System Requirements

All MainBoss software is designed to run under Windows XP (Service Pack 2 and up), Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008. Some customers run the software under older versions of Windows, but we do not support these systems.

Due to the complexity of possible network configurations in a PC environment, MainBoss personnel can only provide basic support for running MainBoss on Microsoft local area networks, and minimal support for other networks such as Novell and Banyan. Numerous customers run MainBoss successfully on non-Microsoft LANs, but our tech support personnel are not equipped to deal with LAN idiosyncrasies.

MainBoss uses Microsoft File and Print sharing as its only protocol. It does not use any TCP/UDP ports directly.

Requirements for MainBoss Basic

The operating system must be one of the following (or later):

• Windows XP with Service Pack 3
• Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2
• Windows Vista with Service Pack 1
• Windows Server 2008 with Service Pack 1

Windows XP Pro is sufficient if you only have one or two concurrent users. If you have larger numbers of users, we strongly recommend Windows Server 2003 or 2008; otherwise, your performance will be very slow.

Disk space requirements:

• The software for MainBoss itself requires approximately 7 MB of disk space.
• MainBoss databases are typically 30-40 MB, depending on the size of your operation.
• Online help for MainBoss CMMS is about 1.2 MB for each language you wish to support. (Online help is currently available in English, French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese.)
• The software and online help for @Requests requires about 1.3 MB.
• The software and online help for WRNotifier requires about 1 MB.

Note: MainBoss Basic uses a modified Codebase database. MainBoss can export data from all or part of the database into a format suitable for Microsoft Access or Excel.

Requirements for MainBoss Advanced

Operating System

Thinkage supports MainBoss Advanced on the following operating systems:

• Windows XP Professional or better, with Service Pack 2 or later (XP Professional should provide satisfactory performance with one or two simultaneous users, provided that both users aren't on external machines)
• Windows Server 2003 or later; or
• Windows Vista Business or better; or
• Windows Server 2008 or later (this includes Windows Server 2008 R2)
• Windows 7 Professional or better (see above note on XP Professional)

We do not recommend Windows XP Home, Windows Vista Home, or Windows Vista Basic.

.NET Framework

Before beginning the installation process, every computer where MainBoss Advanced will run must have the .NET framework installed (version 3.5 SP1 or later). If you do not already have an appropriate version of .NET, you can obtain it for free using the standard Windows Update.

Microsoft SQL Server

MainBoss Advanced uses Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or 2008 to read and write all data. SQL Server must be installed at your site before you can begin using MainBoss Advanced. Specifically, you must have either:

• SQL Server 2005 SP2 (Version 9.00.3042.00 or greater), or
• SQL Server 2008 (no minimum version, but as always, you should use Windows Update to get the most recent updates)

Hardware

We recommend that any computer running MainBoss Advanced should have:

• Windows XP and Windows Server 2003: at least a 3 GHz P4 processor with 1 GB of RAM
• Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008: at least dual 2.5 GHz processors with 2 GB of RAM

In both cases, get the fastest RAM available.

Since MainBoss Advanced requires SQL Server 2005 or 2008, you should also check the hardware requirements of the SQL Server package you intend to use. SQL Server will run on a single computer; if you also intend to use this computer to run MainBoss, the computer's hardware and operating system should satisfy the requirements of both SQL Server and MainBoss. Every other computer where you intend to run MainBoss has to satisfy MainBoss's hardware and software requirements, but doesn't have to satisfy SQL Server's.

If you intend to run MainBoss on multiple computers, we strongly recommend that MainBoss users should belong to a domain. A domain lets MainBoss users sign on with the same login name and password on different computers. You can create a domain with Microsoft Server software, or with a Linux network running Samba.

If you're not currently using a domain setting and are thinking about getting one, we recommend Windows Small Business Server. If you'll have fewer than five people using MainBoss simultaneously, you can use the basic version of Small Business Server. If you'll have more people using MainBoss simultaneously, you should get the premium version of Small Business Server, which includes an appropriate version of SQL Server as part of the package. (In order to get an appropriate version of SQL Server, you must get Windows Small Business Server 2003, Release 2 or later—earlier releases have earlier versions of SQL Server, which can't be used for MainBoss.)