What hardware/software do I need for my server and workstations?

Backstage is a web-based application (think other web application such as Gmail). The system is installed on a web server and the users can access the system with a web browser.

Server Requirement for up to 200 staffs

• OS: Windows Server 2012 R2 or above (with CALs for your organization); Windows 7/8/10 also works for non-critical installation.
• CPU: 2 Cores (minimum), 4 or more Cores (recommended)
• Memory: 4GB (minimum), 8GB or above (recommended)
• Disk drives: 10GB for the system itself and 10GB for database storage. More is required for file sharing and database backup. SSD is recommended for better performance.
  • To make better estimate of your disk requirement, consider a typical scenario where Personal Profile, Attendance, ESS (Leave Application), and Payroll are used.
    • The hard disk usage per person-year ranges from 0.6MB to 1.2MB. Safe to say a 3MB per person-year provides enough margin of safety.
    • Staffs may submit attachment during leave application. The attachment shows larger variation due to organization habits. The usage ranges from 0.2MB to 4MB per person-year. We would say 10MB per person-year gives certain margin of safety.
    • Combining the above, the hard disk requirement person-year is 13MB. We can round it up to 15MB for easy calculation.
    • For company with 200 employees, please expect 3GB requirement per year. The above suggestions of 20GB will give ~6-7 years of usage.
    • As computer servers nowadays provide much larger storage than 20GB, we would say a 100GB harddisk net of system files will leave you with little storage problem.
• Database Server: Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Express or above, with Management Studio
  There is a size limitation of 10GB per database in Microsoft SQL Server Express version. We will check with you on your usage and suggest upgrade to Standard or Enterprise version if necessary (extra license cost will incur).

System Requirement for more than 200 staffs

CPU and Memory have direct impact on server performance.

• CPU: 4 Cores (minimum)
• Memory: 8GB or above

Workstation Requirement

• Supported browsers:
  • Chrome: latest stable version
  • Firefox: latest stable version
  • Internet Explorer, version 11 or above
  • Edge: latest stable version
• Internet (or intranet) connection to the web server
• Microsoft Excel (2007 or above) and Pdf reader are required to open reports created by the system