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Installation, HA and backup WaterGEMS

Hi everyone

I am planning to implement WaterGEMS to end-users and having a master plan for high availability/backup for database. There are several questions I am searching for answers but yet find out a proper solution.

1. Which Windows OS versions could WaterGEMS install? 

2. Do we install ArcGIS and its database into one host or seperated?

3. Have anyone designed a high availability plan for WaterGEMS? Please kindly share.

4. For the safe use of database, I need to firgure out a backup for database. 

Thank you very much for your contribution and sharings.

Regards

Tri

Parents
  • Hi Tri,

    I will try to answer some of your questions, but unfortunately will not personally be able to answer all of them. Hopefully someone else can assist with that.

    1. Operating systems.
    WaterGEMS (latest release) is certified for use with Windows 7 (32/64), Windows 8/8.1 (32/64) and Windows 10 (32/64). Though not certified, it is possible to use WaterGEMS on the equivalent Windows server versions to the afore mentioned operating systems.

    2. ArcGIS
    I'm not experienced with ArcGIS, so cannot answer this one.

    3. High Availability Plan
    I'm a little confused by this question. WaterGEMS is a desktop application and thus it is available all the time that the destination desktop/laptop is available. Are you potentially talking about some form of virtualized solution. I have heard of some customers using those (Citrix was perhaps one), but I am not familiar with them. Maybe someone else here will be able to provide more information.

    4. Database backup.
    I personally have experience with backup software that is used in the IT world, for backing up my home computers, but am not qualified enough to recommend any particular solution for an IT environment. In so far as WaterGEMS is concerned, it uses file based databases, so users can save those on their local machine, network or they can use another one of Bentley's products, Projectwise, to manage those database files. The backup procedure would be different depending on the actual situation, but the simplest scenario to describe here is if users saved WaterGEMS databases on a network location; then IT just needs to back up that file server.

    I hope this is at least of some help.

    Regards,
    Wayne.



Reply
  • Hi Tri,

    I will try to answer some of your questions, but unfortunately will not personally be able to answer all of them. Hopefully someone else can assist with that.

    1. Operating systems.
    WaterGEMS (latest release) is certified for use with Windows 7 (32/64), Windows 8/8.1 (32/64) and Windows 10 (32/64). Though not certified, it is possible to use WaterGEMS on the equivalent Windows server versions to the afore mentioned operating systems.

    2. ArcGIS
    I'm not experienced with ArcGIS, so cannot answer this one.

    3. High Availability Plan
    I'm a little confused by this question. WaterGEMS is a desktop application and thus it is available all the time that the destination desktop/laptop is available. Are you potentially talking about some form of virtualized solution. I have heard of some customers using those (Citrix was perhaps one), but I am not familiar with them. Maybe someone else here will be able to provide more information.

    4. Database backup.
    I personally have experience with backup software that is used in the IT world, for backing up my home computers, but am not qualified enough to recommend any particular solution for an IT environment. In so far as WaterGEMS is concerned, it uses file based databases, so users can save those on their local machine, network or they can use another one of Bentley's products, Projectwise, to manage those database files. The backup procedure would be different depending on the actual situation, but the simplest scenario to describe here is if users saved WaterGEMS databases on a network location; then IT just needs to back up that file server.

    I hope this is at least of some help.

    Regards,
    Wayne.



Children
  • First of all, thank you very much, Wayne and Jesse in this case. Your clarification is very straightforward and open. My questions were quite short as I didnt know how to explain my situation.

    1 - According to your answer and Jesse's, I finally got the right answer.

    2,3,4 - Based on the high availability solution, my customers require me to have a solution to be able to backup/restore their databases of WaterGEMS as well as ArcGIS/ArcMap, ... I know WaterGEMS and ArcMap are both laptop applications and their DBs will be saved on their own one. But if they decide to store their DBs on remote servers, so would be the DB of WaterGEMS and DB of ArcGIS stored on the same host or different hosts? Then how do they connect to each other?

    Moreover, I am not professional but used to backing up DBs on servers. I just don't know if there is any way to backup/restore data on laptops/ PCs in schedule? Daily?

    Thanks Jesse for your solution. I will discuss with the GIS team to deep further with your reference.

  • Re: >> I just don't know if there is any way to backup/restore data on laptops/ PCs in schedule? Daily? <<

    There are multiple different possibilities here as far as I know. It's a major topic of debate on the internet and if you search the web you will probably find many and varied opinions on the matter. As I mentioned before, I am not in IT so my opinion is not as valid as someone who works in the area, but I have tried a few different solutions in the past and found the offerings by a company called StorageCraft as quite robust and user friendly. I use their ShadowProtect Desktop product to back up multiple home desktops in a fully automated fashion on a regular schedule. Schedule options can be as course as a full backup once a week, right down to incremental backups every 15 minutes say. Compared to other offerings out there I have found StorageCraft to be more focused on the core features that make for a good backup experience, and less concerned about bells and whistles for the mass market. I'll mention that this is just my own personal experience and certainly not an official endorsement by Bentley. I also have no affiliation with StorageCraft. I would recommend that you familiarize yourself with other possible products before committing to anything. A lot of products tend to offer trial versions, which is how I was able to test StorageCraft's products and determine that it was a good fit for what I wanted for my own environment.

    I wish you good luck with your search!