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Installation and Security Considerations

Review these considerations before you install Faculty Access for the Web.

□ Make sure your hardware meets the minimum processing speed and memory requirements. Visit our website at support.blackbaud.com for more information about system requirements. Hardware requirements are subject to change and we update as necessary.
□ We recommend a separate web server for Faculty Access for the Web. We support Faculty Access for the Web on Windows Server 2003 with IIS 6.0 or Windows Server 2008 with IIS 7.0. Before you begin the installation process, make sure IIS and SMTP are installed and running. You can set these services to start automatically upon reboot.
□ Faculty Access for the Web requires .NET Framework 2.0 SP1. If you do not have .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 already installed, it will be installed for you.
□ In Windows Server 2003, ASP.NET is part of the operating system. Make sure both ASP.NET and IIS are installed. You can install these from the Control Panel. Within the World Wide Web Service, make sure you also install Active Server Pages, Server Side Includes, and World Wide Web Service.
□ If you use Windows Server 2008, Internet Information Services 7 (IIS7) components are no longer installed by default. You must install IIS7 for use with Faculty Access for the Web. Before you install Faculty Access for the Web, you must install the IIS7 roles. For more information about how to install IIS7, see Knowledgebase Solution BB521642 at www.blackbaud.com/kb/.
□ You cannot change the date formats used by Faculty Access for the Web. The program uses the default format for the operating system in that locale.
□ The Education Edge client components must be installed on the web server before you can install Faculty Access for the Web. Use the deployment package located on the database server to install The Education Edge. After you install The Education Edge client components, you must reboot your web server and open The Education Edge before you install Faculty Access for the Web.
□ Review your school’s LAN/WAN/Internet connectivity and decide on a topology for how to include the Faculty Access for the Web server. For example, if your school does not require teachers to access Faculty Access for the Web from home, you can set access to the Faculty Access for the Web Internet Information Services more securely to intranet traffic only.
□ If users will access Faculty Access for the Web from home or outside the school’s intranet, you must plan and implement a secure firewall strategy. We do not accept any responsibility for the unauthorized access of your system. You should use knowledgeable technical staff or consulting services to determine your organization’s security needs. We recommend the use of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), a robust and secure Internet encryption and authentication method. SSL is a data security method available with IIS. Visit the Verisign website at www.verisign.com for more information about SSL.
□ To set up an Internet connection, contact a local Internet Service Provider (ISP). Your ISP can also register your domain name. We do not advise that your ISP hosts Faculty Access for the Web. Faculty Access for the Web is closely integrated with the Education Edge database and therefore requires a direct connection to the database. We strongly recommend that the database is not exposed on the Internet, which would be required for an ISP to host Faculty Access for the Web.
□ Determine the protocol to use to connect the web server and the database server. We recommend TCP/IP; however, the protocol you use depends on the protocol specified on the Education Edge database server.
□ Set up a permanent connection between the web server and the Education Edge database. For important information about how to set up and maintain your Web environment, read Network Security.
□ For security reasons, we recommend you install both Education Edge and Faculty Access for the Web to directories on local drives formatted with the NTFS file system, which allows you to tightly control secure access to the files on the web server. FAT formatted hard disks are not secure. To find out whether the drive is NTFS or FAT, right-click the drive letter in Windows Explorer and select Properties. The file system type appears on the General tab.
□ Install a W3C-compliant browser on the web server and each user's workstation.
□ A network connection is required for each workstation to access Faculty Access for the Web.
□ Faculty Access for the Web requires a mouse to navigate to some fields and screens and should be viewed on monitors with an 1024 x 768 or higher sreen resolution.
□ Plan for daily backups of the Education Edge database and test the backups frequently. This is extremely important because teachers can enter grades and attendance daily. If you do not backup daily, a school could lose this important information due to an unpredictable database problem.
□ If you use Online Campus Community 3.12 with The Education Edge, for the Class Page Assignment Dropbox part to function properly, you must have the profiles update plug-in on the Faculty Access for the Web server. To install the profiles update plug-in on the server, also install Online Campus Community on the same web server. Install Faculty Access for the Web first, then Online Campus Community. Online Campus Community installs only what it needs based on what is already installed on the server.

Windows Server 2003 and 2008 64x