Initializing help system before first use

# Introduction

Xpress Insight is a platform for deploying rich interactive optimization apps. FICO® Xpress Insight extends the platform capabilities with a job execution service implemented by the Compute Interface app and API.

FICO® Xpress is a prerequisite of Xpress Insight. Xpress provides access to optimization algorithms and technologies used to solve linear, mixed integer and non-linear problems. Before you begin, ensure that you have the correct version of Xpress for the version of Xpress Insight that you are installing.

Xpress Insight 5.17 uses Xpress 9.8.1.

The platform comprises three main components:

- Users interact with the platform using a browser-based web interface, accessing the Xpress Insight server over HTTP or HTTPS connections.
- The core of the system is the Xpress Insight server, which can be installed on the same local machine as the web client or on a remote server, depending on the system configuration.
- Computational effort is offloaded to one or more execution workers. A worker can be on the same machine with the server. However, for production deployments, it is recommended that execution workers be installed on separate hosts.

Users can submit a compute job using the Xpress software such as the Optimizer Console, Optimizer libraries, Mosel, and Xpress Workbench; by uploading (drag and drop or file selector) LP/MPS/SVF files via the Compute Interface app's user interface; or by sending Solver and Mosel jobs as requests to the REST API.

## Data Storage

Xpress Insight stores operational data using either the file system or a customer installation of MySQL version 8.x with vendor support or above. File system storage is sufficient for use during development, but production deployments must use a database.

## Execution Workers

Execution workers ultimately perform the optimization calculation. An execution worker can be installed to run on the same local machine as the client and server, or there could be several workers installed on separate machines. By default, the installer installs the server and worker on the same machine, but each component can be selected for independent installation.

## Development and Production Modes

After completing the installation, you can configure whether Xpress Insight operates in either development mode or production mode. Development mode supports only local accounts; production mode uses SAML 2.0 identity verification and disables local accounts. Production mode should be used for any operational installations.

These modes are explained later in this guide and should be considered during installation. The requirements for each mode are shown below.

Mode | Data store | User Authentication | SSO Encryption
--- | --- | --- | ---
Development | Local | SSO | Optional
MySQL | Local | N/A
Production | MySQL (recommended) | SSO only | Recommended

Parent Topic Insight 5 Installation Guide

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