Ascent Capture (AC) 7.x Supported Configurations

Kofax Capture 9.0 Service Pack 1 Release 2 is the latest release of the Kofax Capture (previously named Ascent Capture) product.

To access the following Web pages for this release, please click on the desired page's link.

Application Notes - Frequently Asked Questions - Release Scripts - Revision Levels - Supported Configurations

Ascent Capture 7.x Operating Requirements

This section provides information about the operating system and hardware requirements for the Ascent Capture 7.x product releases.

Server System Requirements

This section lists the requirements for installing Ascent Capture on a server station.

Note: It is recommended that you use a dedicated server for Ascent Capture. In particular, it is strongly suggested that you do not use your server computer for scanning or importing documents.

Minimum Hardware Requirements

The following lists the minimum hardware requirements for the Ascent Capture server:

• Processor: Pentium 4 processor, or equivalent
• System memory: 256 Mbytes or more
• Disk space: 1.3 Gbytes on any local drive, plus 300 Mbytes available on your local C: drive or wherever your operating system is installed, for installation files, temporary files, and working space during processing You may need even more disk space, if you have many image files or a large database.
• Display: 1024 x 768 with 16 bit color, small fonts; 24 bit color is recommended for the best viewing of online Help
• USB port: Ascent Capture hardware key
• NIC: 100 Mbps

Certified Operating Systems

Kofax has certified the following operating systems for the server files and software:

Notes:

• Ascent Capture 7.5 and 7.0x have not been tested on, or certified for, Microsoft Windows XP Home. Although Kofax is unaware of any specific limitations on using Microsoft Windows XP Home with Ascent Capture 7.5 and 7.0x, the use of Microsoft Windows XP Home with Ascent Capture is not supported.
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 does not support scanning with a SCSI card, and it is strongly suggested that you do not use your server computer for scanning or importing documents.

In general, the Ascent Capture server files and software should be installed on the same computer. However, some existing sites may have legacy issues that require server files to be kept on a computer that is not running any of the Ascent Capture certified operating systems listed above.

• AC 7.5
  • Refer to File Locations on page 22 of the Ascent Capture and Ascent Capture Internet Server 7.5 Installation Guide for more information about Ascent Capture server files and server software. Refer to Appendix B – Setting Up Distributed Server Configurations on page 159 of the same guide for information about installing Ascent Capture server files on a computer that is not running an operating system certified for use with Ascent Capture.
• AC 7.0x
  • Refer to File Locations on page 20 of the Ascent Capture & Ascent Capture Internet Server 7.0 Installation Guide for more information about Ascent Capture server files and server software. Refer to Appendix B – Setting Up Distributed Server Configurations on page 135 of the same guide for information about installing Ascent Capture server files on a machine that is not running an operating system certified for use with Ascent Capture.

Required Windows Service

The Server service must be running before installing Ascent Capture on a server workstation.

Client System Requirements

This section lists the requirements for installing Ascent Capture on a client workstation.

Minimum Hardware Requirements

The following lists the minimum hardware requirements for the Ascent Capture client systems:

• Processor: Pentium 4 processor, or equivalent
• System memory: 256 Mbytes
• Disk space: 680 Mbytes on any local drive, plus 300 Mbytes available on your local C: drive or wherever your operating system is installed, for installation files, temporary files, and working space during processing
• Display: 1024 x 768 with 16 bit color, small fonts
• Parallel port: Enhanced Bar Code Engine hardware key (optional)
• USB port: RecoStar Professional hardware key (optional)
• Printer: 600 DPI to support the Separator Sheet Utility (optional)
• NIC: 100 Mbps

Recommended Hardware Requirements

The following lists the recommended hardware requirements for the Ascent Capture client systems:

• Processor: Pentium 4 processor, or equivalent
• System memory: 512 Mbytes or more
• Disk space: 680 Mbytes or more on any local drive, plus 300 Mbytes or more available on your local C: drive or wherever your operating system is installed, for installation files, temporary files, and working space during processing
• Display: 1024 x 768 with 24 bit color, small fonts; 24 bit color is recommended for the best viewing of online Help
• Parallel port: Enhanced Bar Code Engine hardware key (optional)
• USB port: RecoStar Professional hardware key (optional)
• Printer: 600 DPI to support the Separator Sheet Utility (optional)
• NIC: 100 Mbps or higher

