ACL for Windows system requirements

Before proceeding with the installation, ensure that the computer on which ACL for Windows will be installed meets the requirements outlined below.

Software requirements

Requirements that must be confirmed or installed by the user

Note

ACL for Windows has been tested and verified to work with the listed versions of operating systems and third-party software. ACL for Windows may work with versions other than those listed, however there is no guarantee that it will.

Use of ACL for Windows with versions other than those listed is considered "an unsupported installation" and our Support team may not be able to find a resolution if issues arise.

Requirement Additional information

Windows operating system

One of the following operating systems:

  • Microsoft Windows 11 (64-bit)
  • Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit)
  • Microsoft Windows 8.1 (64-bit)

ACL for Windows is a 32-bit application that runs on the 64-bit versions of Windows.

Note

Windows XP and Windows 7 operating systems are no longer supported for ACL for Windows installation.

Windows patch

For Microsoft Windows 8.1 users:

Windows 8.1 Update KB2919355

Important

Windows 8.1 Update KB2919355 is required by Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.x, which in turn is required by ACL for Windows 16.

If you are using Windows 8.1, and .NET 4.6.x is not installed, and you have not run Update KB2919355, the ACL for Windows installer terminates with an error message during the .NET 4.6.2 prerequisite installation.

You need to download and install Update KB2919355 before you can continue with the ACL for Windows installation.

Alternatively, you can install Update KB2919355 before you begin the ACL for Windows installation and avoid the error message.

Caution

If you are prompted to restart your computer at any point during the installation process, do so right away. Do not ignore messages to restart your computer.

If you do not restart your computer when you are prompted, you may cause problems with the installation of .NET, other prerequisites, or ACL for Windows.

R, 64-bit (optional)

To use Analytics functions that integrate with the R programming language, you must install and configure R.

The following versions of R have been tested and work with Analytics:

  • 4.0.3
  • 3.4.4
  • 3.3.2
  • 3.3.1
  • 3.2.5
  • 3.2.3

You can use either CRAN R or Microsoft R.

Note

Other versions of R may work as well. However, they are not guaranteed to work.

If you are using one of the CRAN R packages, you may need to add the path to the R binary folder to the PATH environment variable on your computer.

For example: C:\Program Files\R\R-<version>\bin\x64

Note

You do not need to install R if you do not intend to use the Analytics R functions or RCOMMAND.

Note

Two optional features of Analytics require installing two separate instances of Python:

  • Analytics Python functions require a customer-installed instance of Python
  • Analytics machine learning commands require an instance of Python that can be installed as part of the Analytics installation

Additional details appear below.

Python, 32-bit (optional)

To use Analytics functions that integrate with the Python programming language, you must install and configure:

  • Python
  • PYTHONPATH environment variable
  • ACLPYTHONDLL environment variable

The following versions of Python have been tested and work with Analytics:

  • 3.4
  • 3.5
  • 3.6

Note

Any version of Python from 3.4.x onward should work with Analytics. However, versions other than those listed are not guaranteed to work.

When installing Python, you must also configure it to run on your computer. For more information, see Configuring Python for use with Analytics.

Note

You do not need to install Python if you do not intend to use the Analytics Python functions.

Python, 32-bit (optional)

To enable Analytics machine learning commands, you must install:

  • Python engine for Analytics (3.7.9)

If you select the Enable machine learning (install Python engine for Analytics) checkbox during ACL for Windows installation, the installer installs the Python engine for Analytics.

Note

This instance of Python is not intended for use with the Analytics Python functions, or for general Python use. You must install a separate instance of Python for these purposes.

Oracle Instant Client (optional)

To use the ACL Connector for Oracle, you must install:

  • Oracle Instant Client 11g or 12c

  • You do not need to install Oracle Instant Client if you do not intend to use the ACL Connector for Oracle.
  • The bitness of Oracle Instant Client must match the operating system's bitness. If the 32-bit Instant Client is installed on a 64-bit machine, the connection fails.

Automatically installed prerequisites

If the following software prerequisites are not already installed on your computer, they are automatically installed by the ACL for Windows installer:

  • Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.2

    Note

    If your computer already has .NET 4.6.0 or 4.6.1, ACL for Windows uses the installed version of .NET and does not install version 4.6.2.

  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2019 Redistributable Package (x64 and x86)
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable Package (x64) (only if optional data connectors are installed)
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable Package (x64) (only if optional data connectors are installed)
  • Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016 (32-bit) (optional)

Requirements contained in the Analytics installation directory

Local copies of the following components are installed with Analytics and contained in the Analytics installation directory:

  • Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) 106.0.290.0 – used to embedded Chromium browser functionality in Analytics
  • Python Engine 3.7.9 and TPOT 0.10.2 – used by the Analytics machine learning commands

Requirements installed as part of the supported operating system

The following components are also Analytics prerequisites, but they are installed as part of the supported operating systems:

  • Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.8
  • Microsoft Jet 4.0 Database Engine (MSJet)
  • Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) 6.0
  • Internet Explorer 9 or higher (required for XML-based formatting of command results that are output to screen)

Analytics data connectors

The Analytics installation includes a number of data connectors. Most of the connectors are ODBC drivers installed in the Analytics installation directory.

