Mitratech Vault Technical Overview

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Version 3.3.0

October 2023

The information in this technical overview is based on the M-Files System Requirements and has been modified to be compatible with supported Mitratech product environments.

Components

Mitratech Document Vault includes the following components:

Mitratech Document Vault Server: Powered by M-Files Server, this server manages the storage of all documents and associations between matters and documents.
Mitratech Document Vault Desktop Client: Available for Microsoft Windows, this locally-installed interface allows users to view and associate documents with matters. The Client should be installed on all computers for users who frequently add and review documents for matters. Typically, the users who have the Client on their desktop are named users.
Mitratech Document Vault Web: This browser-based interface allows users to view documents attached to matters. This interface can be configured for access through a tab or widget in eCounsel. The Web interface has functionality similar to the desktop client, but is intended for Read-Only and concurrent users.

Some features are available in the Desktop Client but not in the Web interface:

The ability to create and edit views
The ability to view security rights on documents
The Most Recently Accessed panel (however, the Web interface does include a similar link in the left pane)
Integration with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Office (Microsoft Word,

Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel) using a plugin

Access to the virtual M:\ drive
Check-in reminders when closing Microsoft Office documents
Offline availability
Annotations
The ability to Save As or Convert to PDF
Highlighted search results

Mitratech Support

E-mail Mitratech Support at eCounselsupport@mitratech.com for all technical inquiries.

Mitratech Document Vault Server

The requirements for the M-Files server are listed below.

Supported Operating Systems

Microsoft Windows Server 2022 (64-bit) (recommended)
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 (64-bit) (recommended)
Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (64-bit)
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 (64-bit)
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 (64-bit)
Microsoft Windows 11 (64-bit)
Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit)

Enabling Mitratech Document Vault Web access requires Internet Information Services (IIS) and ASP.NET on the server machine.

Note: The M-Files Server portion of Mitratech Document Vault should not be installed on a computer that is also used as a Microsoft Domain Controller (DC).

64-bit Support

The M-Files Server portion of Mitratech Document Vault should be installed and used with a 64-bit edition of Microsoft Windows.

Processor and RAM Requirements

Sizing is done based on number of objects, which means a combined total of matters, people, entities, and documents that are likely to be stored inside the application.

Supported Database Connections

Microsoft SQL Server 2022
Microsoft SQL Server 2016
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP4
Oracle 19c
Oracle 12c
Oracle 12.2c

While M-Files is certified for Microsoft SQL Server 2014 and 2017, Suite does not support this version. Only Suite 8.11 SP6 or later supports Microsoft SQL Server 2016.

Sizing Recommendations

Less than 50,000 objects:

CPU: 4 or more cores
4 GB of RAM
RAID 1 or RAID 5 disks and enough disk space for files, database, and backups
Firebird Embedded or Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Standard or Enterprise Edition

More than 50,000 and less than 1,000,000 objects:

CPU: 8 or more cores
16 GB of RAM
RAID 1 or RAID 5 disks and enough disk space for files, database files, and backups. Database files, Microsoft SQL Server transaction logs, and search index files must be stored on solid state drives (SSD) for optimal performance.
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 or later, Standard or Enterprise Edition

Environments with up to five million objects and five terabytes of files (Multiple Servers)

CPU: 16 cores for Database Server, 8 cores for Application Server and 8 cores for Full-text search indexing
RAM: 32 GB for Database Server, 16 to 32 GB for Application Server and 16 to 32 GB for Full-text search indexing
RAID-1 or RAID-5 disks and enough disk space for files, database files, and backups. Database files, Microsoft SQL Server transaction logs, and search index files must be stored on solid state drives (SSD) for optimal performance.
Microsoft SQL Server 2019 or later, Standard or Enterprise Edition
64-bit operating system

M-Files Server can be installed either on a physical or a virtualized server, for example Hyper-V or VMWare ESXi.

Disk Space Requirements

Metadata database:

Local hard disk drive
2-5 GB of disk space for 100,000 objects
20-50 GB of disk space for 1,000,000 objects File data:
Local hard disk drive or a network file server
Sufficient disk space for storing the document files

Mitratech Document Vault uses a binary delta algorithm to process old versions of document files to reduce the disk space consumption of old file versions considerably. Administrators can free disk space by archiving or destroying old versions.

Firewall Settings

The following firewall settings should be implemented on the M-Files Server:

Incoming traffic for the server:

2266 (TCP)
80 (HTTP)
443 (RPC over HTTPS)

Outgoing traffic should be allowed on:

25 (SMTP server to send notification messages)

Mitratech Document Vault Server

1443 (Microsoft SQL Server)
137, 138, and 139 (folder shares and TCP ports)

Database Engine and Data Storage

M-Files Server includes Firebird Embedded, a powerful SQL database engine. Firebird is the default database engine of M-Files. Purchasing additional database software is thus not required. When using Firebird as the database engine of M-Files, the metadata of documents and other objects will be stored in a SQL database. The data files of objects are stored in the file system.

