SICS Software Requirements

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End-User PC

The requirements described here, are valid for an end-user who performs normal online (UI) related tasks and who has SICS installed on his own PC.

For centralized operation, please see the section on Remote Desktop Operation.

For heavy processing, please see the section on SICS Batch Server.

For interfacing via the SOAP/XML-based API, please see the section on SICS API Server.

Operating System

These Windows versions are supported (64-bit only):

Vendor OS
Microsoft Windows Server 2012
Microsoft Windows Server 2016
Microsoft Windows 8.x
Microsoft Windows 10

Java Runtime Environment

SICS requires a 64-bit Java Runtime Environment (JRE) or Java Development Kit (JDK) Standard Edition that supports the Java 8 specification.

At the time of writing, SICS is shipped with the Amazon Corretto 8.272.10.3 (64-bit version). Note that this version of SICS will not run with Java 7.

Document Production

Documents can be created as rtf documents and/or pdf documents. Documents are created from templates, and the type of the template determines the type of the produced document.

An rtf template will create rtf documents.

An XSL-FO template (extension .fo) will create PDF documents (extension .pdf).

Templates / documents in rtf format can be edited / viewed using a word processor (Microsoft Word, Apache OpenOffice, LibreOffice, etc).

Templates in XSL-FO format can be edited using commercially available offerings, or a basic text editor with no additional formatting (e.g. Notepad).

Documents in PDF format can be viewed using a PDF viewer (e.g. Adobe Reader, to name but one). The alternative to using rtf or fo/pdf in document production, is plain ASCII files or HTML.

Database Connectivity

SICS uses JDBC to connect to the database server. SICS is delivered with type 4 JDBC drivers for all supported databases. These drivers have been tested with SICS and are known to work without problems. Other drivers should NOT be used.

DBMS JDBC Driver
Oracle Oracle\ojdbc8-19.8.0.0.jar
MS SQLServer SQLServer\mssql-jdbc-8.4.1.jre8.jar
IBM DB2 DB2\db2jcc4-10.5.2.jar, DB2\db2jcc_licence_cisuz-10.5.jar, DB2\db2jcc_licence_cu-10.5.jar
MySQL MySQL\mysql-connector-java-8.0.22.jar

Remote Desktop Operation

Server Requirements

In a Remote Desktop configuration, the server is used to run SICS. Thus the software requirements for the server in such a setup is:

  • Any version of Microsoft Windows supporting the relevant Remote Desktop technology (native Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop Services or Citrix)
  • Optionally, Citrix software if that solution is chosen
  • Java Runtime Environment, Document Production software and Database Connectivity as described above
  • SICS

End-User (client) PC Requirements

In a Remote Desktop configuration, the end-user’s PC does not itself run SICS. It just runs the Remote Desktop connectivity client (RDP or ICA client). Thus the software requirements for the end-user PC in such a setup is:

  • Any version of Microsoft Windows supporting the relevant Remote Desktop connectivity client
  • The relevant Remote Desktop connectivity client.

SICS Batch Server

The software requirements for a dedicated ‘batch job server’ used to process long-running tasks is the same as for a normal end-user’s PC with a local installation of SICS.

SICS API Server

Operating System

OS Description
Windows The same as for a normal end-user’s PC
Linux Any current version of Linux

Document Production

SICS API Server is a GUI-less (headless) server component which, although it contains some APIs to do document production, does not itself require any Microsoft Office products to be installed.

Database Connectivity

The same as for a normal end-user’s PC.

Additional Software

SICS API Server has additional needs (a Java servlet container that supports the Java 8 specification, for instance), that are described in a separate document “SICS API Server.pdf”.

SICS eMessaging Server

The SICS eMessaging Server is built on SICS API Server, and therefore has the same software and hardware requirements as SICS API Server.

SICS ADH Server

The SICS Automated Document Handling Server is built on SICS API Server, and therefore has the same software and hardware requirements as SICS API Server.

SICS Live Desktop

The SICS Live Desktop module consists of

  • Functionality which runs within the end-user’s SICS Workstation
  • The SICS Naming Service and its associated admin web page

The former needs no additional consideration over and above what is described for SICS Workstation above in this document. For SICS Naming Service components, please see the separate document “SICS Live Desktop Setup and Configuration.pdf”.

SICS Task Management

The SICS Task Management module consists of

  • Functionality which runs within the end-user’s SICS Workstation.
  • Functionality which runs as a batch job.

SICS Task Management needs no additional consideration over and above what is described above in this document.

Database Server Software

The Operating System of the Database Server must be as is appropriate for the chosen RDBMS (e.g. various flavours of Windows, various flavours of UNIX, z/OS). The main requirement from SICS and BusinessObjects point of view is that the database is accessible through JDBC.

These are the supported RDBMS platforms:

Vendor Product
Oracle 11g (release 1 and 2)
Oracle 12c
Oracle 18c
Oracle 19c
IBM DB2 for z/OS Version 11 and 12
Microsoft SQL Server 2012
Microsoft SQL Server 2014
Microsoft SQL Server 2016
Microsoft SQL Server 2017
Microsoft SQL Server 2019
Microsoft Azure SQL

These are the RDBMS platforms in preliminary support:

Vendor Product
Oracle MySQL 5.7
Oracle MySQL 8.0
Amazon Aurora (MySQL Compatibility)

Preliminary support means that these are newly supported platforms that are not yet in production use by any SICS customer.

Business Objects Reporting Software

Please note that the Business Objects reporting solution provided by DXC as a companion to SICS, has its own requirements with regards to Operating System and Database software. Business Objects may or may not work with the OS and RDBMS versions listed above. Please contact DXC for details.

The SICS Search module consists of

  • Functionality which runs within the end-user’s SICS Workstation and SICS API Server.
  • The SICS Search Server (when SICS Search is configured for using “remote” mode).

The former needs no additional consideration over and above what is described above in this document. For SICS Search Server, please see the separate document “SICS Search Setup and Configuration.pdf”.