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Relativity Server 2021
George Jon’s Guide to Relativity Server 2021
How early-release vetting and knowledge gain will shorten the final certification schedule.
by Jordan McQuown
George Jon is committed to keeping clients abreast of material changes affecting eDiscovery platforms and the industry at large. As such, this article discusses internal research conducted on the forthcoming Relativity Server 2021, which we expect to be released on Wednesday, March 24th.
The George Jon Application Testing team has installed an early release of Relativity Server 2021 in the GJ Lab, prior to the official release of Relativity Server 2021 (please note that we will not officially certify Server 2021 until the final release of the software is rolled out and thoroughly tested). This process can take anywhere from two weeks to a month, depending upon ease of operational integration. GJ’s Application Testing team anticipates that our early release vetting and knowledge gain will shorten the final release certification process and schedule. Once the requisite benchmark testing concludes and is approved by GJ’s Architecture Review Board, client organizations will be notified.
AN ABRIDGED GUIDE TO RELATIVITY SERVER 2021
Relativity Server 2021 is limiting dtSearch workers to four (4) per agent server, not four (4) per environment.
- dtSearch workers are utilized to create dtSearch indexes for advanced searches. The Relativity Infrastructure team found that this reduces the number of issues experienced with past versions of Relativity Server.
- Most GJ-supported configurations have two to eight-plus workers on each agent server. As such, this could require additional VMs for the new roles, depending on your current agent configuration. Contact your dedicated George Jon representative to determine if you need supplemental resources to accommodate additional virtual machines.
Relativity Server 2021 supports only Windows Server 2016 and 2019 operating systems on Worker and RabbitMQ Servers.
- All other servers and virtual machines can have Windows Server 2012 R2 as their operating system; however, GJ recommends that servers run Windows Server 2016 for all servers.
SQL 2017 or greater is required for Relativity Server 2021.
- SQL server is the database software used by Relativity Server.
- Previous version of Relativity (version 10.3) required SQL Server version 2014 or greater.
- Please note that this will require a SQL upgrade and, in some instances, a new SQL Server with an EDDS migration to accommodate the Relativity Server 2021 upgrade.
Office 2016 Professional is recommended on the Relativity Imaging and Processing Workers.
- Relativity Imaging and Processing Workers use Microsoft Office to prepare data for importing into Relativity.
- Please note that the Microsoft Works Converter is still required for Relativity Server 2021. The download is no longer available on the Microsoft site, but you can download the file via the Relativity Community Site.
Document Conversion now has the option to create individual agents for multiple types of conversions, enabling flexible prioritization of Document Conversion tasks.
- On the fly (heightened, on-demand conversions)
- Convert ahead (preemptively scheduled conversions)
- Mass convert (prioritized document sets for conversions)
- Please note that this process may require additional VMs for the new roles, depending on your current agent configuration. Contact your dedicated George Jon representative to determine if you need supplemental resources to accommodate additional virtual machines.
New PDF application replaces the legacy “Save as PDF” function on Imaging Workers.
- In previous versions, PDF files were created by the imaging workers. In Server 2021, an agent has been created for the purpose of saving documents as PDFs.
- The new app allows multiple PDF jobs to run by adding agents without the need for additional imaging workers (which would require Microsoft Office licenses).
- Please note that this feature may require additional VMs for the new roles, depending on your current agent configuration. Contact your dedicated George Jon representative to determine if you need supplemental resources to accommodate additional virtual machines.
Please contact your dedicated George Jon representative to discuss details, schedule your next Relativity upgrade, and for any additional information related to this announcement.
Additional Resources:
About This Document
George Jon (GJ) is an eDiscovery infrastructure, product and process specialist, delivering performant, scalable, fault tolerant environments for users worldwide. GJ works with global corporations, leading law firms, government agencies, and independent resellers/hosting companies to quickly and strategically implement large-scale eDiscovery platforms, troubleshoot and perfect existing systems, and provide unprecedented 24/7 core services to ensure optimal performance and uptime.
