A Guide to a Successful Installation
When setting up Intella Connect/Investigator, planning is key to ensuring a seamless installation process. From assessing system requirements to configuration, every step benefits from thoughtful preparation. Proper planning is critical to avoid disruptions and ensure a smooth installation.
Intella Connect and Intella Investigator are essentially the same program from the point of setup, installation, and configuration. Therefore, the steps to install Intella Investigator will be the same as installing Intella Connect.
From this point on, when we refer to Connect, we are also referring to Connect Plus and Investigator installations unless noted otherwise.
System Overview
For Intella Connect specifically: to ensure performance and reliability, it is crucial to install Intella Connect and Intella Node on distinct systems. In addition, we strongly advise using a dedicated third virtual machine (VM) to host the software license, referred to as the "License Server." Having a separate, dedicated license VM is strongly recommended, since Intella licenses are hardware-locked. This setup enables future scaling of your Connect system without invalidating your license. This server must be continuously powered on to provide the license to your Connect and Node systems. A diagram of a standard system configuration is provided below.
Note:
Intella Investigator has been designed with simplicity in mind and therefore the default installation procedure will have Intella Node along with Intella Investigator on one single system. It is, however, still strongly recommended using a separate, dedicated VM to hold the software license.
Intella Connect:
Intella Investigator:
Network setup
Consider the design to incorporate up to 3 servers: one for Connect/Investigator, one for Node, and one to hold your software license. As mentioned previously, we highly recommend using an independent VM to host the software license. Licenses are hardware locked (CPU, network card, motherboard, etc.) to specific machines. If you install the license directly on the Connect/Investigator machine and any changes are made to the machine, the license will become invalid. Hosting the license on a low spec VM will ensure that changes to the Connect/Investigator machine will have no effect on the license. The license that Vound supplies will be a network license and when configured it will broadcast the license to the Connect/Investigator and Node VMs from the license VM.
Processing drives and storage
The location of the drives (case, evidence, optimization) used for processing by the Node and the drives needed for case storage and sharing.
Note: If you plan to use NAS devices or network shares, please read this KB article outlining the reasons they are not recommended:
Minimum Requirements:
Connect (and associated Node): https://vound.info/connect-system-requirements
Investigator (and associated Node): https://vound.info/investigator-system-requirements
Connect Installation: Review the following link to see how Intella Connect and Intella Node can be installed on separate systems:
Investigator Installation (on separate machines): Review the following link to see how Intella Investigator and Intella Node can be installed on separate systems:
Investigator Installation (on a single machine): Investigator has been designed with simplicity in mind and therefore the default installation procedure will install Intella Node along with Intella Investigator on the same machine. Review the following link to see how Intella Investigator and Intella Node can be installed on the same system:
Configure External Services (Optional)
Optionally configure external services that can integrate with Intella.
For example: SSL, LDAP, SSO, and 2FA.
SSL:
Connect: https://vound.info/connect-ssl-setup
Investigator: https://vound.info/investigator-ssl-setup
LDAP:
Investigator: https://vound.info/investigator-ldap-setup
SSO:
Connect: https://vound.info/connect-sso-setup
Investigator: https://vound.info/investigator-sso-setup
2FA:
Connect: https://vound.info/connect-2fa-setup
Investigator: https://vound.info/investigator-2fa-setup
Installation Overview