At the heart of the Harmony Server solution is the server itself, which centralizes all the production assets in a repository. Loaded with production proven tools to manage administration tasks, the server is completely flexible and will fit in with your existing infrastructure, whether you're on Windows, Mac or Linux.
The first step to having a Harmony Server network is to set up the database server. The database server contains the structure of the database and runs a programs that allows client workstations to open and edit scenes remotely.
Installing a database server can be done on all platforms supported by Harmony: Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux. Although the installation procedure is substantially different on each platform, they all have the same basic components:
- Creating a database file structure and a scene data storage space.
- Sharing the database files using the Samba (Windows) or NFS (macOS or GNU/Linux) file-sharing protocol, so that other machines can access them.
- Configuring the database server program, which handles client requests, to run on startup or login.
Because of the differences in the way Windows and UNIX filesystems work, and in the way Windows, macOS and GNU/Linux support filesharing, extra steps are required if you need to allow Windows clients to connect to a macOS or GNU/Linux-based server, mainly:
- Sharing the database files using the Samba file-sharing protocol.
- Configuring the link server program, which handles the creation of symbolic links for Windows clients.
Additionally, it may be required to add security exceptions to the server machine's firewall for the database server, the link server and the file sharing services used by the server.
Optionally, a server machine's firewall can be fully disabled to allow open communications between different machines on the site. However, a dedicated firewall should be set-up at the site level to ensure computers outside of the site cannot attack machines on the site.