Certified Operating Systems

Kofax has certified the following operating systems for Ascent Capture client workstations:

Notes:

Ascent Capture 7.5 and 7.0x have not been tested on, or certified for, Microsoft Windows XP Home. Although Kofax is unaware of any specific limitations on using Microsoft Windows XP Home with Ascent Capture 7.5 and 7.0x, the use of Microsoft Windows XP Home with Ascent Capture is not supported.

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 does not support scanning with a SCSI card, and it is strongly suggested that you do not use your server computer for scanning or importing documents.

Microsoft Windows 98, Windows Me, and Windows NT are not supported operating systems.

Required Windows Service

The Server service must be running before installing Ascent Capture on a server workstation.

Standalone System Requirements

This section lists the requirements for installing Ascent Capture on a standalone workstation.

Minimum Hardware Requirements

The following lists the minimum hardware requirements for the Ascent Capture standalone systems:

• Processor: Pentium 4 processor, or equivalent
• System memory: 256 Mbytes
• Disk space: 760 Mbytes on any local drive, plus 300 Mbytes available on your local C: drive or wherever your operating system is installed, for installation files, temporary files, and working space during processing
• Display: 1024 x 768 with 16 bit color, small fonts; 24 bit color is recommended for the best viewing of online Help
• Parallel port: Enhanced Bar Code Engine hardware key (optional)
• USB port: Ascent Capture hardware key.
  RecoStar Professional hardware key (optional)
• Printer: 600 DPI to support the Separator Sheet Utility (optional)

Recommended Hardware Requirements

The following lists the recommended hardware requirements for the Ascent Capture standalone systems:

• Processor: Pentium 4 processor, or equivalent
• System memory: 512 Mbytes or more
• Disk space: 760 Mbytes or more on any local drive, plus 300 Mbytes or more available on your local C: drive or wherever your operating system is installed, for installation files, temporary files, and working space during processing
• Display: 1024 x 768 with 24 bit color, small fonts; 24 bit color is recommended for the best viewing of online Help
• Parallel port: Enhanced Bar Code Engine hardware key (optional)
• USB port: Ascent Capture hardware key RecoStar.
  Professional hardware key (optional)
• Printer: 600 DPI to support the Separator Sheet Utility (optional)

Certified Operating Systems

Kofax has certified the following operating systems for Ascent Capture standalone workstations:

Notes:

Ascent Capture 7.5 and 7.0x have not been tested on, or certified for, Microsoft Windows XP Home. Although Kofax is unaware of any specific limitations on using Microsoft Windows XP Home with Ascent Capture 7.5 and 7.0x, the use of Microsoft Windows XP Home with Ascent Capture is not supported.

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 does not support scanning with a SCSI card, and it is strongly suggested that you do not use your server computer for scanning or importing documents.

Warning: When installing Ascent Capture on Microsoft Windows Server 2003, you may be confronted with a series of warning messages informing you that some files can harm your computer. These messages appear because Microsoft Windows Server 2003 uses stricter security defaults than earlier versions of Microsoft Windows.

Since this warning will occur repeatedly during the installation process, and may cause automatic/silent installations to fail, you can temporarily relax the security settings. After installation, you can restore the original settings if desired.

For more information on this, and for instructions on changing these settings, find article number 182569 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base, and refer to the “1806 Launching applications and unsafe files” DWORD setting.

Do not attempt to edit the registry unless you have the necessary knowledge and experience. Damaging the registry may make your system inoperative.

Required Windows Service

The Server service must be running before installing Ascent Capture on a server workstation.

Configuration Requirements

This section contains information on a number of Ascent Capture configuration requirements. These are the required system configuration settings for Ascent Capture.

