How to install Pronestor Planner on your own on-premise server

Table of contents

• Requirements
• Preparing the server
• Install Planner
• Insert settings
• Create the application pool
• Create the site
• Connect to the SQL database
• Logging in for the first time

Requirements

IMPORTANT - Access to https://license.pronestor.com from the installation server is required. This is required for validating the license. Failing to do this will result in a server error.

Please note: the recommendation below should be read as minimum requirements and should be scaled up for larger setups. 

Server - software:

Microsoft server 2012* or newer

• Internet Information Service 7.0 or newer
• Microsoft .net 4.8 framework or newer
• ASP.NET framework 4.8
• Message Queuing Service (if connected to Exchange)
  * Extended support for Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2 will end on October 10, 2023

Dependencies:

• Microsoft SQL 2016 or newer
• Microsoft Exchange 2016 CU3 or newer
• SMTP sending permissions
• It is recommended that the Planner is on a dedicated server and that the SQL server is a separate server from the application server.

Server - Hardware

• CPU min. 2.5GHZ (min. 4 CPU cores)
• Min. 4 GB RAM (+10MB/per concurrent user)
• Min 500 MB disk space for application files
• Min 250 MB disk space for database files

The recommendation is only for the Sign In Workspace software (formerly Pronestor), thus not including CPU/memory for OS and Windows Services. Please follow Microsoft's recommendation on this.

We strongly recommend that you establish two environments, one for testing and one for production. When upgrading on premise installations, the test environment will be used for validating the upgrade process as well as for testing the installation and become familiar with new or changed features.

Preparing the server

If the server is new, you need to install the required dependencies.

• Open the "Server Manager"
  
  
• Click "Manage"
• Click "Add Roles and Features"
• Click next until you reach "Server Roles"
• Under "Web server (IIS)" ->"Web Server" -> "Application Development"
• Make sure that these are ticket on:
  • .NET Extensibility 4.7
  • ASP.NET 4.7
• Click "Next"
• Click "Install" (if they were already ticket on, press cancel instead)

Afterwards

We need to install the .NET framework 4.8 separately, the installation file can be downloaded from Microsoft site:

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet-framework/net48 

When the installation is finish try to run the .EXE file again then you should get this message that 4.8 have been installed.

Then restart the computer/server

Install Planner

• Open the “File Explorer”
• Create a folder named “Pronestor” in “c:\inetpub\wwwroot”
• Create an “install” folder in “c:\inetpub\wwwroot\pronestor”
• Download the installation files from https://downloads.pronestor.com/
• Extract the content of zip files to the installation folder “c:\inetpub\wwwroot\pronestor\install”
• Copy the license key, which is a file named "Pronestor.lic" to “pronestor\install\license” (The license will be supplied by Pronestor or the Partner you bought Pronestor from.)
• Find your Command Promt. Right-click on the icon and choose "Run as administrator"
• In your Command Promt type in "cd c:\inetpub\wwwroot\pronestor\install"
• Type in "run FULL_INSTALL.bat" If "run FULL_INSTALL.bat" fails, type in "FULL_INSTALL.bat" instead
  

Insert settings

• Find out what your URL is called. If your servername is serv2325, and you followed this guide, the URL would be http://serv2325/pronestor. Make sure to use your own servername.
• Open “c:\inetpub\wwwroot\pronestor\Configurations\appSettings.config” in notepad or a similar program
• After <appSettings> insert the line

  <add key="SiteUrl" value="http://servername/pronestor"/>

• Remember to use your own URL in this line!
• Pick a default language.
• Supported languages:
  da-DK (Danish): Data localized in Danish. Creates a location named "København" (in correct time zone). Currency symbol: 'kr'.
  en-GB (British English): Data localized in English. Creates a location named “London” (in correct time zone). Currency symbol: '£'.
  en-AU (Australian English): Data localized in English. Creates a location named “Sydney” (in correct time zone). Currency symbol: '$'.
  en-US (American English): Data localized in English. Creates a location named “New York” (in correct time zone). Currency symbol: '$'.
• Update this line with your preferred language and copy it in after <appSettings>

  <add key="SeedCulture" value="en-GB"/>

• Save the file

Create application pool

• Go to "IIS"
• In the left menu, right-click “Application Pool”
  
• Click “Add Application Pool…”
• Name the application pool “Pronestor pool”

  

• Pick “Integrated mode” in Managed pipeline mode
• Pick .NET 4.0 in Framework version
• Click OK to save and continue

Note – SQL Express
If you are using a Microsoft SQL Express, please configure the app pool with:

1. Right-click the “Pronestor pool”
2. Choose Advanced Settings
3. Load User Profile = True

Note – application pool recycle

We recommend that you set the application pool to recycle once a day, outside business hours. After the recycle, the site will hibernate until the first user of the day logs in and access the site. Scheduled reports won't be sent during the hibernation, so ensure they are set to send before the application pool recycling.

Create the site

• Go to "IIS"
• Expand Default Website on the left side menu
• Right-click Pronestor and click “Convert to Application…”
• Set Application pool to “Pronestor Pool” 
• Click OK button

Note – Enabling Single-Sign-on
If you do not allow the application to create and populate the database itself – please see section
5.4 Enabling single-sign-login (Windows Authentication – IIS 7)

Connect to the SQL database

• Open “c:\inetpub\wwwroot\pronestor\configuration\connectionStrings.config” in notepad or similar program
• You now need to insert information regarding the SQL server, name of database, and the login information of the SQL user login we created in the previous, Link to guide
  

  a. Data Source : name of database server (In this guide referred to as kasper_7-pc\sqlexpress)
  b. Initial Catalog : name of database (In this guide referred to as PronestorDB)
  c. UID: name of SQL login (In this guide referred to as PronestorUser)
  d. PWD: Password for the SQL login

• Edit the 2. Line to contain this information like:
  <add name="dbConnectionString"
  connectionString="Data Source=kasper_7-pc\sqlexpress;
  Initial Catalog=proNestorDB;
  UID=PronestorUser;
  PWD=MySecretPassword"
  providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
• Save the file

Note – SQL Connection string for Windows Authentication
If you require that Windows authentication mode to be used towards the Pronestor database, then you must write this in the connection as well.
Notice – no user and password is to be written in the connection string – only that it is to use “integrated security=True”

<add name="dbConnectionString"
connectionString="Data Source=kasper_7-pc\sqlexpress;
Initial Catalog=proNestorDB;
Integrated Security=True"
providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" >

Logging in for the first time

You can log in with:

• username: admin
• login: 123456

Please remember to change the password.

You can use this administrative user to configure your Pronestor Planner solution and create or import more users.

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