Using a Commercial VPS
Installation follows the same procedure as on a local machine or EC2 instance.
Once you have access to the server you can follow the normal neatComponents installation procedure.
Choosing a VPS or Remote Hosted Server supplier
Using a commercial Virtual Private Server provider, is a very cost efficient way of hosting your neatComponents installation.
There are a large number of companies offering low cost hosted solutions such as 1and1, - you can find a range of them here.
It is sensible to choose a VPS provider close to your target market to minimize any Internet latency between your users and the server. Be sure to choose a provider who can offer high capacity services if you expect a lot of traffic on your system.
We suggest starting with Windows Server 2012 R2. A minimum of 30 GB of storage with 8GB RAM Server sizing will be naturally dependent on your actual project in hand.
Do not select an option that includes any additional database software.
Advice on Installation
If the operating system is provided pre-installed (either with a new computer or by a hosting company)
- Carefully review the 'extra' software they may have installed on the machine
- Where possible, ask for or perform a clean operating system re-install as outlined above
- Otherwise, uninstall as much of the 'extra' software as possible
- Please note that we are unable to provide support for problems caused by such 'extra' software being on the machine.
- Ensure IIS is installed on the machine
- Install neatComponents
- Review our Server Hardening guidance
If you are performing a clean install of the operating system
- Install the operating system
- Microsoft provide extended trial versions of Windows Server editions
- Add the optional IIS component
- Install neatComponents
- Review our Server Hardening guidance
More information
'Extra' software
Note that sometimes the hardware may come with the Operating System pre-installed. Unfortunately, this often means it comes with demo versions of various other bits of software pre-installed too, which can cause problems now, or later when their 'trial periods' expire.
So we recommend re-formatting the disk, and Installing the Operating System yourself. That way, you know what's on the machine.
If your machine is provided by a hosting co-location company, they may also provide a selection of extra software with it. This may conflict with the installation or operation of neatComponents. Ideally they should provide a clean image without the extra software, or provide instructions for uninstalling it. Note that you may be able to simply uninstall the software through Control Panel / Add/Remove Programs, however you should first check with your hosting company in case they rely on any of these items to provide their services (backup, remote control etc)
When installing the operating system be aware of the following points: - In Network Configuration, ensure that the machine has a static IP address, (rather than a dynamically-assigned IP from a DHCP server) - otherwise the IP address will change each time you reboot the server and you won't be able to forward traffic to the machine from your router.
- When the core operating system installation has completed, install the IIS component. This can be found in Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Windows Components tab, under the Applications section. neatComponents works on top of IIS, and cannot be installed without it.
- If you are going to be administering your machine remotely, using Terminal Services, you need to enable Remote Control. You can do this in Control Panel, System, Remote Control tab. Once selected, you will be able to Terminal-Serve in as Administrator.
- Ensure that you have installed all the current security patches from www.windowsupdate.com
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