[Dspace-general] installation and maintenance

[Michele Kimpton]

Hi Jody,

It is difficult to fully answer your question as the more  
customizations you have will increase install time, and the level of  
experience of the administrator could impact install time.  However,  
in general DSpace is pretty easy to install and maintain.  Below is  
our standard response, I hope others in the community can share more  
personal experiences.

best, Michele
DSpace Foundation

How much time does it take to set up a DSpace installation?

A person familiar with installing Java and database based open source  
applications should be able to complete a prototype DSpace  
installation in a few hours to a day.  After this experience, and an  
additional day to a week of exploring the software, a production  
installation should also take about a day for the basic software in a  
standalone configuration.  If customizations or local integrations are  
required (for example, for user authentication), then additional time  
should be allocated according to the complexity and quantity of the  
changes required.

How much maintenance does a DSpace instance require?

While the DSpace software itself requires very little maintenance, the  
usual IT overhead for data backup, etc. applies.  It is also typical  
for expectations and requirements to evolve once the instance is  
operational.  Initial system usage often exposes areas for  
reorganization, metadata correction, and the inevitable requests to  
remove prematurely or incorrectly deposited items.  An ongoing  
maintenance estimate should incorporate IT time based on the expected  
size of the repository to backup, ongoing local development based on  
the amount of customization, and repository content management based  
on the anticipated rate of deposit.