Pre-Installation Planning

The following pre-installation steps should be performed before commencing the installation of SilhouetteCentral:

1 

Review the Silhouette CTEULA and Terms of Use, see the ARANZ Medical website (https://www.aranzmedical.com/silhouette-legal/). Installing and using SilhouetteCentral means that you accept these conditions.

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2 

The SilhouetteCentral is a web application using Microsoft .NET v4 framework and Microsoft .NET Core v3 and is designed to be served by Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) on the Microsoft Windows Server operating system.

Patient demographic and assessment data is stored in a Microsoft SQL Server database, while images are stored outside of the database on the file system. Review the latest system requirements and operating conditions from www.aranzmedical.com to ensure the targeted installation platforms and networks are adequate.

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3 

Plan the network location and network firewall configurations for SilhouetteCentral, considering where users will need to access the system from (e.g. nurses may need to use the system from patient's homes or remote clinics).

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4 

Define the desired URL of the SilhouetteCentral website.

The recommended setup for running the main SilhouetteCentral web application and the SilhouetteTokenService is one website with two sub virtual directories. This means that there is one URL required with one SSL certificate. It also means that there is always a path component in the URL. e.g. http://<sub-domain>.<domain name>/<path>/.

The path for the main SilhouetteCentral application is typically deployed as silhouette and the path for the SilhouetteTokenService application is typically deployed as silhouettetoken. The path component of the URL is case sensitive and the consistent use of lower case helps reduce configuration errors later.

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5 

Plan how SSL certificates will be managed to allow HTTPS to be used.

HTTPS communication is required to encrypt data between SilhouetteCentral and the other Silhouette system components.

HTTPS communication is also required for the use of SSO with external authentication providers.

HTTPS is required for the use of SilhouetteLite or SilhouetteLite+ with SilhouetteCentral. These apps do not support unencrypted HTTP connections to SilhouetteCentral.

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6 

The encryption requirements for the server file system and the database are understood and any required keys and recovery mechanisms are prepared.

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7 

The service account required to run the SilhouetteCentral and SilhouetteTokenService Web Applications have been created and credentials are available.

It is not possible to use the IIS DefaultApplicationPool identity if you wish to use Windows Authentication to access SQL Server instance hosted on a different machine than the web server. If planning to use the use the IIS DefaultApplicationPool identity then SQL Server access will be through SQL Authentication mode.

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8 

Gather the details of the SQL server to host the Silhouette database, including:

  • SQL Server name
  • Database name
  • SQL Server Authentication details (Authentication mode + SQL Server Login credentials)

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9 

Backup requirements for clinical data stored within Silhouette are understood and backup systems are prepared.

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10 

The SMTP server details are known. SilhouetteCentral requires SMTP server access to send password reset emails or assessment emails.   The details required are listed below and can be entered after installation if required.

  • SMTP Host
  • SMTP Port
  • Use SSL
  • Sender Email Address
  • User Name
  • Password

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11 

Enable network access to allow the Silhouette automatic licensing process to work. SilhouetteCentral must be able to reach the following URLs:

  • https://www.silhouettecentral.com/licensing/LicenseDownload.ashx
  • https://www.silhouettecentral.com/licensing/SilhouetteCentralLicenseService.asmx
  • https://europe.silhouettecentral.com/licensing/LicenseDownload.ashx
  • https://europe.silhouettecentral.com/licensing/SilhouetteCentralLicenseService.asmx

A generic rule to allow access to https://*.silhouettecentral.com/licensing/ is recommended to allow for any changes in the licensing.

If access to these destinations is not enabled the licensing process can be completed offline.

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12 

Silhouette users and their system access is determined.

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Aside from the technical installation considerations, to gain the most out of Silhouette, it is recommended that there is time spent planning how different users are going to use the different components of the system. A demonstration or trial of the system maybe appropriate in some cases to assist with this planning.

The Silhouette system is a powerful tool enabling wound data capture at the point of care, which can assist in the achievement of great clinical results. Spending time defining what data you want to collect can help achieve the desired results, while optimizing workflow for clinical staff.