Ascent Capture License Management

Ascent Capture supports a centralized license management scheme that requires a hardware key on the Ascent Capture server at the central site, and on standalone installations. Client workstations do not require hardware keys to run Ascent Capture.

The key features of the Ascent Capture 7.5 and 7.0x license management scheme are:

• Licenses can be delivered and upgraded through the Internet.
• Licenses must be activated before you can use Ascent Capture permanently.

Activation typically occurs during installation of an Ascent Capture server or standalone station, but can also occur after installation.

During installation: After the Ascent Capture server or standalone files are installed, the installation may prompt you to attach a hardware key to the server or standalone station. Near the end of the installation process, the installation will contact the Kofax license server to activate the licenses for the Ascent options you purchased.

Refer to the Ascent Capture online Help for details about activating licenses (online Help keyword: Licensing > activating licenses).

Note: During Ascent Capture installation on a server or standalone station, you need to have Internet access if you want to automatically activate your license at that time. If the station does not have Internet access, you will be able to install Ascent Capture, but will need to use the Ascent Capture License Utility to activate your Ascent licenses after installation.

After Installation: If activation during installation fails, you will be able to use your purchased Ascent Capture options for a period of three days. To use the purchased options on a permanent basis, you must use the Ascent Capture License Utility installed with Ascent Capture to activate your licenses after installation.

After activation, the Ascent Capture License Utility allows you to view the status of activated licenses, as well as activate new or additional licenses for your system. Refer to the Ascent Capture online Help for details about using the License Utility (online Help keyword: License Utility > about).

Note: For more information about the Ascent options purchased for your company, contact your system administrator or Kofax Certified Solution Provider.

Network Components

Ascent Capture requires that the TCP/IP protocol be installed and running in your Microsoft Windows network configuration settings. Prior to installing Ascent Capture, ensure that the following are installed and functioning properly:

• “Client for Microsoft Networks” and “File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks”
• TCP/IP protocol
• A NIC (not required for standalone installations)

Contact your network administrator or refer to your Microsoft documentation for more information about these components.

Note: Not having the TCP/IP protocol may be a problem in standalone installations that have never been connected to the Internet, or a network, or where the TCP/IP protocol has been removed or disabled. If you attempt to install a standalone version of Ascent Capture on a computer without TCP/IP, the installation may fail with an “Unable to Initialize Batch Catalog” error message. The batch catalog is the Ascent Capture database.

Administrative Privileges Required

To install Ascent Capture, the logged-in user must have administrative privileges to the local computer.

Database Support

Ascent Capture supports the following database configurations.

Note: Ascent Capture does not ship with or install SQL Server.

For more information on switching Ascent Capture 7.x database configurations refer to the Database tab section in:

• AC 7.5
  • Chapter 5, beginning on page 172 of the Getting Started with Ascent Capture and Ascent Capture Internet Server 7.5 guide.
• AC 7.0x
  • Chapter 5, beginning on page 160 of the Getting Started with Ascent Capture 7.0 guide.

Note: You can switch to SQL Server any time after installation. Database Validation and Release Support Ascent Capture supports Microsoft Access 2000, and 2002, or any ODBC-compliant database for the Database Validation feature and for releasing index data to a database.

Ascent Capture does not provide ODBC drivers for target databases.

Database Management Components

For managing batches during processing, Ascent Capture uses MSDE, which is a version of SQL Server.

When installing the Ascent Capture server software or an Ascent Capture standalone installation, the required database management components are also installed.

Note: You must use the versions of MDAC that shipped and installed with Ascent Capture. Ascent Capture will install correctly and can coexist with existing installations of SQL Server (2000 or 2005 for AC 7.5 or 2000 for AC 7.0x) or MSDE, provided Ascent Capture is installed in a folder under the same parent directory as these products, usually C:\Program Files.

For example, if SQL Server is installed in C:\Program Files\MSSQL, then the Ascent Capture server software should be installed in a folder such as C:\Program Files\<Ascent Folder Name>.