George Jon’s (GJ) conclusions are informed by fifteen-plus years of conducting enterprise-class eDiscovery platform assessments, application implementations and infrastructure benchmark testing for a global client base. GJ has compiled extensive quantitative and qualitative insights from the research and implementation of these real-world environments, from single users to multinational corporations, and is a leading authority on eDiscovery infrastructure.
About the Author
Jordan McQuown
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER (CTO), GEORGE JON
Jordan McQuown is an authority in information technology, cyber security, electronic discovery, and digital forensics. He has written Thought Leadership articles for the American Bar Association’s Cybersecurity Handbook and Information Security Magazine, and he is a regular speaker as a subject matter expert on the eDiscovery security, application and legal conference circuits.
Relativity Server 2021 Questions? Let’s talk.
George Jon is committed to keeping clients abreast of material changes affecting eDiscovery platforms and the industry at large. As such, this article discusses internal research conducted on the forthcoming Relativity Server 2021, which we expect to be released on Wednesday, March 24th.
The George Jon Application Testing team has installed an early release of Relativity Server 2021 in the GJ Lab, prior to the official release of Relativity Server 2021 (please note that we will not officially certify Server 2021 until the final release of the software is rolled out and thoroughly tested). This process can take anywhere from two weeks to a month, depending upon ease of operational integration. GJ’s Application Testing team anticipates that our early release vetting and knowledge gain will shorten the final release certification process and schedule. Once the requisite benchmark testing concludes and is approved by GJ’s Architecture Review Board, client organizations will be notified.
AN ABRIDGED GUIDE TO RELATIVITY SERVER 2021
Relativity Server 2021 is limiting dtSearch workers to four (4) per agent server, not four (4) per environment.
- dtSearch workers are utilized to create dtSearch indexes for advanced searches. The Relativity Infrastructure team found that this reduces the number of issues experienced with past versions of Relativity Server.
- Most GJ-supported configurations have two to eight-plus workers on each agent server. As such, this could require additional VMs for the new roles, depending on your current agent configuration. Contact your dedicated George Jon representative to determine if you need supplemental resources to accommodate additional virtual machines.
Relativity Server 2021 supports only Windows Server 2016 and 2019 operating systems on Worker and RabbitMQ Servers.
- All other servers and virtual machines can have Windows Server 2012 R2 as their operating system; however, GJ recommends that servers run Windows Server 2016 for all servers.
SQL 2017 or greater is required for Relativity Server 2021.
- SQL server is the database software used by Relativity Server.
- Previous version of Relativity (version 10.3) required SQL Server version 2014 or greater.
- Please note that this will require a SQL upgrade and, in some instances, a new SQL Server with an EDDS migration to accommodate the Relativity Server 2021 upgrade.
Office 2016 Professional is recommended on the Relativity Imaging and Processing Workers.
- Relativity Imaging and Processing Workers use Microsoft Office to prepare data for importing into Relativity.
- Please note that the Microsoft Works Converter is still required for Relativity Server 2021. The download is no longer available on the Microsoft site, but you can download the file via the Relativity Community Site.
Document Conversion now has the option to create individual agents for multiple types of conversions, enabling flexible prioritization of Document Conversion tasks.
- On the fly (heightened, on-demand conversions)
- Convert ahead (preemptively scheduled conversions)
- Mass convert (prioritized document sets for conversions)
- Please note that this process may require additional VMs for the new roles, depending on your current agent configuration. Contact your dedicated George Jon representative to determine if you need supplemental resources to accommodate additional virtual machines.
New PDF application replaces the legacy “Save as PDF” function on Imaging Workers.
- In previous versions, PDF files were created by the imaging workers. In Server 2021, an agent has been created for the purpose of saving documents as PDFs.
- The new app allows multiple PDF jobs to run by adding agents without the need for additional imaging workers (which would require Microsoft Office licenses).
- Please note that this feature may require additional VMs for the new roles, depending on your current agent configuration. Contact your dedicated George Jon representative to determine if you need supplemental resources to accommodate additional virtual machines.
Please contact your dedicated George Jon representative to discuss details, schedule your next Relativity upgrade, and for any additional information related to this announcement.
Additional Resource(s):
What’s new in Relativity Server 2021
