Deciding Where to Install PopChart Server

PopChart Server can be installed on just about any system, as long as it meets the requirements outlined in the previous section. However, where you install PopChart Server will depend largely on how you plan to use PopChart Server.

The following paragraphs discuss some questions that you should consider as you install PopChart Server.

What kind of server load do you expect?

In very light load situations, such as testing, development, or evaluation, it's probably easiest to install PopChart Server directly on your workstation. With light to medium loads (up to 500 images per minute), you may be able to get by with a workstation, but probably should move it to a light-weight or shared server. With heavy loads (over 500 images per minute), you might consider a dedicated server, while a very heavy load will probably require clustering (see Chapter 13). You might also consider clustering if you are concerned about redundancy.

What Operating System do You Want to Use?

Because PopChart Server is a Java application, it runs on any system with a Java VM. Naturally, performance will vary depending on the platform, but PopChart Server favors no particular operating system. With light to medium server loads, it won't matter what operating system you are running—go with what you are most familiar with. With heavier server loads, the usual logic prevails—if a certain system outperforms another system in most benchmarks, PopChart Server will probably run better on that system.

How Will you Generate content for Your Graphs?

If the information in your graphs is static, then this question is irrelevant. Most people, though, will want to take advantage of PopChart Server's dynamic capabilities. This usually requires a web application of some sort that interacts with a database or data files to generate data for your graph.

You should make sure that the system running PopChart Server can communicate with the system running your web application and/or has access to the data. You may even find it convenient to run PopChart Server on the same system as your web application server. Or you could set up a separate web application server to deal specifically with graph content generation.

Who are you serving images to?

It's probably pretty obvious, but you should make sure that PopChart Server is installed on a system accessible to the people who will be viewing the PopChart images. If you're generating images for a simple company intranet, then this is probably a very minor concern. But if your serving images to the entire Internet, you will want to make sure that PopChart Server is on a computer exposed to the Internet. Or if you need a little more security than that, see the next question.

What kind of Web security do you want?

PopChart Server is secure enough to install on system exposed to the Internet. However, exposing it to the Internet will probably require you to open another port on your firewall.

Some users find it more desirable to put PopChart Server on a system behind their firewall, and then use a redirector module. This allows clients to request images from a web server, which then redirects the request to PopChart Server. This allows PopChart Server to have the same security that the web server has, including SSH. See Chapter 12, "HTTP Redirection," for details.