Maptitude Online Redistricting
Technical Specifications, Requirements and Licensing Information
Maptitude Online Redistricting (MORe) is web-based redistricting software designed for organizations that want to provide their constituents with online means to draw and report redistricting plans. Because the desktop and online versions share common file formats, plans developed online can be electronically submitted to the central redistricting office, opened in the desktop software, and analyzed to the full extent as if they had been created using the desktop software.
Maptitude Online Redistricting is a web application with its own mapping engine, installed on a Windows server. The web application includes an authentication module for managing users. The Maptitude Online Redistricting screen contains the plan map, a dataview listing the existing districts and their statistics, and a dataview of pending changes based upon the user’s current actions. The redistricting toolbox is similar to the toolbox in the desktop version, and the user can zoom, pan, and query the map using the mapping tools.Technical Specifications
MORe is composed of five components:
1. Maptitude Online Redistricting, the GIS map server.
2. An ASP.NET web application
3. A small database table storing user names in SQL server.
4. A data folder storing redistricting plans for each user.
5. A common data folder storing geographic layers shared across all users.
Requirements
Operating System: We recommend 64-bit Windows 2012 R2 or 2016 Server along with the recommended security patches including using Microsoft’s security lock down tool to disable all unused functionality. Windows 2019 Server should also work. Older versions are no longer support by Microsoft and do not receive critical security updates.
Database Server: A recent version of Microsoft SQL Server Express or SQL Server edition.
The database table used by MORe is small. It requires less than 200 megabytes. (The free version SQL Server Express works well with MORe).Web Server: Microsoft IIS 7 or later, with ASP.NET enabled, and the Microsoft.NET framework version 4 or later.
SMTP Mail Server (optional): Some of the features of MORe, including user registration, may require that the web application send email messages via your enterprise SMTP Mail server.
FTP Server (optional): MORe can automatically publish submitted plans via FTP if you do have an FTP server available.
Hardware: Minimum 4 Core CPU. Recommended: 8 to 24 Cores. MORe can run as many instances as there are available CPU cores. Memory: at least 2 GB per CPU core. 146 GB available disk space, solid state drive (M.2 NVMe SSDs strongly recommended).
Server graphics card: a medium quality server graphics card (e.g: MATROX 200 with at least 8 megabytes of dedicated video memory). The server display settings must be at least 1024×768 pixels, and color depth should be 32 bits.
MORe is a complex geographic editing application and it is CPU-bound. It runs one instance of the GIS server per physical core. Four instances of the GIS server can handle up to 20 concurrent users. With eight cores you can run eight instances of the GIS server and accommodate up to 40 concurrent user sessions. We have successfully tested MORe with Windows Server with 24 cores.
The amount of geographic data files is relatively small. The shared geographic data folder will not exceed 5 GB, and each plan does not exceed 5 MB. 100 users each editing 10 plans would require less than 5 GB of disk space.
The server hosting MORe should include remote desktop. MORe must be installed and managed remotely via remote desktop by a user in the server administrator group.
There is no need to physically access the server hardware. It can be co-located, it can be a dedicated (bare metal) server, or a virtual server. We recommend a dedicated server to maximize performance with multiple concurrent users.
If you purchase a server, we can recommend the HP Proliant DL380 G7 server with at least 12 cores or better. It’s very fast, one of our redistricting client has it.
An example of a dedicated server hosting provider that is compatible with MORe is LiquidWeb
https://www.liquidweb.com/products/dedicated/#servers
Privacy and Security
MORe stores user information in an SQL table. The user information includes the user name, email address, encrypted password, and data folder name. Only the SQL database administrator can view the SQL table.
The redistricting plans are stored in files in the server file system, outside of the web server root folder. Each user has a dedicated folder. The data folder names are randomized. They do not provide information about the user identity.
The web application does not disclose the data folder location to the user.
Optionally, MORe can automatically publish submitted plans via FTP if you have an available FTP server. Some of our customers have found this is a good solution for a publicly available web site.
An administrator can define the maximum total number of registered users and the maximum number of concurrent users. If a user tries to register or login and the maximum number of allowed users has been reached, the application will report a message to the user to try again later.
MORe is licensed for a specific period of time (e.g. six months, or one year)
The license can be renewed after the initial period has expired.
For additional Information
https://www.caliper.com/Redistricting/Online_Redistricting.htm