Warning: Do not install Ascent Capture in the same directory as SQL Server (2000 or 2005 for AC 7.5 or 2000 for AC 7.0x) or MSDE, or on a machine with earlier versions of these applications. If you do, the results will be unpredictable and you may render your SQL Server software inoperable.

Browser Support

The online Help for Ascent Capture requires Internet Explorer 6 (or higher) be set as your default browser.

Although no known incompatibilities exist with previous versions of Internet Explorer, the online Help for Ascent Capture has been certified only with Internet Explorer 6.

If the browser that you are currently using is a version earlier than Internet Explorer 6, the installation will stop and display a warning message indicating that Internet Explorer 6 is not installed. After you acknowledge the warning, the installation will resume.

Before using the online Help, install or upgrade your browser to Internet Explorer 6 and set it as the default browser for your system.

Ascent Capture Email Import

The Ascent Capture Email Import feature has the same operating requirements as Ascent Capture itself.

For information about installing this feature, refer to Installing and Configuring Ascent Capture Email Import found in:

• AC 7.5
  • Chapter 11, page 135 of the Ascent Capture and Ascent Capture Internet Server 7.5 Installation Guide.
• AC 7.0x
  • Chapter 11, page 111 of the Ascent Capture & Ascent Capture Internet Server 7.0 Installation Guide.

Other Installation Options

This section contains information on a number of Ascent Capture installation options. While potentially useful, these are not required.

PDF Generation

The Kofax PDF Generator module is included with Ascent Capture. This module allows you to create PDF files from within Ascent Capture. However, if desired, you can continue to use Adobe Acrobat Capture Cluster Server or Personal Edition version 3.04 with all Kofax developed release scripts to create PDF files.
If you choose to use Adobe Acrobat Capture Personal Edition, be sure to attach the hardware key provided with your Adobe Acrobat Capture software.

Development Environment Support

Ascent Capture supports the following development languages:

• For release and import scripts and custom modules:
  • Visual Basic 6.0 with Service Pack 6
  • Visual C++ 6.0 with Service Pack 6
  • Visual Basic.NET version 2003
  • Visual C#.NET version 2003
• For OCX panels:
  • Visual Basic 6.0 with Service Pack 6
  • Visual C++ 6.0 with Service Pack 6
• For validation and recognition scripts:
  • Softbridge Basic Language (SBL) 5.3 provided with Ascent Capture

Scanner Support

Ascent Capture supports a wide range of desktop and production-level scanners, including:

• High-end SCSI and video models supported by Kofax Adrenaline hardware products
• Low-end Group 1, 2, and 3 SCSI models using ISIS drivers
• VirtualReScan (VRS) ready scanners

For a current list of supported scanners, visit the Kofax Web site's Scanner Configurator and follow the instructions presented to you.

VirtualReScan (VRS) Support

The VirtualReScan (VRS) program is integrated into the Ascent Capture installation process as shown below. However, additional licensing is required to activate VRS for use with Ascent Capture. Refer to the Ascent Capture online Help system for information about licensing VRS.

VirtualReScan 4.5

Ascent Capture 7.5 supports the VirtualReScan (VRS) 4.5 product, released on 06/09/09. Please refer to page 7 of the VirtualReScan (VRS) 4.5 Release Notes document for installation instructions.

VirtualReScan 4.2

Ascent Capture 7.x supports the VirtualReScan (VRS) 4.2 product, released on 02/26/08.

VirtualReScan 4.1

Ascent Capture 7.5 installs VRS 4.1.

VirtualReScan 4.0

Ascent Capture 7.0x installs VRS 4.0.

For more information about installing VRS drivers, see the section Step 3: Install VRS Scanner Drivers on:

• AC 7.5
  • Page 43 of the Ascent Capture and Ascent Capture Internet Server 7.5 Installation Guide.
• AC 7.0x
  • Page 40 of the Ascent Capture & Ascent Capture Internet Server 7.0 Installation Guide.

The following VRS documents are also available in your Ascent Capture software package.

