Deploying the Management Station
The Nuance Management Station is an optional component for central management of the services in a network of Nuance speech products.
All-in-one with Management Station
For any small-scale, all-in-one deployment, you can install License Manager, Management Station, and licensed products on the same host.
A typical and robust deployment
Production environments usually deploy a distributed architecture with one host dedicated to the Management Station. This example also run the License Manager on the administrator's host:
The Management Station relies on the watcher service and file transfer service to manage local functions on each host. The installer creates these services transparently (with no action needed by you) when you install Nuance speech software:
The Watcher and File transfer service are communication gateways between the Management Station and the services running on hosts in the network. The file transfer service collects call logs and recorded utterances on the local host and sends the data to Management Station. Similarly, the watcher service runs on each host and performs these tasks:
- Starts and monitors all services running on the host. If a service terminates abnormally, the watcher restarts it.
- Sends service status and vital sign statistics to Management Station.
- Relays alarms from services to the Management Station in real time.
- Logs all management activities performed on the host and stores the log files on the local drive.
Install the Management Station on any host
Install the Management Station on a dedicated host or on a host with other speech components. This example shows a dedicated host:
Install the database on any host
You must install a Management Station database. You can install it on any host in the network. For details, see Install a database. Here is a database on a dedicated host:
Install a standby Management Station
You can only run one Management Station at a time. However, it is possible to prepare an offline installation and bring it online manually during emergency situations.
During installation, supply identical Management Station configurations. There is no difference except that one is always offline.
Note: You must configure the location of the standby Management Station on every host where Nuance speech products are installed (except when both are on the same host).
Large sites need one Management Station per network
The Management Station controls a single Speech Suite network. If you host a large site with multiple networks, install a separate Management Station for each:
Large networks with a shared database server
Note: This is NOT a recommended deployment. In most cases this will overwhelm disk storage, memory, and might create a bottleneck in your network.
You can share the database installation in a multi-network deploy if you create separate database tables (for example mserver01, mserver02, mserver03, and mserver04) for each Management Station: