ICT Infrastructure

The DMS system designed and implemented based on the client-server software architecture it requires the following hardware:

  1. Server Computer/machine

In a technical sense, a server is a software program, or the computer on which that program runs, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on the same computer or other computers on a network.  The client-server model is an architecture that divides processing between clients and servers that can run on the same machine or on different machines on the same network. It is a major element of modern operating system and network design.

The client provides the user interface, such as a GUI (graphical user interface), and performs some or all of the processing on requests it makes from the server, which maintains the data and processes the requests.

The dedicated machine that runs the server software is known as the Server Computer, and it has higher capacity and performance than the client computers.

The capacity or performance of the server computer mainly depends on the number of concurrent clients/users access to the server and the type of server applications that runs in it.

The DMS solution runs the following server applications

  • Web server – is a server software that can satisfy World Wide Web client requests. It stores files related to web sites and serves (i.e., sends) them across the Internet to clients (i.e., web browsers) when requested by a user over HTTP and several other related protocols. The most popular web servers are Apache, Tomcat  and the Microsoft licensed webserver  IIS
  • Database server – is a computer software that provides other computers with services related to accessing and retrieving data from a database. The most common database server management engines are MySQL, Postgre, Oracle and MS-SQL
  • DMS Application server – An application server runs applications for clients, usually contains the GUIs of the system
  • File server- is software that is dedicated to storing files and making them accessible for reading and writing to clients (i.e., users) across a network

Separate dedicated server computers can be assigned for the above server application of the DMS solution in a LAN, however in most cases these are installed and configured in a single server computer with high capacity and performance and minimizes the cost of investment and management of the server computers.

For instance if there are 5000 users/staffs in a bureau that are expected to access the server for DMS usage at the same time, the RAM (Random Access Memory) of the single dedicated server should be 32GB or more and number of CPU should be 8 or more. Acceptable technical specification of the server computer is attached in the annex below.

As the DMS solution becomes operational within the bureau and across the bureau online via internet, the bureau should plan to acquire additional server computer that can be used as redundant server for reliability of the solution and can be used also as backup server for the documents and files stored in the primary server

 

  1. Server Accessories

The server computer needs the following software and accessories for proper functioning with in the bureau. This document also considers for those bureaus that do not have standard Data Center or Server Room

Server operating System  – also called a server OS, is an operating system specifically designed to run on servers, which are specialized computers that operate within a client/server architecture to serve the requests of client computers on the network. The DMS solution can run on Microsoft server operating systems (MS- Windows Server 2016 OS) or it can run also with the open source operating systems such as Ubuntu because the solution in implemented suing the open source technologies and tools, shown in the next section.

Antivirus software- Symantec (Norton) or Kaspersky or any antivirus software that has server based solution

Server Rack- a fully enclosed, secure server cabinets range in size from 20 U to 42U server rack, which has air ventilator for the server computer

Dedicated Server Room – A server room is a room, usually air-conditioned, devoted to the continuous operation of computer servers. An entire building or station devoted to this purpose is a data center

UPS – Rack mountable power UPS ranges from 10k watt depending the IT devices attached to the UPS.

Power Divider – for sharing the electric power among devices

 Network infrastructure Requirement

The DMS solution is a web based system that requires network infrastructure with in the bureau. The bureau should have a local area network (LAN) with in the office. The LAN connects the DMS server, the client computers with in the bureau and other network devices (switches, routers, Internet modems). The internet modem connects the office LAN to the internet cloud so that clients outside the bureau can access and use the system.

The bureau should have a broadband internet subscription for the internet service provider (ISP). The bandwidth or speed of the internet should be 8MB or above depending on the number staffs in the bureau.

The bureau should get a public IP address from the ISP in order to access the DMS solution via internet.

The following figure shows sample network infrastructure of any given bureau.

Sample DMS Infrastructure shown in the left image. Such infrastructure maintained in the five targeted government bureaus working on irrigation. These are SSID federal, Tigray Bureau of Water, Amhara Bureau of Agriculture, Oromia Bureau of Agriculture and SNNP Irrigation Scheme Development Administration Agency (ISDAA).