Symptoms
We have got a couple questions regarding the setup of our K2 environment. We have a development K2 environment and a production K2 environment. In the past, we have built both our forms and workflows in K2. There is currently a need for our developers to create some .NET web applications. Our questions are as follows:
1) On the production K2 environment, would it be OK for it to host production K2 Forms, production K2 Workflows and production .NET web applications on the same system or would it be best to host the .NET web applications on a separate environment? If we do host .NET web applications on a separate environment, could they still make use of the K2 workflows?
2) We would like to have our development K2 environment match our production K2 environment as best as we can. With the introduction of .NET web development, we would need to install a variety of .NET tools and add-ons to the development K2 environment to accommodate the .NET coding. Would you suggest that we install the .NET tools on the on our existing development K2 environment or that we install this on a separate .NET only environment.
Diagnoses
Host your .NET applications on a separate server
Resolution
Recommendation for hosting your .NET applications on a separate server for the following reasons:
1.For any issue that could happen to your custom applications, they could potentially affect k2 site if they are located in the same server. If you need to reboot the server or reset IIS for your web application for example.
2.If for any reason your Web Application consumes excessive resources on the server, that would also affect K2 performance on the K2 as well.
3.Software/Updates conflict. If your Web Application requires any software or updates that K2 is not compatible with, you may run into this conflict.
Which ever configuration, you choose, you will need to test it thoroughly to avoid any possible down side effect.
For information on using our K2 API to integrate your application with K2, please see the following reference:
http://help.k2.com/onlinehelp/k2blackpearl/DevRef/4.6.7/Start_Instance_and_Get_Data_Fields.html
http://help.k2.com/onlinehelp/k2blackpearl/DevRef/4.6.7/start_a_workflow_using_WCF_service.html
http://help.k2.com/onlinehelp/k2blackpearl/DevRef/4.6.7/ProcessInstancesStartInstances.html
