Installing Visure Requirements ALM and creating a new database from scratch – Visure Solutions

The following article describes the process to install Visure Requirements ALM from scratch in a Windows Server environment and configure it to use a database. At the end of the article, we will explain how to install Visure Authoring and Contributor as an application that users can connect through a URL.

If you encounter any issues during this installation process, please look for the error in the Community Portal first. If not found, feel free to open a ticket with us and we'd be happy to assist you.

Note: This article is a collection of other articles and videos in one place to access everything in the correct order of installation.

Installation

Install License Server.
Install licenses. (Send us Hostname and MAC Address to generate licenses.
Install Visure Requirements ALM Server
Create SQL Server Express database, as an example. You may decide to install Oracle or PostgreSQL
Connect Database to Server
Install Visure Requirements ALM Client
Install Visure Authoring
Install Visure Reviewer

Step #1 - Install the License Server:

The first thing that we need to do is install the License Server

Article with download links:

Visure License Server

Installation Video:

https://youtu.be/eVPVZ-QGl5M

Step #2 - Install Licenses

This step has two main parts. If you have already received a .lic file from our team, skip to Part B of this step.

Part A: Obtain server details & send them to the Licensing Team

Once the License Server is installed, it comes with a tool to obtain certain details of the machine that is needed to generate a license file.

Open the Start Menu, and navigate down to the X-Formation folder.

Launch the LM-X Configuration Tool

On the HostID tab, click the Save To File button.

Save this file on your computer and send it to Visure's Licensing Team at licensing@visuresolutions.com

Part B: Save the license file

Once you have received the license file (.lic) from Visure, you need to put it into the LM-X License Server installation folder.

Default installation folder: "C:\Program Files (x86)\X-Formation\LM-X End-user Tools 4.9.10"

Paste the license file into this folder.

Then, open the License Server Client and restart the server.

Step #3 - Install Visure Requirements ALM Server

Article:

https://visuresolutions.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360061254994

Installation Video:

https://youtu.be/W_dWO-fdO5I

Step #4 - Create database & User

You may follow these steps using a PostgreSQL database in this article: https://visuresolutions.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5784174978963-How-to-create-a-PostgreSQL-database-for-Visure-using-pgAdmin

and required maintenance: https://visuresolutions.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4405371959187-Maintenance-of-PostgreSQL-Database-and-Automation

In order to install SQL Server, follow these steps:

The next thing we need to do is create a SQL Server database and user.

You may use SQL Server or SQL Server Express (free edition). SQL Server Express has certain performance limitations, but it may be used for small to medium size implementations of Visure, typically up to 5 to 10 concurrent users and up to 20,000 items for up to a year or two. If the performance seems to degrade, we highly recommend switching to a full installation of SQL Server.

You may download SQL Server Express edition and the SQL Server Management Studio from the following link and follow the installation wizards to install them.

SQL Server Express:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-downloads

SQL Server Management Studio:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssms/download-sql-server-management-studio-ssms?view=sql-server-ver15

The following article describes how to create a database and a database user:

Article:

https://visuresolutions.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360008600474-How-can-I-create-a-SQL-Server-database-separating-data-and-indexes-in-VisureRequirements-

Video:

https://youtu.be/8wbDTyCBGPg

In order to make Visure client faster, we have a property which needs be enabled in SQL server that will improve performance for multi-user environments.

Article:

https://visuresolutions.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4481008284051-Allow-Snapshot-Isolation-in-SQL-Server-for-increased-performance

Step #5 - Connect Database to Server

Run Visure Requirements ALM Server

Select Connections and click on the first icon, the one with tooltip "Add connection":

Select the appropriate ODBC driver and follow the wizard.

You will be prompted for the database server name, database user & password, database selection from a dropdown menu, and the two filegroups created earlier:

If you have errors trying to get the Visure database from the dropdown menu please check the following troubleshoot articles:

https://visuresolutions.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360008270153-Login-failed-error-connecting-to-SQL-Server

https://visuresolutions.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360008269873-Problem-connecting-to-SQL-Server

On the next screen, give a name to the connection and test it, if the test is successful save it:

NOTE: The default credential for the admin password is empty, so you will need to change it in the administration center once you connect for the first time.

Video:

https://youtu.be/uu_ynZEgw6A

Step #6 - Install Visure Requirements ALM Client

Article:

https://visuresolutions.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500002812162

Installation Video:

https://youtu.be/5sG-y2ZdGC4

IMPORTANT NOTE: before running Visure Requirements ALM 7 Client, you will need to create a project inside the Database created on the previous step.

Run Visure Administration Center (comes in the Visure Requirement ALM Client Installer).
Click on change database and introduce the correct server name and port (server name and port where Visure Server is installed)
Open the database. If you haven't changed them, the default credentials are
User: Admin
Password: no password, leave empty
Create a new project: