Configuration overview

Modified on Mon, 29 Jan 2024 at 05:00 PM

In its simplest form, Hopp in its entirety can be installed on a single laptop. However, in a real-world scenario with a team collaborating internally to produce mapping in Studio as well as externally with the business users involved in the migration, the setup will often be more elaborate.

The figure below shows the full Hopp setup.

Master Server	A single Master Server typically contains the database serving as repository for the Studio and the Master Database of the Director Runtime, containing housekeeping of all Migration Servers and Tracks. The Master Server also hosts the Portal web application on an Internet Information Server instance Minimum Windows Server 2019
Execution Server	One or more Execution Servers contain the Runtime libraries and Services as well as the databases and folders necessary to run migration iterations for separate migration projects in one or more Tracks. The Master Server may act as a Migration Server as well in a single server set-up Minimum Windows Server 2019
Workstation	Users directly working on the migration project have a Workstation with these local installations. The Studio so they can collaborate on the mapping. Users all connect the Studio to the same Mapping Repository Database residing on the Master Server The Engine Framework containing the code generators so they can get the latest version of the mapping, publish it from the Studio, and use the code generator to generate new engine code Visual Studio with the Hopp extension installed to implement manual rules and build and deploy migration engines in the runtime environment A Web browser to access the Hopp Portal in order to execute migration jobs, view the migration events and results, and to collaborate on these Minimum Windows 10
Business PC/Tablet	Users working outside the migration project, typically involved in the testing and quality assurance, only need a web browser access the Hopp Portal to view the migration events and results and to collaborate on these

Single Server setup

It is common and indeed advisable to start out in a simpler, single server setup. In this setup a single server acts as both Master Server and Execution Server.

Team members and Business users have the migFx client components installed on their own machines and use the migFx client components (mainly Studio and Director) locally.

The local instance of Studio will communicate with the Repository database on the Master Server via an Sql connection
The local instance of Director will communicate with the Director Runtime via Web Service on the Master Server

Single Machine Setup

An even simpler setup is to install all Hopp on one, single machine. Users will then have to connect to this machine using a remote desktop connection and run the Workstation components on the machine itself.

A single machine setup is especially useful in a Proof-of-Concept installation.

Preconditions

Service Account	The Hopp Runtime needs to run under a service account. In a single server setup, this can be a local account on the server. In amulti-server setup, this must be an Active Directory account. The service account must have the roles necessary to act as Local Administrator on the servers involved. Can be a Managed Service Account (MSA) to avoid password handling
Certificates	A trusted TLS certificate for the https binding on the web server
Network	The Master Server must open the necessary ports for Sql Server (default is 1433) https (443) depending on Web Server configuration File sharing The Migration Server must open the necessary ports for Sql Server (default 1433)
Disk	Both the Master Server and the Migration Server should have a D: drive dedicated to Hopp. Master Server: Minimum 25GB Migration Server: Minimum 250GB, larger depending on data volume of migration

Pre-installation check list

These precondition activities typically take a bit of time and can be initiated prior to installation

Create the Hopp Service Account
Create the trusted TLS certificate for https binding

Third party software

In addition to the software components of Hopp, several other, third-party software must be installed.

Microsoft Sql Server	Install on Master and Execution Server. Express Edition is sufficient for smaller migrations. Larger migrations may benefit from a licensed instance capable of utilizing a higher number of CPUs. We recommend using the Sql Server collation Latin1_General_100_CI_AS_SC_UTF8 as the default collation for all Sql Server instances. Minimum Sql Server 2019
Microsoft Sql Server Management Studio	Install on Workstation of team members that will work on Studio Source Maps and operators in charge of maintaining Hopp
Visual Studio	Install on Workstation of team members that will implement manual rules. Minimum Visual Studio 2022, Community Edition is sufficient
Net SDK	Install the Net SDK on all Master and Execution Servers. Version must correspond to the current version used by the Hopp solution as indicated on the download page.
Net Hosting Bundle	The dotnet hosting bundle must be installed on the Master server. Version must correspond to the current version used by the Hopp solution as indicated on the download page.

Sql Server installation

Sql Server must be installed on the Master Server and the Migration Server

Install Windows Authentication and/or Sql Server Authentication
Add the Hopp Service Account
1. either as SysAdmin (simplest)
2. or as BulkAdmin and with db_owner on all databases

Separate App and Database servers

It is recommended to install Sql Server on Master- and Execution Servers. In some installations, policies may require application- and database servers to be separated.

If databases are not installed on the Execution Server, these additional requirements must be met:

In the absence of a full Sql Server installation, the Sql Server command utility tools must be installed on the execution servers (specifically the BCP bulk load utility)
A file share must be created on the database server for files to be bulk loaded into the Staging Databases. The Hopp Service Account must be granted full control to this file share
In a setup where multiple execution servers are connecting to one database server, the track-specific databases should be named accordingly (database name should include the name of the execution server)

Data protection and failover considerations

The Hopp installation is normally somewhat of a hybrid in comparison to the policies applied in most installations. The data being migrated certainly are in many cases sensitive and require production level data protected and access restrictions.

At the same time, the Hopp migration software is not part of the normal production setup in terms of availability, stability and failover protection.

If at all possible, it is strongly recommended to avoid production-like setups like mirroring and clustering in order to maximize the migration throughput. In case of a complete and catastrophic failure of the database environment, the file based nature of the source data inputs to the Hopp migration software makes it a normally trivial task to re-establish the migration environment and simply run the migration again.