This article summarizes the hardware and operating systems requirements necessary to run 2c8 Modeling Tool, 2c8 Lite, 2c8 Approve, server on-prem at the customer, and to view web publications.

2c8 Modeling Tool and 2c8 Lite

2c8 Modeling Tool and 2c8 Lite are desktop applications. Administrator privileges are required to
install the applications.

2c8 Lite requires 2c8 Server functionality.

The applications are not developed and tested for a terminal server or Citrix environment so
there is no formal support for this type of usage. However, we have a number of customers
using the software on those platforms with satisfying results.

Application resources are downloaded from lic.2c8.com (see ”Network communication” below).

Operating System and hardware requirements

*Only 64-bit versions are supported

Local storage

By default 2c8 Modeling Tool store local repositories in the user profile folder set in the operating system, this can be changed both by the user and set in the application profile when distributing the program. The program assumes exclusive access when working with the local files so any kind of sync software such as Windows sync, Dropbox, OneDrive etc. might affect the function of the program. Do not use the same path for local repositories for different users.

Network Communication for 2c8 Modeling Tool and 2c8 Lite

2c8 Server functionality

In our subscription service, a server hosted by 2c8 is included. The customer may, however, choose to have a server on-prem in their own environment. In this section, you can read about the requirements for a server on-prem.

2c8 Server functionality is installed on a server reachable from the client computers and enables the clients to collaborate in repositories with a maintenance flow and e-mail notifications.

2c8 Server functionality consists of:

1. the Java EE application server Payara running the 2c8 server
application.

2. A database. The clients connect to Payara and Payara connects to the database.

Summary of prerequisites for 2c8 Server functionality on-prem

• Application server
• Database (installed on application server of separate database server)
• SSL certificate
• Mail server (required for 2c8 Approve)

Read more about the requirements for these parts below:

Requirements for application server and database on-prem

Network Communication for 2c8 Server functionality on-prem

SSL Certificate (https)

A certificate needs to be installed on the server to prevent user credentials from being sent unencrypted over the network and in order to use 2c8 Approve. Read more about the requirements for SSL certificate in this article: How do I install an SSL certificate on our 2c8 Server?

If someone outside your network needs to access the server they need to have the certificate installed, if it’s not a certificate signed by a globally trusted CA.

Outgoing mail server

In order to use email notifications and 2c8 Approve an outgoing mail server is required. This outgoing mail server is configured in Payara admin interface on the application server. Read more about the configuration of an outgoing mail server in this article: How do I configure email notifications in 2c8 Apps?

Performance

The server installation is designed to be used by clients on a local network with a highspeed connection. The hardware requirements on the server depend on the number of clients accessing it simultaneously. The recommended starting point for a medium size deployment on a virtual machine is a server 2 CPU cores, 2 GB RAM free/available memory and at least 5GB of free disk space.

In the table below you can see the times needed to perform usual tasks from 2c8 Modeling Tool
at different bandwidth and latency that we have gathered during tests.

Our recommendation for the best user experience is an available bandwidth of 10Mbit or higher and a communication latency below 40ms between client and server. The limit for acceptable
level of user experience we have found during testing seems to be around 2Mbit bandwidth and
200ms latency.
The software will function with slower connections and higher latency but there will be delays and
waiting in some dialogs and when performing different tasks

Web publication

In our subscription service, a web server hosted by 2c8 is included. The customer may, however, choose to have a web server on-prem in their own environment. In this section, you can read about the requirements for a web server on-prem.

The officially supported browsers for viewing published material created with the standard web
profile in 2c8 Modeling Tool, regardless of whether you have a web server on-prem or hosted by 2c8, are the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari. 

For best performance share published material by using a web server such as Microsoft Internet
Information Server (IIS) or Apache with http compression active for html and JavaScript files.
Sharing published material on a file share will result in lower performance for the viewer.

Read more about how to set up a web server in this article: How do I set up a publishing destination?