• AC 7.5
  • VirtualReScan (VRS) 4.1 User’s Guide
    (PDF, 1.75 MB) 10300550-000 Revision A - 03/14/06
  • VirtualReScan 4.1 English Help File
    (CHM, 449 KB) 03/24/06
  • VirtualReScan 4.1 Scanner Configuration Utility English Help File
    (CHM, 68 KB) 01/17/06
• AC 7.0x
  • VirtualReScan 4.0 User's Manual
    (PDF, 2.08 MB) PN 10300467-000 - Revision A - 03/09/05
  • VirtualReScan 4.0 Help File
    (CHM, 700 KB) 03/14/05

Note: Ascent Capture 7.5 and 7.0x have not been tested, or certified, with VRS 3.5 or earlier. Using these versions of VRS with Ascent Capture 7.5 or 7.0x is not supported.

Adrenaline Support

Ascent Capture supports Adrenaline hardware products, including:

• Adrenaline 850 and 1700 image processing accelerators
• Adrenaline 450, 650, and 650i SCSI scanner controllers

Note: The use of Adrenaline accelerator cards is not supported on Microsoft Windows Server 2003. In general, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 does not support scanning with a SCSI card.

Kofax KF-Series Boards Support Discontinued

Effective with version 5.5, Ascent Capture no longer supports KF-Series boards. These boards are not compatible with the newest drivers shipped with Ascent Capture, so KF-Series boards must be removed from your computer before you install or upgrade to Ascent Capture 7.0x. There is no need to uninstall the KF-Series board drivers.

Ascent Capture Report Viewer

The system requirements for the Report Viewer module are the same as those for Ascent Capture.

Terminal Servers and Citrix Support

AC 7.5

Ascent Capture 7.5 has been certified for use with Citrix Presentation Server 4.0 Standard Edition and Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 Enterprise Edition. You can operate Ascent Capture 7.5 via a Terminal Services or Citrix session. Once logged in to the Terminal Services or Citrix session, Ascent Capture operates as if it were installed on your local computer.

Before using Ascent Capture 7.5 in a Terminal Services or Citrix environment, please review the Terminal Servers and Citrix Support section found on page 16 of the Ascent Capture and Ascent Capture Internet Server 7.5 Installation Guide for station licensing conditions.

AC 7.0x

The Ascent Capture 7.0x Validation Module is certified to run in a Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0 environment.

VMware

Ascent Capture 7.5 applications/modules have been certified for virtual machines hosted by the following VMware products:

• VMware ESX Server 2.5*
• VMware ESX Server 3.0 (certified with AC 7.5 with; no Service Pack, SP3, and SP4)*
• VMware ESX Server 3.5 (certified with AC 7.5 with SP6)*
• VMware GSX Server 3.1 (Win32 version)
• VMware Server 1.0

*NOTE: ESX Server does not support a USB device. In order to enable the Kofax Capture licensing (hardware dongle) in conjunction with an ESX Server, there are two options:

1. Utilize AnywhereUSB, please see ‘Digi International’s AnywhereUSB Certification’ below.
2. Enable the Kofax Capture License Service/Dongle on a Windows workstation.

Warning: Kofax recommends that you disable hyper-threading on the VMware computer to avoid the possibility of intermittent error messages.

For more information about running the VMware product in a hyper-threaded environment, please check the VMware Support site.

Digi International’s AnywhereUSB® Certification

The following configurations have been tested for use with the Ascent Capture 7.5 Hardware dongle with the AnywhereUSB.

Certified Configuration

Ascent Capture 7.5 running on:

• Windows XP SP2 on VMWare Workstation 6.0

Supported Configurations

Ascent Capture 7.5 running on:

• Windows 2003 Standard Edition SP2 on VMWare Server 2 RC 1
• Windows XP SP2 on VMWare Server 2 RC 1
• Windows 2003 Standard Edition SP2 on VMWare ESX Server 3.5
• Windows XP SP3 on VMWare ESX Server 3.5
• Windows 2000 Pro SP4 on VMWare Workstation 6.0
• Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition SP2 on VMWare Workstation 6.0

Cluster Server Support

AC 7.5