If you’re here, you’re probably ready to create your first Visual KPI site. Once you have installed the Visual KPI Server Manager, you can start setting up new Visual KPI instances (also known as creating Visual KPI sites).
A Visual KPI instance is actually a Visual KPI site with a dedicated URL. Think of it as a private website for your KPIs. Because it is not a public website, unless you choose to make it public, we prefer to call it a site, just to avoid confusion.
You can choose to install Visual KPI on any of your existing IIS sites, or you can choose to install Visual KPI on its own dedicated site.
IIS supports running many unrelated sites in parallel. You can have many instances of Visual KPI running on a single site.
Before You Create Your First Site
You’ll be asked to enter an instance name. The instance name is used for the default installation path, the SQL Server database name, the Alert Server and Cache Server services, and the IIS virtual directory names. Before you begin installing instances, you should choose a naming convention for your Visual KPI sites. For example, you could use the location associated with each website, such as PlantXYZ.
Install a new Visual KPI instance
Open the Visual KPI Server Manager. If you just finished the installation, it will open automatically.
If you already have multiple sites listed in the Visual KPI Server Manager, it means that you have several sites running in IIS.
Select where to install the new Visual KPI instance
- Right-click Sites at the top level for a dedicated Visual KPI site, or right-click one of the sites in the list to install Visual KPI on an existing site.
- When you right-click, select Install New Visual KPI Instance. Remember, a Visual KPI instance is a website, so you are now creating a new Visual KPI website.
Follow the wizard
- Agree to terms of the license agreement.
- Enter your License Key, which you will receive via email from Transpara; a green check mark means the license key is valid.
- Verify that the contents of the license key match your enterprise requirements. In other words, is this what you ordered? Do you have enough user accounts for everyone who will need to see your KPI’s? Is the interface count enough interact with all of your data?
Set up the database server
If you installed a dedicated Visual KPI site, you can enter a Visual KPI Site Name and a port; if you installed on an existing site, the name and port will be the same as the default site and you can skip this step. This name does not appear anywhere in the software; it only appears in IIS.
- Under Visual KPI Instance Settings, enter a name for this instance, and select your Regional Settings.
- Select where you want to install the runtime files for Visual KPI.
- Select a Database Server (this is where you connect to the SQL database that Visual KPI will use for configuration, not the data source) or enter a localhost.
- Enter a Database Name.
- Connect using Windows authentication if you have permissions, or enter your SQL Server username and password.
Note: We prefer you use Windows authentication. But if you, or the person running this install, does not have SQL permissions mapped to his Windows identity, you can choose to connect with a dedicated SQL Server authentication using login and password. You might get these permissions temporarily if your IT guru doesn’t want you having Windows Server access. Either way, make sure you have the right permissions. See Set Roles and Permissions for the Visual KPI Server Installation.
Set Up site administrator(s)
- Enter administrator information. This will be used for sending alerts to the admin when the Visual KPI site needs attention. These are system level alerts only. These are not KPI alerts.
- If you want several people to receive system alerts, separate names, email addresses and phone numbers with a semicolon.
- If you are using Visual KPI for the first time, you can select Yes to install some sample data. You may want to add sample data if you are trying Visual KPI, or if you just want to see something colorful when you test the site. Otherwise, click No to insert your own data.
Start the install
This time when you click Next, the install starts copying files and running scripts that create this instance of the Visual KPI database.
When you see the Success screen, click Finish to open the KPI Server Manager and see the installed files of your new Visual KPI website.
Visual KPI is installed with both the Alert Server and Cache Server running. Alerts will show warning icons until configured.
Verify you have a working Visual KPI site
Right-click the site name and select Browse. This opens a browser to your Visual KPI site that may include sample KPI data, if you selected to include it.
