before getting started.
TL;DR – You’ll need a Windows Server, the Yurbi installation files, and if you plan to use MS SQL Server as the Yurbi backend database, you’ll need a login to SQL with database create permission.
Resources
You’ll need administrator access to a Windows Server (at least 2012 or higher). While you can install for test and trial purposes on a Windows desktop, Yurbi is designed as a server/client application, so we highly recommend a server. Even if you are doing a trial, ideally all the work you do in the trial per this guide will just carry forward directly into your production environment.
Important Note: Yurbi doesn’t have to have a dedicated server. For light use cases, Yurbi can co-exist on an existing server well, especially if that server has enough performance specs.
Windows Server Specs
- Min of 4GB of memory (higher the better)
- At least 2 modern CPUs (4 vCPUs gives Yurbi a lot of extra speed) – Yurbi prefers a CPU with a higher clock speed (2.7GHz or higher) than one with lots of cores and lower clock speed. So if you are using a cloud server on AWS or Azure, we recommend the Computer-Optimized versions as they have the best CPUs ( c5d.xlarge is a great option on AWS, F4s_v2 is great on Azure)
- At least 1GB of free drive space – Yurbi doesn’t take up a lot of space by itself but for general speed and optimization of a Windows Server we do recommend a hard drive with a high IOPS and while an SSD drive is not required, it is a nice thing to have.
- It is required to install Chrome browser on the server in order to send scheduled dashboards, kpis, and charts to email via the scheduler.
During the installation, you’ll be asked to set the installation drive and folder. By default that will point to C:\program files (x86)\yurbi. If you have an IT standard to install all applications on a specific drive and folder structure, know that information going in. Worst case, our support team can always help you move Yurbi, but it’s always best to have a plan.
Yurbi Backend Database
Yurbi requires a backend database and you have 2 choices.
- Microsoft SQL Database – If you already have an existing Microsoft SQL Server Database in your environment, we recommend using that for Yurbi. You most likely already have your backups in place and it’s set up for a production workload. You will need an SQL user account with DATABASE CREATE permissions (ideally just use the SA user id and password) NOTE: if your SQL database only supports windows authentication users, contact our support team, we can help you with a support driven install)
- Embedded PostgreSQL Database – If you don’t have MS SQL in your environment, then you can use the embedded PostgreSQL database. By default, the embedded PostgreSQL database will be installed on the Yurbi server. This is fine for most use cases, however, in a high volume production environment, we would recommend having a production-level PostgreSQL database on a separate server. Our support team can help you migrate to that either after your install or after a trial.
The key is to use the database you plan to use in production. If you are doing a trial and plan to use MS SQL but don’t have one available now, install SQL Express on the Yurbi server and use that. Why? All the work you do in terms of setting up Yurbi can easily be migrated from PostgreSQL to PostgreSQL and MS SQL to MS SQL, but you won’t be able to migrate the Yurbi backend database from PostgreSQL to MS SQL and vice versa.
Yurbi Installation Executables
You should have 2 files (or the link to 2 files) to download to the Windows Server. One is the main installer and the other is the most recent patches and hotfixes, what we refer to as the update file. You would have received these from our website when you registered for a trial or via our customer support team.
That’s it, let’s go!