Installing TDS
The Tessonics Data Service (TDS) software acts as a data collection service as well as a reporting tool. It is a web-based application that you can access from any device with a network connection.
Download and Initial Setup
The latest release of the TDS software can always be found on the downloads page of our website:
- Canada:
https://tessonics.com/downloads/ - Europe:
https://tessonics-europe.com/support
To install the TDS Software, download the installer and execute it with administrator rights on the server. The installer will guide you through the basic installation process.
The TDS installer can optionally install and start TDS as a system service. It can then be managed through Windows Service. On versions prior to v4.8, the service would be installed and started automatically.
By default, the TDS server will create the databases, some SSL certificates, and a
config file (tds-server.json) inside C:\ProgramData\tessonics\tds2. To update
database paths or use custom SSL certificates, edit the corresponding paths
inside tds-server.json.
Setting up Firewall
To setup the firewall rules to allow TDS to communicate with other devices on the same network, follow the steps outlined below on the computer running TDS:
You need administrator access on your PC.
- Open Windows Defender Firewall and select Advanced Settings from the left menu.
- Select Inbound Rules from the left menu.
- Select New Rule.
- Ensure "Program" is selected and press Next.
- Under "This program path", use the browse function to navigate to
C:\Program Files\Tessonics\TDS2\tds-server.exeand select Open. Then press Next. - Select Allow the connection and then Next.
- Ensure all three check boxes on the screen are checked, then press Next.
- In the name field, type
tds-serverand select Finish.
Now that you have a rule created for the TDS server, you can restrict this rule to only allow TCP communication. Follow the steps below:
- On the same screen, sort the rules by name and scroll down to
tds-server. - Right click the rule and select Properties.
- Select Protocols and ports and change "Any" to "TCP". Then press Apply and OK.
You should now see one tds-server rule accepting TCP communication. Finally, close Windows Defender Firewall and reboot the computer.
Migrating from a Previous TDS Installation
Previous versions of the TDS software relied on third party packages such as PHP, IIS, SQLServer, etc. The new TDS software does not have any outside dependencies. To migrate your data from an older TDS, download the migration software from our website and follow the following instructions. This only needs to be done once. For future upgrades to TDS, see the below section on upgrading.
Migrate your database
Before migrating, create a backup of your data to prevent accidental data loss.
In most cases the database location will not differ between versions and this step may be skipped.
All database migrations from older TDS 2 versions can be accomplished by referencing
the database.sqlite in the tds-server.json configuration file. When restarting
TDS, it will check the database schema and update the contained data accordingly.
Upgrading
To upgrade the TDS server to a later version, download the version from our website and run the installation wizard. It will detect the current TDS installation and update it accordingly.
If you updated TDS2 and you are working on an existing database, the restart might take some time. If you open TDS in the browser, the startup logs will be displayed and you can see the progress.
On versions prior to v4.8, the web server would only be active after a successful start.
For these older versions, you can check the logs at C:\ProgramData\tessonics\tds2\log\tds2.txt and look at the timestamps of the last Starting TDS application message to the Ready to serve message after that to get a reference of how long you might have to wait after a restart until TDS serves the website.
Check your data
After setting the correct database and updating the TDS software, it will have restarted and the web-interface of TDS should be accessible and display the data as it has been before the update.