Title: Requirements, Specifications, Dos
1APTC Best Practices
- Requirements, Specifications, Dos Don'ts
January 2008
2Introduction
The APTC Site installation, as such, is quite
simple. However, it requires some precautions to
avoid unnecessary actions afterwards, as well as
lengthy calls to the HD. If the basics are
diligently covered, the full APTC Site setup
requires no longer than a couple of hours. The
following slides will cover the overall process
and will focus on the most time-saving
items. Its important to inform the Sites about
all possible tips tricks to get them to the
Status 10 mark with the less possible effort
and waste of time.
3Requirements (Server)
- IBM PC or compatible
- Pentium III, 1 GHz CPU or faster
- 512 MB RAM or more (strongly advised)
- Min. 4 GB available free space on the HDD after
install (8 GB advised) - Monitor
- CD-ROM (min. 8x speed)
- Network Interface Card (100 Mbit full-duplex)
- Windows 2000 (Advanced) Server (sp4) or Windows
2003 (Standard Edition) Server (sp2). Novell
Netware (5 or 6) is not supported for new sites.
Old sites using it, are invited to migrate
a.s.a.p. - Internet Explorer 6.0 or 7.0
- Fast Ethernet 100Mbit/s Local Area Network
- Internet connection
- Virus detection software
4Requirements (Clients) Level 3 Machines
- IBM PC or compatible
- Pentium III, 1 GHz CPU or faster
- 512 MB (unshared) RAM or more
- Min. 4 GB available free space on the HDD after
install - SVGA 17 inch Monitor
- Video card capable of 1024x768 _at_ 32-bit color
resolutions - CD-ROM (min. 8x speed)
- Microsoft compatible keyboard and mouse
- Network Interface Card (100 Mbit full-duplex)
- Windows 2000 Professional (sp4) or Windows XP
Professional (sp2) - Internet Explorer 6.0 or 7.0
- Fast Ethernet 100Mbit/s Local Area Network
- Internet connection
- Virus detection software
5Requirements (Printer)
- The printer must be dedicated
- Ink-jet printers are NOT supported
- Laser-jet, must be capable of a minimum
resolution of at least 600 dpi - The printer must be installed on the server (or
Admin station) as Network printer and shared on
the network - Install the printer on ALL machines used for APTC
- The installed printer must be the Default one on
ALL machines - USB printers are supported, but their set-up as
Network Printer can pose some serious challenges.
LPT or IP printers are preferred - Virtual printers or print to file printers are
NOT supported - Avoid the use of a printer server
- Do NOT use printers that are connected to another
server or Domain Controller than the APTC server
6Best Practices for the Network Preparation
- The APTC Network requires a Domain topology
- Workgroups are NOT supported
- The APTC Domain must be a separated Domain (no
Sub-Domain, Child-Domain, Shadow-Domain or any
other equivalent is supported) - The APTC server must be the (P)DC of a separate
Domain - All APTC clients must be joined to the APTC
Domain - Install MDAC 2.8 preferably before starting any
APTC software installation - Install MSXML 4.0 (sp2) parser preferably before
starting any APTC software installation - To ensure correct Pulse/Polaris communications,
the ports 443, 11001, and 11002 must be open
bi-directionally for all traffic (IP/UDP) - (continued)
7Best Practices for the Network Preparation
(continued)
- If the Site uses a firewall/proxy for their
internet connections, bypass the Proxy for the
following URLs - www.2test.com
- www.polaris.prometric.com
- www.pulse.prometric.com
- Do not filter files (firewall/proxy) based on
size, name, extension, etc. - Even though the use of a separate Admin
workstation is technically not necessary, it is
strongly advised to use one. This has become a
requirement for new installed Sites starting Q3
2007
8APTC Site (schematic)
9Installation Workflow
Sites without Admin Workstation. Support stopped
in Q3 2007
Sites with Admin Workstation.
10Dos Don'ts
- Install the Server as (P)DC and follow the
instructions there will be no need to
create/configure any users (DTS2, DTSISO) - Use unmanaged switches for your APTC network.
They offer good speed and low maintenance. Do not
clog the (APTC) network with unnecessary hardware
and software - Whenever possible, do not share Internet
resources with the rest of the Company, unless
you have lots of bandwidth to waste - Dont use Virtual Machine software. Its not
supported - Dont run Pulse/Polaris using a remote
connection. It will eventually corrupt the
installation and it is furthermore not supported.
Set up a separate Admin workstation instead. - Log on to the APTC server always using the
(Domain) Administrator account. - Install the APTC software on the server always
using the (Domain) Administrator account
11Dos Don'ts
- Install the APTC software on the clients (Admin
Seats) using always the DTS2 (Domain) account - Log on to the clients (Admin Seats) using
always the DTS2 (Domain) account - Avoid using Pulse and Polaris at the same time.
They share the same database and one application
may lock its access for the other one - Do not install/run Pulse and Polaris on different
machines. Use the Admin workstation only - Ensure the Server and Admin workstation are left
ON overnight to allow Pulse automated tasks to
run. The Seats can be switched OFF overnight - Remember to reboot the APTC server at least once
a week - Remember to have all the APTC machines with
Regional Options set to English US - Ensure that the short date format is always
MM/dd/yyyy on all APTC machines
12Dos Don'ts
- All machines used for APTC testing must be
dedicated. The server and Seats should not have
any other software installed than the OS APTC
and the anti-virus software and should be solely
used for the Prometric Testing System - The Admin workstation, though preferably
dedicated, can be also used for other purposes,
as long as all other APTC requirements for
install are still met - Avoid the use of special characters in all APTC
activities (Sites address, candidates profiles,
etc.). This caused more than 5000 calls to the HD
in the last 1.5 year - Wireless LAN is not supported
- VirtualLAN (aka V-LAN) is not supported
- Never run the TCM (Seat software) on the server.
Its a security breach and will make the APTC
server become unusable (files auto-deletion)
13Final Advise
Ancient Confucian truth KEEP IT SIMPLE AND IT
WILL WORK