Requirements

This is the StifleR 2.14 (current) release documentation. For other versions, please select the Drop Down list at the Top Left and select the correct version.

StifleR Server

Location

The StifleR Server will have incoming and outgoing communications to all StifleR clients so this should be a major consideration when determining the location of the server. In a network with multiple geographical locations, it might be optimal to install multiple StifleR servers and place them in key hub locations. The StifleR server can be configured to query Configuration Manager deployment data so it might be useful to place them within close proximity.

The StifleR Dashboard is typically installed on the same server as the StifleR Server, but it can reside on any server hosting IIS.

Hardware

The following table can be used as a summarized view of the hardware requirements for StifleR.CommentShare feedback on the editor

Under 10,000 clients	4 cores	8GB	Virtual / 1GB	1x SSD for DBs
10,000 - 20,000 clients	8 cores	16GB	1GB / 10GB	2x SSD for DBs
20,000 - 50,000 clients	16 cores	32GB	10GB	4x SSD for DBs
50,000 - 100,000 clients	32 cores	64GB	2x10GB	6x SSD for DBs
100,000 - 200,000 clients	48 cores	256GB	4x10GB	8x SSD for DBs

CPU

StifleR is CPU intensive. Since StifleR does not use that many threads, a higher frequency (Ghz) is recommended. We recommend at least a 2.4Ghz processor with 8 cores. Don’t forget that most CPU’s must also handle some of the network connectivity management.

Memory

StifleR writes a lot of historical data to databases, as well as maintaining in-RAM memory objects. Since each connection and all connection data is stored in RAM a decent allocation of RAM is recommended but 32GB should be plenty for most installations.

Disk

StifleR saves a lot of information to ESENT databases, especially with the System Resource Tracking features enabled. Fast SSD disks are preferred for housing these databases.

Network Connectivity

Each client initiates a non-managed SignalR client connection (web sockets) to the server, so if you want 100k clients to connect to a single server you need to beef up the network connectivity.

If you are supporting a large number of clients, you probably want dual or quad 10Gb/s NIC’s for your StifleR server. This will ensure that the NIC’s have enough power to manage the large number of connections.

Software

StifleR server requires Windows Server 2019 (or above) with Microsoft .NET version 4.8 or higher.

There are also requirements around IIS settings. Please refer to the Dashboard installation section for more information.

Redundancy

Multiple StifleR servers can be configured for larger enterprises so that clients can fail-over to a second server should the primary server become unavailable.

For larger installations we recommend splitting the load across several StifleR servers. For example one server per geographical region.

StifleR Client

Software

• Windows 10 (x64 or x86) or later

• Microsoft .NET 4.8 must be installed on the client

The client is a .NET 4.8 executable with some C++ helper DLLs. It will run on any operating system that is capable of running .NET 4.8 and BranchCache. This includes most operating systems from Windows 7 and above with the exceptions of Home and other consumer versions of Windows.

Operation Mode

The StifleR Client can be installed in one of three modes:

1. Windows Service Based Mode (most common) - always connected to the StifleR Server, running as a Windows Service.

2. Event Triggered Mode - only starts & connects when a download job is created and running.

3. Read Only Mode - requires separate licensing. It is a limited version only for network monitoring and dashboard visibility.

Windows Service Based Mode

The benefit of Service Mode is that the Administrator can send configuration changes to the Client immediately at any time. This does not happen in the Event Triggered mode as the client is only active when a download job is run and the client will only receive configuration changes at start up.

When running as a service, the StifleR client runs as a Windows Service and monitors job creation every few seconds according to the configured interval.

Event Triggered Mode (Advanced Only)

The client is not always running in this mode lowering utilization on both client and server. This however, means that the server cannot reliably perform certain configuration tasks on the client in real time.

When the StifleR client is event driven, it is triggered by the Windows ETW (Event Tracking for Windows) system using a Scheduled Task that launches the StifleR Client on BITS Event ID 3 (BITS Job created). Once all queued BITS jobs have completed, the Client exits out.

The reason that Event Driven mode was first written into the product was to cater for a situation where a customer may deploy content during "Maintenance Windows" within set times during off-peak hours and may not want the service running outside these hours. We have not seen any requirement for this in real world usage and accordingly this mode should be considered for advanced use only.