Optionally, Microsoft SQL Server 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, or later with its latest service pack can be used as the database engine of M-Files for better performance and support for larger repositories.

When using Microsoft SQL Server as the database engine of M-Files, the metadata of documents and other objects will be stored in a SQL database. The data files of objects can be stored either in the MS SQL database or in the file system. Microsoft SQL Server can be installed on the M-Files Server computer, or alternatively, the M-Files Server computer can connect to an existing SQL Server farm. In the latter case, the processor and RAM requirements of the M-Files Server may be smaller than indicated above.

If your organization wants to use a self-managed cloud environment with a SQL database, you can use the managed instance deployment option of the Microsoft Azure SQL Database. A managed instance of the Microsoft Azure SQL Database is a fully managed SQL Server Database Engine instance hosted in Azure cloud.

It is strongly recommended that the data saved in the file system is encrypted. The file data encryption at rest feature uses the AES-256 algorithm. The encryption is compliant with the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) publication 140-2. For more information, refer to Protecting File Data at Rest with Encryption in M-Files.

M-Files uses Unicode and thus supports storing and finding data in East Asian languages as well.

Backups and Maintenance

Mitratech Document Vault automatically optimizes the vault database once a week. No other regular database maintenance is needed.

Mitratech Document Vault supports scheduled full and differential backups.

When using Firebird Embedded as the database engine, document vaults are backed up using the Mitratech Document Vault Server Administrator tool.

When using Microsoft SQL Server as the database engine, document vaults are backed up using the management tools of Microsoft SQL Server and filesystem level backup tools. Any backup system compatible with Microsoft SQL Server can be used.

Data Synchronization and Data Security

The mechanism that synchronizes data into the Mitratech Document Vault is responsible for managing the security structure so that documents attached to matters dynamically propagate the security (i.e., logical groups, private matters, and limited access rights) of the matters.

Note that the synchronization mechanism is a timer-based task, and timing depends on the event being performed. For example, adding a new matter to eCounsel will result in the data being synchronized in 5 minutes or less. Making a change to matter data that already exists will be synchronized approximately every hour.

Note that the synchronization mechanism is a timer-based task, and timing depends on the event being performed. "Quick" refreshes are performed approximately every 15 minutes and will query the eCounsel database for new information (such as a new matter record). "Full" refreshes synchronize all changes in eCounsel data and are performed approximately every 24 hours. The amount of time to perform a refresh can vary greatly depending on the size of the database. A Quick or Full refresh can be initiated manually as needed.

Mitratech Document Vault Client

Mitratech Document Vault includes both a desktop client and a Web interface. The desktop client is for use with a “named” user license and includes the feature-rich plug-ins into Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office applications. The Web interface is for use with “concurrent” or “read-only” user licenses and does not require any software installation onto the desktop. Use cases for these licenses could be to provide access to users outside of the legal department, who only need occasional access to upload or view documents. Additionally, the Web interface is embedded inside eCounsel (also a Web interface) so that eCounsel users can view associated documents when looking at matters.

Supported Operating Systems

Microsoft Windows 11 (64-bit) (recommended)
Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit) (recommended)
Microsoft Windows Server 2022 (64-bit)
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 (64-bit)
Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (64-bit)
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 (64-bit)

While M-Files client is certified with Microsoft Windows 10, only Suite 8.11 or higher supports Windows 10.

64-bit Support

The Mitratech Document Vault Client should be installed and used with a 64-bit edition of Microsoft Windows.

Browser Support

Google Chrome, latest available (recommended)
Microsoft Edge (limited), latest available

For optimal user experience, consider using M-Files Web with Google Chrome and the M-Files Web browser plugin, available from the Chrome Store.

Microsoft Office Support

Microsoft 365
Microsoft Office 2016
Microsoft Office 2013

While M-Files client is certified with Microsoft Office 2016 and Microsoft Office 365, only Suite 8.11 or higher supports Office 2016.

Network Communication

Mitratech Document Vault Client installations communicate with the M-Files Server portion of Mitratech Document Vault via TCP/IP or HTTPS protocols. Web clients use HTTP or HTTPS (configurable). Both the desktop and Web clients communicate over HTTPS using standard port 443.

It is recommended to use encrypted connections in all client-to-server communication.

Proxied Connections

For clients who connect to Mitratech Cloud network, or for locally installed clients who will be allowing access to Mitratech Document Vault from outside their firewall, the following configuration is required:

HTTPS Protocols:

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) protocol (TCP/IP, port 2266)
Tunneling must be enabled in network proxies

Authentication Security

SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) is an XML-based protocol for controlling authentication between Identity Provider (IdP) and the service provider. This integration allows IdP, using LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), to be configured to use Microsoft Windows Active Directory (AD) or OpenLDAP as a username and password directory. This integration needs to be configured to specify the IdP service to use in order to authenticate user logins.

For information on configuring SAML in M-Files, refer to the M-Files document. For information on configuring SAML in Suite Manager, refer to the Suite Login Authentication Guide.