Planning the K2 Environment
K2 provides the platform that enables developers and business users to assemble dynamic business applications from reusable items. To meet the needs of multiple industries and situations, K2 is built on the Microsoft platform and gives customers and partners the ability to work together and build applications in a familiar environment.
This section describes the various deployment scenarios of the K2 blackpearl software and discusses how to choose the scenario that best fits an organization’s needs. This information will help the IT Administrator to identify the various K2 components and to familiarize themselves with installation and architectural requirements of K2 blackpearl. Along with understanding the various K2 components, it is important that the person performing the installation knows the organization's existing network and architecture.
K2 blackpearl allows for a flexible installation configuration based on an organization’s needs. This section introduces eleven installation configurations. Scaling from a single server up to a large server farm, K2 blackpearl can be tuned for any architecture requirement. Because this flexibility introduces complexity, the architect of a K2 blackpearl solution should understand some basic concepts, such as Kerberos, NLB, IIS, Domain Configuration and SQL Server best practices.
Planning the Tiers
In order to plan your K2 environment, there are several tiers that need to be designed. In order to plan an effective environment with room for growth, the following sections will help you determine your needs per tier:
| K2 blackpearl Tiers | |
|---|---|
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K2 Server Tier The K2 Server can be scaled out onto multiple servers to allow for redundancy and high availability. |
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Web Tier The K2 Workspace can be scaled out onto multiple servers to allow for redundancy and high availability. |
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Database Tier Scaling out the K2 databases onto multiple clustered servers, or scaling out specific K2 databases onto different servers can increase performance. |
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Client Tier Understanding the client tools and how to best share data and processes is part of planning the client tier. |
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Development, Testing, Staging, and Production Environments Best practice in application design dictates more than one environment to be used for development and testing. |
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Internationalization / Worldwide English
K2 blackpearl provides full support for Worldwide English, and was also tested for Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, German and French. This allows K2 blackpearl to run in English on non-English platforms. Support for non-English platforms includes the following components:
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For all items listed below, clarify versioning using the prerequisites section and the compatibility matrix. |
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Microsoft Technology |
English (Worldwide) |
Chinese (Traditional & Simplified) |
German |
French |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows Server 2008 R2 | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| SQL Server 2012 | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| SharePoint 2010 (Foundation) | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Visual Studio 2012 & 2013 | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Internet Explorer | yes | yes | yes | yes |
Localization
K2 currently ships the K2 products in English (United States) and does not support localization.
There is one K2 component namely the worklist web part that is open source and the UI can be translated if required. The code is available on blackmarket on K2 Underground.
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Note: Once modified, the Web Part becomes custom code and is no longer supported. |
K2 Requirements
There are several hardware and software requirements regardless of the deployment scenario you choose. These are detailed in the following sections under the Prerequisites topic:
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While infrastructure changes are required by K2, each environment is different and has its peculiarities which must be taken into account. Modifying the infrastructure could have unforeseen results if the changes are not appropriately understood or managed. Given the broad spectrum of underlying infrastructure utilized, it is recommended that a panel or committee with appropriate skill in each area concerned be assembled to outline the underlying infrastructure changes and gauge the impact of the required changes. |
