Installation Questionnaire

Revised January 2020

Synergetic Installation Questionnaire 1

Contents

Synergetic Server Platform.....................................................................3

Email .........................................................................................................4
Database Role ........................................................................................5
Application Role......................................................................................6
Web Role..................................................................................................7
Remote Access .......................................................................................8
Automated Upgrades ............................................................................9

Synergetic Installation Questionnaire 2

Synergetic Server Platform

Synergetic requires three distinct server roles to provide the platform to run the
applications. These server roles can be serviced individually by separate servers
(Database, Application & Web) or combined (Database + Application, Database +
Web, Application + Web, Database + Application + Web). The server roles provide
for security, scalability, high availability and disaster recovery.

Please use a separate installation questionnaire for each separate server.

Server Name
IP Address
Synergetic Server Roles Database Application Web

Synergetic supports Windows Server 2016 & 2019 and requires dotNET 3.5 & 4.8
installed.

Synergetic staff will need to remotely connect to the server to initially perform the
installation and later for support. Please provide a domain username (ie:
‘domain\synadmin’) and password. The user will need to be a local administrator of
the server and will need remote access permissions.

Synergetic staff username

Synergetic staff password

Synergetic Installation Questionnaire 3

Email

Synergetic uses email as the one of the communication methods. Outbound email
will be generated and securely submitted to an email service installed on the
Application server role, before forwarding to your email server. Synergetic fully
supports on-premise Exchange as well as external hosted email services such as
Office 365 and Gmail.

Please provide your email server details. If your email server requires encryption or
authentication, please provide the details otherwise these options can be left blank.

Email server name

Email port
TLS encryption
Authentication Username
Authentication Password
Email address to receive server alerts

If authentication is required, please ensure the username has permissions to send

email on behalf of other users.
The email address to receive server alerts is typically either your System Administrator
or IT Helpdesk.

Synergetic Installation Questionnaire 4

Database Role

The database role hosts the SQL Server instance where the Synergetic databases
are held. This role heavily utilises processor, memory and disk I/O and would benefit
from additional resources being allocated.

SQL Server will be installed on the server as part of the installation process. If SQL
Server is already installed, the process will install an additional SQL instance
dedicated for use with Synergetic.
Synergetic supports SQL Server 2016 & 2017. The client is responsible for providing a
licensed copy of SQL Server and making this available for the installation either as a
disc mounted in the server or as an ISO image copied to the server.

SQL Server version to install 2016 2017

SQL Server installation media location
User databases drive
User transaction logs drive
TempDB database drive
Database backups location
SQL Server service account username
SQL Server service account password
Application server name

It is recommended for the user databases, transaction logs, tempdb to be located

on separate drives for performance and reliability. It is also recommended that
backups are located on a network share hosted on a separate server.
SQL Server can use a service account to run as. It is recommended to use a domain
account for this purpose; this account does not need any special privileges.

Services within the database role need to communicate with services within the
application role. If the application role is hosted on a different server to the
database role, please list the Application server name.

Synergetic Installation Questionnaire 5

Application Role

The application role hosts the Synergetic Windows application, network share,
Synergetic Service Suite and SMTP service

Database server name

Synergetic application location
Synergetic Service Suite drive

Services within the application role need to communicate with services within the
database role. If the database role is hosted on a different server to the application
role, please list the Database server name.

The Synergetic application location is a network shared folder accessible by users

that need to run the Synergetic Windows application. This is typically ‘C:\Synergetic’,
but could exist in a structured shared network resource such as
‘D:\APPS\Synergetic’. The network share in either case will be
‘\\ApplicationSever\Synergetic$’

The Synergetic Service Suite is a collection of specialised automation services and

includes Crystal Reports Scheduler, DocMan service, VSN service (required for
Victorian schools) and the Notifications service. The suite is typically installed on the
‘C:’ drive.

Synergetic Installation Questionnaire 6

Web Role

The web role hosts the Synergetic web portals - SynWeb, Community Portal,
Synergetic Core API and Web Services.

Database server name

Web applications drive
Certificate location
Default URL (or below)
SynWeb URL
Community Portal URL
SynergeticCore URL

Services within the web role need to communicate with services within the database
role. If the database role is hosted on a different server to the web role, please list
the Database server name.

The web applications are typically installed on the ‘C:’ drive.

