Installation
Software prerequisites
SQL Server versions
It is recommended that Raedfast run on SQL Server 2016 or later, and on the Enterprise Edition rather than the Standard Edition.
Raedfast will run on SQL Server 2014, and on Standard Edition, with some loss of functionality. Specifically:
Raedfast uses SQL Server Partitions to speed up model processing time. Use of SQL Server Partitions requires at least 2014 Enterprise, or 2016 Standard.
Raedfast automatically maintains a linked Analysis Services database, to facilitate instant pivot-table access to model output. This interface requires 2016 or later.
Raedfast uses Analysis Services Partitions to speed up the automated write-out of model data to Analysis Services at the end of model processing. Use of Analysis Services Partitions requires the Enterprise Edition.
These functions are not critical to the operation of Raedfast, but they are important and we strongly recommend that you run with 2016 Enterprise or later.
It may be possible to run the system on versions of SQL Server earlier than 2014, but this has not been tested.
Analysis Services Tabular
Analysis Services Tabular (not Multidimensional), version 2016 or later must be installed if (as is strongly recommended) you wish to use the automated integration of Raedfast with Analysis Services.
Client software
The Raedfast front-end has been tested on versions of Windows from Windows 7 onwards.
The system may run on earlier versions of Windows, but this has not been tested.
The client computer requires that Dot Net 4.5 or later be installed.
Excel versions
The Raedfast Excel add-in has been tested on versions of Excel from 2016 onwards.
It may be possible to use the add-in with earlier versions of Excel, but this has not been tested.
Hardware prerequisites
Usage profile
Use of Raedfast typically involves light use by a single user as modelling assumptions are entered into the system, punctuated by intense periods of data processing when the Model (or some subset of the Model) is reprocessed.
Client requirements
Memory, processor and disk space requirements of the client are minimal, as all data storage and data processing is handled on the client.
Server requirements
Server memory
The more of the Model that can fit into memory the better. And the Analysis Services database must be entirely memory resident.
The amount of memory required will vary with the size of the model, and the size of the model itself is highly variable, depending on the volume of input data, the number of steps in the model, the number of forward years calculated, the number of scenarios created, and the extent of the use of sub-pods.
It is not therefore possible to state a definitive memory requirement, absent further information about the specific project.
A sensible default minimum however would be 32GB of RAM. It is recommended that the disk on which the database resides should be a flash or solid state drive. If not, minimum RAM allocation should be increased to 64 GB.
Server clock speed
Model processing will run faster with a faster chip. 3.8GHz processor speed should be regarded as a minimum.
The system will benefit more from higher clock speeds, than from multiple cores.
Server disk space
Disk space requirements may be divided into three:
database space
log space
backup space
Database space
As with memory, disk space requirements for the database are dependent on the scope of the model developed by a given project. The more baseline data, the more model steps, the more years, the more scenarios, the more sub-pods, the greater the disk space requirement. So once again a precise estimate cannot be given in the abstract, but as a rule of thumb 10-20 GB should be sufficient for a fairly large Raedfast model.
To this you may wish to add space for a training database — presumably smaller, perhaps 1 or 2 GB.
You may also wish at some point to copy your live database and hold it as an archive, to prevent changes being made to published models. The copy is likely to hold only those scenarios from the live database which were agreed to be final and published as such. So the archive may be smaller than the live — perhaps 5-10 GB.
So a rule-of-thumb might suggest a typical initial disk space requirement of 30-60GB.
Log space
We recommend that the SQL Server database runs in Simple logging mode, so that only the current transaction is logged. Please refer to Logging and backups in the Security section for the rationale for this.
Assuming Simple logging is used, the SQL Server log file should not require much space, and only a few GB need be set aside for it.
Backup space
A database backup typically takes the same space as the database backed up, so the disk space required for backups is a function of the original database size and the number of backups held before deletion.
Assuming then a database size of 15 GB, and daily backups kept for 5 working days, you would need 75 GB of disk space for backups.
Installing Raedfast
The Raedfast installation files are contained in a folder called InstallationFiles.
Raedfast support will tell you where to find this folder, so that you can download it onto your network.
Within this folder are three subfolders:
The SQL Server folder contains a back-up of the Raedfast SQL Server database.
The Front End folder contains the front-end Windows application
The Excel Add-In folder contains the Excel add-in, for loading data via Excel.
SQL Server database
The SQL Server database is supplied as a SQL Server backup file called raedfastV30.bak (or raedfastV31.bak etc depending on the version of Raedfast installed).
By default, the backup database version is SQL Server 2017. This will restore to a SQL Server of version 2017 or later. If you require a backup in an earlier version of SQL Server, please contact Raedfast support.
Restore the backup file onto your chosen SQL Server instance to install the database.
Generating system messages
When you have restored the Sql Server database, run the following command to install Raedfast system messages on the server:
exec rb.UtilityCreateSysMessages
The messages generated are in the range 5000001 - 5000999, so you should ensure that the message numbers do not conflict with messages defined by other applications on the same server.
Analysis Services database
The Raedfast Analysis Services database is not supplied directly, but auto-generated from the SQL Server database.
Installation of a SQL Server Analysis Services Tabular instance is a prerequisite.
To create the Analysis Services database, execute the following three steps in SQL Server Management Studio:
Linked server
To set up the linked server which SQL Server will use to communicate with Analysis Services, execute the following command:
exec rb.AsLinkedServerCreate
This will create a Linked Server called RuleBaseSSAS. This server name is referenced in Raedfast SQL Server stored procedures, and should not be changed.
Login for the Service Account
The Raedfast Analysis Services database will load data from the Raedfast SQL Server database. To do this it needs to log on to the Sql Server database, and it needs read permissions over the Raedfast Sql Server data.
When Analysis Services is installed you will specify a Service Account which is the account with which Analysis Services will go to Sql Server. This account needs to be set up in SQL Server as a Sql Server login and user, and should be given membership of the db_datareader Sql Server built-in role.
If you have accepted the default service account on installation (NT SERVICE\MSSQLServerOLAPService), you can set up the service account in Sql Server by executing the following commands:
use <your Raedfast database name>
exec rb.AsCreateServiceAccountLogin
If you have chosen a different service account name then you will need to carry out these steps manually.
Analysis Services database
To create the Analysis Services database, execute the following commands:
use <your Raedfast database name>
exec rb.AsBuildDatabase
Procedure rb.AsBuildDatabase creates an Analysis Services database on the Linked Server with the same name as the current SQL Server database.
The procedure creates the Analysis Services database, and also sets up users and roles. See Analysis Services users in section Security for more details.
(Note that the first time the procedure is run, there will be no existing Analysis Services database of that name. The procedure begins by deleting the existing database, and since this does not exist an error message is generated. You can ignore this message.)
Front-end application
To install the modelling front-end, copy the files in the Front End folder into a folder on your network accessible to prospective end-users of the system.
There is no further installation step.
The executable is rulebase30.exe. This can be run from the folder, or placed on the Task Bar, or referenced by a Shortcut on the Desktop.
The first time you run the executable, a message will appear stating that a connection to the Raedfast database has not been established. You will then see the login screen, into which you can enter the name of the server to which you wish to connect, and the name of the Raedfast database.
Excel add-in
Installing the Excel add-in
On each relevant end-user PC, run Setup.exe to install the add-in.
The add-in should then appear in the Add-Ins ribbon in Excel.
Licence key
The Raedfast SQL Server database will normally be supplied with your licence data already installed, so there is nothing further to do.
Refer to the Licence Key section for details of how to enter or change these details.
Setting up users
Please see SQL Server users and roles in the Security section for details of how to set up Raedfast users.