Windows 95/98/NT/2000 Server Components Installation Guide

Introduction

The components that make up your OpenLink Server Components are:

• OpenLink Request Broker - the component responsible for brokering the services of OpenLink Data Access and Service Providing Agents. Its is also the component responsible for coordinating and controlling your entire OpenLink Data Access session irrespective of Data Access mechanism being used. This is the heart and soul of the OpenLink Database Independent Communications Layer, the technology that enables the OpenLink Data Access drivers to communicate with your backend database engines alleviating the need to acquire additional database specific networking software   from your backend database vendor(s).
  
  
• One or more Database Agents (one for each supported database engine) - these are database specific components that provide the actual backend database connectivity and data access services to your OpenLink Data Access Clients (ODBC, JDBC, UDBC, OLE-DB etc.). These components are actually clients from the perspective of each supported backend database, this is because they are built using the Call Level Interfaces (CLIs) or Embedded SQL interfaces of these backend databases.
  
  
• One or more Service Provider  Agents (ODBC, JDBC, PROXY.)  - these are generic agents that provide Distributed  Data Access Protocol handling services to OpenLink Data Access Drivers. The data access protocols supported are as follows:
  
  

• ODBC Agent - enabling OpenLink Multi-Tier ODBC Drivers to connect to local or remote non OpenLink ODBC Drivers
  
• JDBC Agent - enabling OpenLink JDBC Drivers to connect local or remote OpenLink or non OpenLink ODBC or UDBC Drivers
  
• PROXY Agent - enabling all OpenLink Data Access Clients to connect to OpenLink Database Agents that do not reside on the same server machine as the prime OpenLink Request Broker. The prime Broker being the Request Broker that all your OpenLink Client are configured to request data access services from. This enables you configure your OpenLink Database Agents for use in N-Tier distributed computing environments.
  

An architectural overview the OpenLink Multi-tier Data Access infrastructure is available at: http://www.openlinksw.com/info/mtproduct.htm . Note that the OpenLink Request Broker is the core component that makes up the OpenLink Database Independent Communications Layer in this illustration.

The components listed above are presented to you for download at the end of your interaction with the OpenLink Software Download Wizard.

Once you have successfully downloaded the appropriate OpenLink Server components for your server operating system, you will be in a position to follow the steps outlined in the operating system specific installation sections that follow.

Installing OpenLink Server Components on Windows 95/98/NT/2000 Servers

1. Ensure you have downloaded all of the relevant OpenLink Server Components from the page created by the OpenLink Software Download wizard.
   
   
2. Run setup.exe, please note that the client and server components for Windows are packaged within the same installation archive. You distinguish the actual components that you want to install as part of your interaction with the installation program.
   
   Caution: please do not choose SPX/IPX protocol support during the installation process unless you have verified that this protocol is actually installed and configured on your Windows Server machine.
   
   
3. Start your OpenLink Request Broker in debug mode, from within your "services" control panel, or by opening up a DOS command window and then executing the OpenLink Request Broker startup command from within the "bin" sub-directory of the OpenLink server components installation directory:
   
   oplrqb –dv
   
   Note: When doing this from the "services" control panel (Windows NT) you must stop the Broker if it is already running and then change its startup mode from "Automatic" to "Manual", then enter the required startup commands as values in the Startup Parameters field, the screen shot below demonstrates this:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Start your Web Browser and then enter the following URL:
   
   http://<network alias of machine on to which you have just installed server components>:<port number you provided when prompted by OpenLink installer> . For example, if your machine has a network alias of "mainserver" and you accept the default port number at installation time, then the required URL would be constructed as follows:
   
   http://mainserver:8000 you can also enter the value http://localhost:8000 if the server in use is local rather than remote.
   
   
5. Follow the instructions provided in the "Making Your First OpenLink Connection" guide in order to verify your server components installation.
   
   
6. If step 5 is successful, shutdown the Request Broker using the command:
   
   CTRL-C in the debug session window
   
   or
   
   by selecting the OpenLink Request Broker entry within the "services" control panel and then clicking on the "stop" button.
   
   You can also shutdown the Broker by executing the following command from a separate DOS command Window:
   
   oplshut -f
   
   
7. Revert the OpenLink Request Broker startup mode back to "Automatic" from within the "Services" control panel and then restart by clicking on the "Startup" button. Note the Broker does not have to be in "Automatic" mode for regular use, its your choice as to the startup mode that best suits your operational needs.
   
   You can also start the Broker from a DOS Window by executing the command:
   
   ./oplrqb -v