There are several steps to bringing your ReadyWorks instance into full Production. In general, these steps include:

1. Hardware and Server Software Installation.
2. Network Configuration.
3. ReadyWorks Platform Installation and Testing.
4. Configuration of Single Sign-On.
5. Establishing Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) connections between your internal systems and ReadyWorks.
6. Mapping the ETL data into the ReadyWorks front-end.
7. Installation of customized scripts for Reports, Charts, Views, Forms and Self-Service Portals.
8. Configuring the platform based on your specific process as defined in the Process Decomposition meetings with your Senior Technical Program Manager.
9. Technologent, as a trusted advisor for American Express, will work closely with ReadyWorks to provide guidance and support throughout the implementation process.

This document covers the first item in the above list.

Target Audience

Within this guide, you will find the hardware and software prerequisites needed before a typical ReadyWorks installation. This guide is targeted toward system and network administrators with sufficient rights to stand-up a new server and make network configuration changes, as necessary. In addition, data needed to make connections between ReadyWorks, and other online data sources is included to help speed the process to a Production State. Traditionally these steps are handled independently without ReadyWorks involvement.

Implementation Planning

Prior to starting work on the Hardware and Software deployment, most customers will have had to accomplish the following:

• Gain approval to establish a new Server/VM for the ReadyWorks instance.
• Determine the backup strategy for the ReadyWorks instance.
• Determine any antivirus requirements for the new ReadyWorks instance.
• Identify where a development ReadyWorks instance will reside.
• Gain approval for necessary network changes required for the ReadyWorks instance to communicate throughout the network.
• Ensure end-users can reach the Server for the use of Self-Service Portal pages.
• Please confirm how many databases/sources of data outside of ReadyWorks which will provide data?
• For later Single Sign-On purposes, does your organization use LDAP or SAML authentication?       
  • If SAML authentication, who is the identify provider?

SERVER PREPARATION

ReadyWorks consists of two components: Web Application Server and Database Server. For most environments, both ReadyWorks components are installed on a single server as an appliance. However, we can split the database server from the web server if desired.

Hardware Requirements

Please verify that your servers meet the requirements described below regarding Hardware and Software. 

Software Requirements

Minimum operating system, software, and additional requirements for the ReadyWorks Server.

Software Downloads

In preparation for the forthcoming ReadyWorks install, please download these packages and have them available on the fully configured server:

• ReadyWorks Server
• Notepad++
• My SQL Workbench

Please note that Notepad++ and MySQL Workbench will be removed at the end of the upcoming installation process.

NETWORK CONFIGURATION CHANGES

Network and firewall changes are required to fully support the client, administrative, and management features of ReadyWorks.

DNS Configuration Changes

To assure easy access to ReadyWorks for end users, create a CNAME record in DNS. A simple and easy to remember name similar to the example below will suffice:

readyworks.yourcompany.com

Note: yourcompany.com should be replaced with your fully qualified domain name (FQDN).

Firewall Changes

Depending on your internal firewall configuration, the following firewall rules may need to be configured on either the ReadyWorks Server or firewall appliance.

Note: All firewall changes and network configurations are performed by American Express employees, in accordance with American Express security guidelines.

Additional Outbound Email Configuration Settings

These values will be provided to you by your messaging administrator. ReadyWorks will work with you to establish this configuration when the server is installed.

Note: All email configuration settings will be input and managed by American Express employees. ReadyWorks will not have direct access to these settings.

Extract, Transform and Load Connector Requirements

Data Sources

Using our ETL Module, we will configure scripts to run periodically that extracts relevant information from online data sources into ReadyWorks Staging Tables. Each connection Once the Staging Tables are populated, a series of Data Mapping Scripts will be constructed to transform and normalize the data. The normalized data will then be loaded into Asset Schema Tables that are used by the front-end ReadyWorks application for the management and orchestration of assets within your environment.

To begin this work on the extraction scripts, please gather a list of all Data Sources where information to populate ReadyWorks will be found.

Service Accounts

To gain access to your sources of data, ReadyWorks leverages Service Accounts for login to gain access to the underlying data. Service accounts run automated business processes (like ETL) and are used by ReadyWorks, not a person once in production. A single service account may be used on multiple platforms.

Please obtain service accounts with rights to authenticate to each platform that will provide data to the ReadyWorks platform. Also ensure that any unique requirements are identified, such as password less accounts, Kubernetes APIs, etc. Also, see notes below.

Note 1: These service accounts need local rights on the ReadyWorks server to execute programs (e.g., to run automatic overnight data syncs)

 Note 2: Please note that all service account credentials will be solely held, controlled, and input by our Customer's employees. Only our customer's employees will have direct access to these service accounts. ReadyWorks provides guidance and support throughout this process.

Data Definition for the Data Extraction

To gain access to the data in corresponding systems, additional information is needed to interpret the data and provide context to the fields we pull. We need the following information for that context:

• Confirmation of REST APIs on all online data sources (unless shared network folders as a data source).
• URL for each online data source. 
• Any other specifications helpful to extract data by upload from a shared folder.
• Please provide the proper SSL Certificate.
• SMTP server settings and the appropriate SMTP account from which ReadyWorks mail will be sent.
• Please ensure the following abilities o Ability to execute the RW Install EXE on the server.
  • Ability to run PowerShell scripts for the ETL Connectors on the server.
  • Ability to access other install files that are delivered via an agreed upon method to the server, prior to the installation.

Note: All data extraction and access to APIs will be actions performed by Customer or Partner employees. ReadyWorks provides guidance and support but cannot have direct access to credentials or the data sources themselves.