Does Hyland Software support virtual environments?

Yes. Hyland Software has had a support statement regarding running OnBase in virtual environments for many years. This is the current support statement:

OnBase is designed to work on the Microsoft Windows Operating system. When OnBase is operated in a virtual environment such as Citrix, VMware or Windows Terminal Server, there are limitations imposed by the virtual environment, in addition to potentially subtle environmental differences. The Hyland Software QA Department runs testing on physical hardware and virtual environments. Hyland Software depends upon the suppliers of these virtual environments to validate that their software is equivalent to a physical machine. When it appears that an OnBase performance related issue is either caused by, or is unique to the virtual environment, organizations that have deployed an OnBase solution in a virtual environment may be asked to validate that the performance issue occurs in a non-virtual environment to facilitate troubleshooting. Since virtual environments utilize memory and other components of the o/s differently than a non-virtual environment removing the virtual component can facilitate a more rapid resolution.

Hyland Software strongly recommends that customers desiring to run their OnBase solution in one of these virtual environments thoroughly test their solution prior to putting it into production as each site has unique environmental considerations.

Hyland’s own SaaS (software-as-a-service) solution, OnBase Online, runs almost entirely on virtualized servers hosted by VMware ESX Server. Many of our customers also host their OnBase solutions on virtualized servers. For example, one of our customers runs 30 physical VMware ESX Servers, which are able to host ample virtualized servers to provide the Server environment to sustain some 22,000 users.

In addition to this, OnBase runs in production on some of the largest Citrix farms in the Northeast Americas, with around 300 servers servicing around 14,000 users. OnBase deployments on Citrix are seen across all industries with the most deployments being in government, healthcare, finance and insurance.

Has OnBase been “certified” to run in any of these environments?

Some. Not all virtual environment vendors offer software certification programs. OnBase achieved the “Citrix Ready” Certification in February 2007. VMware’s “VMware Ready” certification applies to hardware devices, not software applications such as OnBase. Hyland Software continues to monitor these certification programs.

Do we recommend the virtualization of the OnBase Database?

All virtualization platforms come with a measure of performance overhead. Production-level databases are disk intensive by nature, with disk I/O reads and writes. An organization wishing to run its OnBase database on a virtualized server would need to ensure that its virtualized environment can guarantee appropriate resources to support the OnBase Database. It is Hyland Software’s recommendation that the OnBase Database be run on a dedicated, physical server, to ensure optimal performance.

Are there any virtualization certified professionals within Hyland?

Yes. There are VMware Certified, Citrix Certified and Microsoft Certified Professionals on staff at Hyland Software. These individuals are part of an internal “Virtual Technologies” team that meets regularly to share knowledge, collaborate and generate ideas, documentation and training materials for the usage of these technologies internally and for OnBase customers.

Does Hyland Software attend any relevant industry conferences?

Yes. Hyland representatives attend many professional technology conferences such as VMworld, Citrix Synergy, Microsoft TechEd and Oracle.

Is there any documentation or training available for running OnBase in virtual environments?

Yes. Please contact your account manager for the latest documentation available. This documentation is continually being created and updated. We also offer training classes regarding Virtualization Technologies and OnBase at Hyland Software’s technical training conferences throughout the year.

How should the HASP be handled with virtualized OnBase servers?

Different virtualization vendors have different methods for handling connections between virtualized servers and physical devices, such a HASP. There are also a variety of third-party products which can accomplish this. The method implemented in each organization will largely depend on the number servers, number of supported users and the virtual environment itself. Please contact your Hyland technical support to assist you in implementing the appropriate option for your environment.