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Buidling a server to host Dragon Naturally Speaking Professional for an office

Tags:
  • Windows Server 2008
  • Systems
  • Office
  • Servers
Last response: in Business Computing
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February 10, 2014 2:45:34 PM

Hi,

I volunteer for a non-profit that is starting to use Dragon Naturally Speaking Professional 12.5.
They want multiple people to be able to use the program at the same time and have it all update the same user profile.

From what I gathered from Nuance's website, the professional version can handle this, but it requires a sever running Windows Server 2008 R2 for multiple people to use the software at one time. (windows 7 Ultimate works if only one person accesses at a time, but they want multiple people to be able to access it at the same time, so I am back to Windows Server 2008 R2)

The website says the following about the specs for the server:

Server Hardware: For Windows Server 2008 R2, to support 6 concurrent users connecting to
Dragon, the minimum requirements are:
l Cache: 1 MB L2 cache per CPU
l CPU: 3.x Ghz
l Disk space: 5 GB
l Processor: Multi-core processor with 4 cores
l RAM: 16 GB DDR2 RAM

I think I should build in some expansion, but I don't think more than 6 people would be using it at once, and if these are just the minimum requirements probably want to go a little higher than that so they have good performance.

I have built computers, but never a server before. Any assistance, advice, recommendation would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Jen

More about : buidling server host dragon naturally speaking professional office

February 10, 2014 2:53:47 PM

Moving this over to Business Computing. You'll likely get better answers there.
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February 11, 2014 7:06:19 AM

I'm not completely familiar with Nuance, but it sounds like what they are actually saying you need to do is set up a terminal server (now often called Remote Desktop Session Host, or RDSH in the newest versions of Windows.) I would suggest contacting to their technical support team and getting an updated set of requirements, as those hardware suggestions appear to be pretty old. For example, if there is a newer release of the software out available, does it support Server 2012? Does it require additional system resources to run?

I wouldn't really suggest building a server system in a business critical environment. You can, but all of the support and maintenance falls on your shoulders. If you go with a professional quality pre-built server, they have done all the legwork to ensure that all of your hardware is compatible and all of your drivers are working properly (though, to be fair, I ran into some issues with an HP driver that they couldn't figure out for Server 2012 R2 just recently!) Still, a pre-built server system will eliminate some of the guessing and possible compatibility issues that may arise if you have to do it all yourself.

Setting up a RDSH server isn't too bad, but it does require some additional knowledge, skill, and licensing beyond just standard desktop installation and maintenance. First off, you will need to look into virtualization and know how this works, as well as the basics of creating and working with virtual machines. I can go more into this if you have questions or need more information, but the licensing and capabilities of running virtualization is included within the licensing of Windows Server 2008 R2 or Server 2012 R2. You will then also need to set up the role on the server for remote desktop session host and set up all your necessary user accounts, permissions, and necessary software.

The way that this works is basically each user that wants to use the software will use Windows Remote Desktop, which is a utility built in to Windows, to get access to a desktop actually on the server, functioning similarly to LogMeIn or Teamviewer. The user can run software through the remote desktop like they would any others. Normally with Remote Desktop only a single user can connect to a single remote session at a time. However, with RDSH it allows for handing out multiple sessions to the same virtual machine for many users to access. Each user is given their own desktop space to work with and have access to all that same software, but when they log out of the session everything reverts back to the state at which it was before they logged in. This means if they go and move files around, download things, or make system changes, then it should just erase all of those things when they log out of the remote desktop session.

But my first recommendation is going to be contacting to Nuance's customer support and finding out about any newer system requirements list, as well as recommendations for your situation. Most of the time when I have had to contact into vendor customer support they have been very helpful with this sort of information and recommendations.
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February 11, 2014 7:25:04 AM

I have DNS 12.5 Premium & LEGAL
Nuance & ONMNIPRO 18
PDF 8 PRO
There TS Level 2's will keep me on phones for 10 hours and not accomplish anything. They are attempting to not allow me to use my ROAMING profile. This coincides with Issues from my prior post since my Laptop came without MSI and I had to create new profile. TIME IS MONEY - Do you know where to get video instructions on NUANCE - Legal version cost $799. They say I need to scrap Premium 12 12.5. Is this true?
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February 11, 2014 7:51:45 AM


"I'm not completely familiar with Nuance, but it sounds like what they are actually saying you need to do is set up a terminal server (now often called Remote Desktop Session Host, or RDSH in the newest versions of Windows.) I would suggest contacting to their technical support team and getting an updated set of requirements, as those hardware suggestions appear to be pretty old. For example, if there is a newer release of the software out available, does it support Server 2012? Does it require additional system resources to run?"

Okay, I will contact Nuance to see if they have any updated requirements, like supporting Server 2012, first.

"I wouldn't really suggest building a server system in a business critical environment. You can, but all of the support and maintenance falls on your shoulders. If you go with a professional quality pre-built server, they have done all the legwork to ensure that all of your hardware is compatible and all of your drivers are working properly (though, to be fair, I ran into some issues with an HP driver that they couldn't figure out for Server 2012 R2 just recently!) Still, a pre-built server system will eliminate some of the guessing and possible compatibility issues that may arise if you have to do it all yourself."

I am not opposed to a pre-built server. Do you have any suggestions for who has reliable ones? What kind of case I should look for. I don't need a rack mounted server.

Also, you said the specs seemed old. Was it just the Server 2008 part, or did some of the hardware specs seem too low for what I want to do?