Standard data connectors

The following data connectors are installed by default when installing ACL for Windows.

Category Connector
Big Data and NoSQL
  • Amazon Athena
  • Apache Phoenix
  • Azure Data Catalog
  • Azure Data Lake Storage
  • Azure Table
  • CockroachDB
  • Elasticsearch
  • IBM Cloudant
  • MarkLogic
  • Parquet
  • Presto
  • Snowflake
ERP and CRM systems
  • Dynamics 365 Business Central
  • Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations
  • Dynamics 365 Sales
  • Dynamics CRM
  • Epicor ERP
  • Exact Online
  • NetSuite
  • Odoo
  • Oracle HCM Cloud
  • SAP (to be functional, requires an additional subscription entitlement)
  • SAP ByDesign
  • ServiceNow
  • SugarCRM
  • SuiteCRM
  • Workday
Accounting tools
  • ADP
  • Dynamics GP
  • Dynamics NAV
  • QuickBooks
  • QuickBooks Online
  • QuickBooks POS
  • Sage 50 UK
  • Sage Cloud Accounting
  • Sage Intacct
  • SAP Concur
Marketing and analytics
  • Google Analytics
  • LinkedIn
  • Marketo
  • Oracle Eloqua
  • Oracle Sales Cloud
  • Splunk
  • SurveyMonkey
  • Twitter
Collaboration solutions
  • Active Directory
  • Airtable
  • AWS Data Management
  • Azure Management
  • Basecamp
  • DocuSign
  • Email
  • Excel
  • Excel Online
  • Exchange
  • Google Contacts
  • Google Sheets
  • Jira
  • Kintone
  • Microsoft Teams
  • SAP SuccessFactors
  • SharePoint
  • Slack
  • Zendesk
File and API integration
  • Amazon S3
  • Box
  • CSV
  • DigitalOcean
  • Dropbox
  • Google Cloud Storage
  • Google Drive
  • JSON
  • LDAP
  • Microsoft OneDrive
  • OData
  • REST
  • RSS/ATOM
  • SFTP
E-commerce solutions
  • Edgar Online
  • Open Exchange Rates
  • ShipStation
  • Square
  • Stripe
  • UPS
  • USPS
Relational databases
  • Azure Analysis Services
  • Microsoft Access
  • MySQL
  • SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer
  • Sybase
  • Sybase IQ
  • xBase
Security tools
  • Qualys
  • Tenable.sc
Other connectors
  • Rsam

Optional data connectors

The following data connectors are optional, and you can opt to not install these when installing ACL for Windows.

  • Amazon Redshift
  • Cassandra
  • Concur
  • Couchbase
  • Drill
  • DynamoDB
  • Google BigQuery
  • HBase
  • Hive
  • Impala
  • MongoDB
  • Oracle
  • Salesforce
  • Spark
  • SQL Server
  • Teradata

Using Tableau with the ACL Connector for Analytics

You can use the ACL Connector for Analytics to extract data from Analytics projects into Tableau.

To optimize the integration between Tableau and Analytics, perform the following steps:

  1. Install ACL for Windows.
  2. Copy ACL Connector for Analytics.tdc from:

    C:\Program Files (x86)\ACL Software\ACL for Windows 15\ACL ODBC

    to:

    ..\Documents\My Tableau Repository\Datasources

    Note

    These file paths are default locations. Your installations of Analytics and Tableau may use different locations.

  3. Restart Tableau.

Hardware requirements

Note

For best performance of Analytics in a production environment, you may need to provide resources greater than the minimum specifications listed.

Component Minimum Recommendation
Processor 1.8 GHz  
Memory

(RAM)

2 GB
  • 64-bit operating systems: 8 GB or more, especially if sorting large files
  • 32-bit operating systems: 4 GB, especially if sorting large files
Hard disk space

(Analytics application files)

1.1 GB  
Hard disk space

(software prerequisites)

8 GB  
Hard disk space

(data storage)

  100 GB or more

In addition to the hard disk space required to install Analytics application files and prerequisites, significant additional space is required if a computer will be used to store data extracts, flat files, and results.

Connectivity

TCP/IP connectivity is required for the following purposes:

  • post-installation, for activating ACL for Windows
  • for accessing context-sensitive online help
  • periodically required for ongoing software subscription validation
  • periodically required for automatic software updates