As with most advanced software platforms, such as Microsoft Index Server, there are system requirements without which the product will not work. Before installing and using Microsoft Index Server, you must ensure that the minimum operating system, hardware platform, and software prerequisites have been met. This chapter addresses those requirements and provides additional information on security and planned disk space requirements.
Microsoft Index Server version 1.1 will only run under a Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 installation. Currently, Windows NT 4.0 is supported under the following hardware platforms:
Find the complete Windows NT 4.0 hardware compatibility at http://www.microsoft.com/isapi/hwtest/hsearchn4.idc.
Before you choose the hardware platform for your Windows NT and Index Server installation, ask yourself a few questions:
Microsoft Index Server can be installed and operated under both the Workstation and Server versions of Windows NT. However, because Windows NT Server is designed for network-server functionality, it is highly recommended over Windows NT Workstation.
By answering the preceding questions and reviewing the performance benchmarks of each platform, you will be able to better select the hardware platform for your installation as well as other key components such as the CPU size, number of CPUs, memory requirements, disk-space needs, and network requirements.
The preceding questions are not the only questions that you should answer. Review the hardware-performance benchmarks provided by each vendor and join some of the many Windows NT newsgroups. These newsgroups are a great resource for information. Some good newsgroups related to Windows NT include microsoft.public.windowsnt, microsoft.public.windowsnt.40beta, and microsoft.public.windowsnt.setup.
If you are planning to purchase a new machine to support your Microsoft Index Server installation, Table 3.1 displays the minimum system requirements for Windows NT Server.
| Component | Intel-based Hardware | RISC-based Hardware |
| CPU | 486/33 or higher, Pentium or Pentium Pro processor | RISC processor compatible with Windows NT Server 4.0 |
| Disk Space | 125MB of available harddisk space | 160MB of available harddisk space |
| Memory | 16MB | 16MB |
| CD-ROM | YES | YES |
| Video Adapter | VGA, Super VGA, or other adapter compatible with Windows NT Server 4.0 | VGA, Super VGA or other compatible with Windows NT Server 4.0 |
Although previous releases of Index Server were supported under beta releases of Windows NT Server 4.0 (prior to NT 4.0 build 1381), it is highly recommended that a production version of Windows NT Server 4.0 (build 1381) be installed prior to installing Microsoft Index Server version 1.1.
Before designing and installing Microsoft Index Server version 1.1, ensure that your site configuration meets all prerequisites for Index Server installation. Although some of the prerequisites may eventually be governed by your site design, check out the minimum requirements for each of the areas that will allow you to successfully install and operate Index Server. These requirements are addressed by topic, starting with Internet Information Server installation, and moving on to current and future disk-space, memory, and security requirements.
Internet Information Server (IIS) version 2.0 is packaged with Windows NT Server 4.0, and is the only version of IIS that operates with NT Server 4.0. Before configuring IIS, your Windows NT Server 4.0 operating system must be configured with TCP/IP, which is built into NT Server 4.0 and can be installed and configured from the Network application inside the Control Panel window.
Although IIS is the preferred Web-server platform for Index Server, the use of Microsoft's Peer Web Services (PWS) on Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0 is an option.
If your Microsoft Index Server implementation will operate within an intranet, the following are required:
If your Microsoft Index Server implementation will operate with access to the Internet, the following are required:
In addition to the minimum disk space required for the operating system, Index Server requires a minimum of between 3MB and 12MB of disk space to install program files. Because Index Server supports several different languages, the amount of disk space may vary. During the Index Server installation you will be prompted for the set of languages to be installed.
To estimate the amount of disk space your site will need to store the document indexes for your data repository, use a factor of 40 percent of the size of the corpus. For example, consider a scenario where a company has an NT Server on the network that is acting as a file server servicing 2GB of data for both intranet and Internet clients. To calculate the amount of disk space consumed by the indexes for the 2GB of disk space, multiply the total document disk space by .40 like so:
2GB X .40 = 800MB
Although the standard Windows NT Server minimum memory requirements are sufficient to support an Index Server installation, additional memory resources will greatly decrease the time required to index and service documents for end-user requests. Table 3.2 displays the minimum and recommended memory configurations for operating Index Server
| System | Minimum Memory Configuration | Recommended Memory Configuration |
| x86 systems with NT Workstation and Peer Web Services | 12MB memory | 32MB memory |
| x86 systems with NT Server and IIS | 16MB memory | 32MB memory |
| RISC-based systems with NT Server and IIS | 16MB memory | 32MB memory |
Depending on the services your NT Server will support, additional memory may be required. For systems with multi-processor support, adding processors along with memory will make indexing and querying much faster.
One of the most overlooked aspects of publishing information on the Internet or on intranet-based networks is access security (file permissions). IIS supports NT File System security in addition to supporting standard HTTP Web-server directory-level and user-level access permissions. Through the use of these types of security access, you can properly guard your sensitive information against prying eyes.
By default, IIS installs the Internet Guest Account with read permission for all public files freely available to users browsing a Web site without a username and password. To restrict a portion of the Web site or directory structure, simply revoke the directory permission from the Internet Guest Account. With read permissions revoked, a user will be required to provide a logon name and password that have been configured with Log on Locally permissions.
IIS supports three kinds of username/password authentication:
Prior to installing Microsoft Index Server, you must verify your system's configuration to ensure that the proper pieces of software are correctly installed. The required software includes Windows NT Server 4.0 or Windows NT Workstation with Peer Web Services installed, Internet Information Server version 2.0, and a properly configured TCP/IP protocol stack. Additional requirements that should be reviewed include disk space, memory and security.