"Setting up a RDSH server isn't too bad, but it does require some additional knowledge, skill, and licensing beyond just standard desktop installation and maintenance. First off, you will need to look into virtualization and know how this works, as well as the basics of creating and working with virtual machines. I can go more into this if you have questions or need more information, but the licensing and capabilities of running virtualization is included within the licensing of Windows Server 2008 R2 or Server 2012 R2. "

I would be interested in more info on virtulalization and how to create a virtual machine. Basically, my knowledge of computers is all self taught based on what I needed to do in the moment. So, now some one is asking about this, so I am trying to learn about it. They don't need the machine right this second, so I do have sometime to learn about it. But, I would like to get it to them as soon as I could.

Do you have any books, articles, videos, websites that you recommend I could look at about this. Any materials that are good for Windows Server licensing?


"You will then also need to set up the role on the server for remote desktop session host and set up all your necessary user accounts, permissions, and necessary software. The way that this works is basically each user that wants to use the software will use Windows Remote Desktop, which is a utility built in to Windows, to get access to a desktop actually on the server, functioning similarly to LogMeIn or Teamviewer. The user can run software through the remote desktop like they would any others. Normally with Remote Desktop only a single user can connect to a single remote session at a time. However, with RDSH it allows for handing out multiple sessions to the same virtual machine for many users to access. Each user is given their own desktop space to work with and have access to all that same software, but when they log out of the session everything reverts back to the state at which it was before they logged in. This means if they go and move files around, download things, or make system changes, then it should just erase all of those things when they log out of the remote desktop session."

I had been reading up about the Remote Desktop Program in windows. But, this helps me understand what is happening better. I did have one question based on what you said. So, Dragon is a dictation software program. So, I have this transcript that was dictated, and it has some corrections that need to be made. But, it is a really long transcript, and so I want to have multiple people working on different sections of it, to get it corrected quicker. So, I have two people log into the RDSH server and access the dragon program, and make corrections to their section of the transcript. From what you said, any changes they make will be lost once they log off. Do they need to save the file to their individual computer afterwards? Is that possible?

My understanding from the Dragon site is that you can have one central user profile on the network that gets updated, instead of just hte individual profile on each computer, because updating different versions of the profiles on different computers doesn't help getting one main, completely updated profile. That might be something else I need to ask Dragon about.


"But my first recommendation is going to be contacting to Nuance's customer support and finding out about any newer system requirements list, as well as recommendations for your situation. Most of the time when I have had to contact into vendor customer support they have been very helpful with this sort of information and recommendations."

Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it. Any answers you can give to the questions above would be great. Thanks for taking the time.

Jen

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February 11, 2014 8:06:03 AM

"So, Dragon is a dictation software program. So, I have this transcript that was dictated, and it has some corrections that need to be made. But, it is a really long transcript, and so I want to have multiple people working on different sections of it, to get it corrected quicker. So, I have two people log into the RDSH server and access the dragon program, and make corrections to their section of the transcript. From what you said, any changes they make will be lost once they log off. Do they need to save the file to their individual computer afterwards? Is that possible? "

This will be an issue. Each transcript is presumably one 'file'. 2 people editing the same file...the last save 'wins', and overwrites the previous edit.
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February 11, 2014 9:39:23 AM

USAFRet said:
"So, Dragon is a dictation software program. So, I have this transcript that was dictated, and it has some corrections that need to be made. But, it is a really long transcript, and so I want to have multiple people working on different sections of it, to get it corrected quicker. So, I have two people log into the RDSH server and access the dragon program, and make corrections to their section of the transcript. From what you said, any changes they make will be lost once they log off. Do they need to save the file to their individual computer afterwards? Is that possible? "

This will be an issue. Each transcript is presumably one 'file'. 2 people editing the same file...the last save 'wins', and overwrites the previous edit.


So, what if I broke the file up into different files...like one file is the pages 1-3, the second file is pages 3-6, etc. So, they are editing different files. Would that work then? Would the corrections they made be saved when they logged out. And would those files be kept on the server computer or on their individual computers?

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February 11, 2014 9:47:37 AM

amaranthxx said:
USAFRet said:
"So, Dragon is a dictation software program. So, I have this transcript that was dictated, and it has some corrections that need to be made. But, it is a really long transcript, and so I want to have multiple people working on different sections of it, to get it corrected quicker. So, I have two people log into the RDSH server and access the dragon program, and make corrections to their section of the transcript. From what you said, any changes they make will be lost once they log off. Do they need to save the file to their individual computer afterwards? Is that possible? "

This will be an issue. Each transcript is presumably one 'file'. 2 people editing the same file...the last save 'wins', and overwrites the previous edit.


So, what if I broke the file up into different files...like one file is the pages 1-3, the second file is pages 3-6, etc. So, they are editing different files. Would that work then? Would the corrections they made be saved when they logged out. And would those files be kept on the server computer or on their individual computers?



Yes, that should work. But then you have the issue of bringing all the parts back together.
As far as on the server or on their client....all depends on how you set it up. But a file that lives on the server will be saved on the server unless otherwise specified.
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February 11, 2014 11:21:58 AM

You wouldn't want to have the working documents saved directly to the RDSH server, there should be some other location such as a file server or directly on their own computer that they can open and work with a file. Usually in this situation you will have multiple virtual machines running on one or more physical machines. These virtual machines do several independent tasks that together make it all work. One virtual machine may be your domain controller and storage server, controlling user accounts and who has access to what files, storing and sharing those files across your network to multiple users. Then you would have your RDSH server which uses the domain controller to manage who has access to log into the server, set permissions, etc. There may be additional virtual machines based on your environment and needs such as web servers for internal websites, or print servers, etc.
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