The web applications are required to use HTTPS and will require a public SSL
certificate. Please copy the certificate in ‘PFX’ format to the certificate location and
supply the password to access the certificate. The certificate will be imported in to
the server as part of the web role installation process.

Typically, the web applications each have a separate URL. Ie:

https://synweb.school.vic.edu.au, https://portal.school.vic.edu.au &
https://synergeticcore.vic.edu.au

Alternatively, the web applications can be hosted under a single ‘default’ URL. Ie:
https://synergetic.school.vic.edu/synweb,
https://synergetic.school.vic.edu.au/synergeticcommunityportal &
https://synergetic.school.vic.edu.au/synergeticcore

Please enter the URLs you would like to use. If you would like to just use the ‘default’
single URL style provide this, otherwise provide the three separate URLs. Please note
your IT team will need to create DNS records for these URLs mapping to the IP
address of the server.

The 'SynergeticCore’ is the backend API system which is used internally by the web
applications. The ‘SynergeticCore’ URL is visible externally when accessing published
forms and may benefit from a ‘friendly’ URL such as
‘https://forms.school.vic.edu.au’.

Synergetic Installation Questionnaire 7

Remote Access

Server and product installations as well as support is provided via remote access.
Synergetic uses a remote access system based on Screen Connect. The system is
installed locally on our server network and provides quick, reliable and secure
access to client servers as well as workstations.

During the server installation, Synergetic staff will install a small application on the
server. The application will connect to our remote access server and provide a link
which will allow Synergetic staff to connect. The server connection sends a tiny
‘keep alive’ packet every minute or so when not in use.

Security

• All communications are sent directly between client servers and our remote
access server. Data is never delivered through third party routers or servers.
• All sessions are encrypted with 256 bit AES encryption.
• Uses standard HTTPS connections. No additional ports need to be opened.
• Provides direct remote access to servers hosting Synergetic. No need to open
access to your entire network unlike VPN.
• Access to the servers can be further controlled by disabling and enabling the
‘synergetic staff’ account.
• Remote access service can be completely disabled via scripts requiring
Synergetic staff to contact your IT staff to enable before accessing the server.

Installation options

We understand the different needs of clients and offer different installation options
for Screen Connect.

1. Screen Connect is installed directly on to the servers where Synergetic is

installed. Synergetic staff would have immediate access.
2. Screen Connect is installed directly on to the servers where Synergetic is
installed and the service is disabled by default. Synergetic staff would need to
contact the client to request the service to be enabled before access. Scripts
can be provided to enable and disable the service.
3. Screen Connect is only installed on a 'jump' server. Synergetic staff would
need to log in to this server first and then use regular Remote Desktop to
access the servers where Synergetic is installed.
The majority of clients opt to use the first installation method.

* Some firewalls may need additional configuration to pass through. Remote access
needs outgoing ports 80 & 443 opened to 203.29.67.211 ‘connect.synergetic.net.au’.
Firewall ‘deep packet inspection’ may also interfere with connections and
recommend whitelisting ‘connect.synergetic.net.au’.

Synergetic Installation Questionnaire 8

Automated Upgrades

Synergetic products are upgraded via an automated process based on Octopus

Deploy.

During the server installation, Synergetic staff will install a small application on the
server. The application will connect to our deployment server and provide remote
upgrade facilities.

Automated upgrades provide:

• Reduced development to implementation time frame – faster release of bug

fixes and new features.
• Reduce the number of different builds in production – significantly improves
help desk response times as less ‘known and fixed’ bugs will be reported.
• Improved notifications on new releases.
• Scripted automatic deployments using Powershell and configuration files –
reduced upgrade maintenance windows required.
• Distribution of upgrades via Octopus Deploy – automatic download of the
required software suite files.
• Flexibility for clients to schedule and trigger their own upgrades out of hours
with assisted rollback on failure.
Further information can be found in the Synergetic User Hub.

https://wiki.synergetic.net.au/display/PUB/Automated+deployment+-
+Octopus+Deploy

* Some firewalls may need additional configuration to pass through. The server
needs outgoing ports 80 & 443 opened to 203.29.67.220 ‘deploy.synergetic.net.au’.
Firewall ‘deep packet inspection’ may also interfere with connections and will need
to allow ‘wss’ protocol over port 443 or alternatively whitelisting
‘deploy.synergetic.net.au’.

Synergetic Installation Questionnaire 9