X GIRI Server Hosting Options
This article describes the most common ways to integrate GIRI into your organization on the server side. It particularly highlights the technical details and is intended to help you (and your IT department) in choosing the most suitable solution. The three options described below differ primarily in their requirements, but also in the level of data security and access protection.
If you have any questions after reading this document or if you are missing any important information, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
General GIRI Server information
The GIRI server is the "backbone" of the GIRI application. All user data, instructions, media data and spatial mapping data are stored here. In addition, the GIRI server offers a web interface where customers can manage their GIRI instructions, assign permissions to users, analyze the use of GIRI in their company, and much more.
On a technical level, the GIRI server application consisting of front-end and back-end is built on the Node.js runtime environment and it is using a MongoDB database. In addition, storage of sufficient speed and size for media data is required on the server, as well as access to an external mail server through which emails can be sent to users via SMTP.
We also operate a centralized system for sending emails to provide assistance to users depending on their app usage. For this, the GIRI server must be able to connect to our customer service system via https (port 443). Due to security reasons this service can not be provided for customers who host the GIRI server themselves.
Cloud solutions
Our GIRI cloud server instances are hosted by popular cloud service providers like Google Cloud on various locations around the world to ensure low latency for the GIRI app and the web interface. In general, we offer two kinds of cloud solutions:
Exklusive Cloud: have a dedicated virtual machine exclusively for your company.
Shared Cloud: share one virtual machine instance with other customers in the same region.
Regardless of which of these two cloud variants you choose, GIRI cloud solutions offer a very high level of availability, reliability and data security.
In addition, AR-Experts takes care of the server maintenance and updates and patches are automatically applied for you. AR-Experts also provides the mail server and handles the SSL/TLS certificates. On Private Cloud servers, individual agreements can be made about this.
Shared Cloud server
AR-Experts operates several shared cloud server instances worldwide on which the data of different customers are managed together. As a user, you will never notice this and it is of course ensured that data and information is never exchanged between customers on the server. Setting up your GIRI account on a GIRI Shared Cloud server can be done within minutes.
Currently, we offer the Shared Cloud solution at the following locations, from which you can choose:
Europe – Germany – Frankfurt
Europe – Switzerland – Zurich
North America – USA – Iowa
Asia-Pacific – India – Delhi
Exclusive cloud server
A Exclusive GIRI Cloud server is a virtual machine (VM) that is exclusively for your organization. The VM is hosted by a cloud provider like Google Cloud and fully maintained by AR-Experts to always run the latest version of the GIRI server. With your own Dedicated GIRI Cloud server, you can have all the advantages of the Shared GIRI Cloud solution regarding maintenance, but you can more specifically determine the physical location of the VM and you can control the accessibility of the server1. Possible physical locations are generally all Google Cloud data centers which you can find in this list: Global Locations - Regions & Zones | Google Cloud
Setting up your Exclusive GIRI Cloud server typically takes AR-Experts less than two workdays, although the exact time may vary based on our current capacity.
Access control and security
With a Exclusive GIRI Cloud server, it is possible restrict the IP range so that, in addition to the security provided by user accounts, the server can only be accessed from your static IP address.
Custom Hosting: On-Premise or Self-Managed Cloud Infrastructure
Hosting GIRI on premise or on any custom cloud infrastructure can offer the highest level of data security and access protection depending on your IT infrastructure. However, it should be noted that an on-premise or self-managed cloud solution entails the highest installation and set-up effort. In addition, your organization is responsible for server/VM availability and reliability, backups, GIRI updates and SSL/TLS certificates. You also need to provide an email server and it's recommended to create a DNS record for the GIRI server.
The following requirements must be met to guarantee the smooth operation of GIRI on your on-premise server or custom VM instance:
Hardware requirements
It is important to note that hardware requirements are demand-driven and the following information is based on the average GIRI usage found among our customers.
Minimum requirements for your server or VM hardware:
2 CPU cores (x64)
4 GB memory
50 GB SSD free disk space (about 11 GB of it will be used by the Ubuntu OS)
IOPS: usually much less but peaking at 10k/s
Read/Write throughput: usually far below but peaking at 250 MB/s
For reference, here is some statistical data about disk storage consumption of GIRI:
An average GIRI instruction contains about 16 steps and requires about 30 MB of disk space for its media content
Example configuration for a Google Cloud VM instance:
Machine type: e2-medium
Disk: 100 GB Balanced persistent disk
OS and software requirements
To ensure that your GIRI instance can be set up and run properly, you need to meet the following software requirements.
Operating system
Your server must run the following Linux distribution as its operating system:
Ubuntu
64-bit
Server install image (running headless → no desktop packages needed)
Version: 20.04 LTS “Focal Fossa” (or newer >=20.04)
Setup requirements
The following requirements are essential for the successful setup of the on-premises GIRI server. Failure to meet these requirements will prevent us from executing the installation.
We strongly recommend that this list be reviewed and addressed by your IT department to ensure all necessary preparations are made in advance.
SSH access to the target machine/VM for a service specialist of AR-Experts. It can be additionally secured via a VPN but remote desktop solutions are not an option.
Connection Speed: A reliable SSH connection with a minimum speed of 100 Mb/s to facilitate the transfer of setup files.
Email Server: An email server must be available for the GIRI server to send emails via SMTP. Please provide the URL or IP address of the email server, along with any necessary login credentials. Ensure that the network is configured to allow the GIRI server to reach the email server.
SSL/TLS certificates: Provide the public key and private key in a .pem certificate file each, or ensure access to a trusted trusted Certificate Authority (CA) server capable of issuing SSL/TLS certificates (such as OpenSSL or Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)). Only certificates in the .pem file format can be used.
Optional but highly recommended
Internet connection: Ideally your target machine/VM has an (at least temporarily) open internet connection for downloading the necessary binaries and project files of the GIRI server.
DNS record: It is recommended to set up a DNS record for the GIRI server so users do not have to deal with the IP address to rech the GIRI server.
Network requirements
For all mobile devices that are to be used with GIRI, accessibility of the GIRI server via the https protocol (port 443/8443) must be guaranteed. This should be especially noted in case the mobile devices are operating in your company's internal Wi-Fi.
Which hosting provider do you use - by default?
Like many big companies, including Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Börse, T-Systems, and Airbus, we trust in the security of Google Cloud. GIRI is hosted by default on Google Cloud. Google Cloud has been certified by the Bundesministerium für Informations Sicherheit (https://www.bsi.bund.de/DE/Home/home_node.html). More information about this certification can be found at https://cloud.google.com/security/compliance/bsi-c5.
What type of service does Giri provide?
SaaS Software as a Service
Is the cloud provider the same as the contract partner?
No. We use either Google Cloud or a service of your choice