We expect that CopiaFacts will be operating in a network environment and that the Copia Application Data area will be located in a network share named COPIA.
It is possible, but not recommended, to run CopiaFacts on an 'island' virtual or physical machine, but this MUST be selected at the time of installation. For details, see: Installation notes - cloud.
All CopiaFacts systems must define a single CopiaFacts Application Data folder where the queues, infobox scripts, voice prompts and other common data reside. In early releases, a common drive letter was required which was mapped in each machine to the base of this folder (typically Q:\FAXFACTS). CopiaFacts now requires a common UNC path name for this purpose instead.
Stand-alone Operation
When CopiaFacts is operated on a stand-alone system the directories can be set up as described later in this appendix without having to consider access by other systems on the network. However we strongly recommend creating network shares even for standalone use on a single machine, because the use of local folders makes it very difficult to expand later to use more than one machine.
Network Types
Many CopiaFacts users assign the system running CopiaFacts as one of their network servers and make its drives available to other machines. The CopiaFacts directories described below would be then placed on the machine running CopiaFacts. Do not configure your CopiaFacts system using local path and drive letters on the machine where you install it. It is equally valid to place the CopiaFacts directory structure on a server and run CopiaFacts applications on one or more other machines, all accessing the same directory structure.
Dedicated-Fileserver Networks
One or more workstations on your network can be assigned for running CopiaFacts. The CopiaFacts directory structure described below would then reside on your fileserver where it can be accessed by both the CopiaFacts machine(s) and other network users.
Multiple CopiaFacts Systems
When the number of channels in your application requires multiple machines, you must use the same master configuration file and queue directory structure for all the CopiaFacts systems. The CopiaFacts programs and DLLs should be placed in the local \Program Files (x86)\COPIA folder on each node.
High-Availability, High-Reliability
Our recommended network configuration to maximize availability and reliability is to have duplicate CopiaFacts systems both accessing a third machine on which the COPIA share resides, containing the Copia Application Data folder. Any or all of these machines can be virtual when IP faxing is in use. For FoIP systems receiving inbound calls, we recommend a configuration (when supported by your ITSP) which sends inbound calls to both machines, and abandons the second call when the first is answered. CopiaFacts this configuration to balance the inbound load, and it also allows seamless continuation of operation in the event of a failure of one of the COPIAFACTS nodes. A similar configuration can be achieved with inbound e-mails to two machines running the Copia SMTP Gateway, by using two MX records of equal priority in the DNS configuration.
If a failure of the file server occurs, a typical backup strategy might involve temporarily moving the files on the file server to one of the processing nodes.
Client-Server Applications
If CopiaFacts is acting as a network fax server then the users around your network who will be sending faxes using FFCLIENT need to be able to access the TOSEND, USERJOBS and TEMP directories in order to schedule requests. For fax-on-demand applications you also need common access to the image directories to find documents from your "information warehouse", and the CopiaFacts base and user profiles directories in order to locate the .USR files which specify the image directories.
Drive Letters
We recommend that drive letters are no longer used. However the use of drive letters is supported provided that the same mapped drive letter is used by all machines to access the CopiaFacts Application Data folder. Note that mapped drive letter paths may not be accessible from Windows service applications and print-to-file drivers. See Advanced Configuration Features for more information.
If it is difficult to arrange for a common mapped drive letter on all machines, the $map_drive command may be used (as a last resort) in the configuration file to translate drive letters appearing in the various CopiaFacts command files into local drive designations on the machine(s) running the CopiaFacts fax server programs.
