Installation
From EsWiki
ElectroServer is a Java application. This means that any computer that can run the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.6, also known as the Java virtual machine, is capable of hosting ElectroServer successfully. Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP, Solaris, and Linux are among the supported operating systems.
Contents |
Hardware
While ElectroServer is flexible and can run on many different hardware configurations, it performs best when a few things are kept in mind.
ElectroServer is highly concurrent.
ElectroServer is designed to support many concurrent users. To do this, ElectroServer uses a highly-scalable thread pool internally. Along with using this pool for processing user requests, the server also uses this pool for many background tasks that are running at all times. This means that adding more processors (or cores) will invariably increase performance of the server.
Ultimately though, processor speed is the most important item for scalability. In both a standalone instance and a registry instance, processor speed is number one with concurrency a close second. When dealing with gateways you can use smaller machines as you can simply scale by adding more gateways into the mix.
The more RAM the merrier.
The exact amount of RAM necessary on the server depends entirely on the number of processors and the type of traffic. In general, every core or processor should have at least one gig of RAM. This means a single processor dual core machine should have two gigs. A dual processor, dual core machine should have at least four gigs.
This rule of thumb is far from perfect but it's a good starting point. On Intel or AMD hardware, we would recommend against more then eight gigabytes of RAM as we haven't seen it give much improvement but when in doubt, more RAM is safer than less.
If you are running on Sun's Sparc hardware, please contact us and we can work with you to determine the optimal configuration.
Operating system concerns
ElectroServer runs beautifully on any operating system that can run Java 1.6 or later. In practice though, the choice of operating system dramatically effects the performance you can expect from the server.
Despite the growing popularity, Windows appears to offer the worst performance with ElectroServer by a significant margin while the various Unix options all perform well. For the ultimate in performance and scalability, Solaris on Sparc is the clear choice due to the fact that it supports a great deal more processors than are available with Intel or AMD systems.
So which is best?
There is no "best" hardware/software platform for all situations but if we were to pick a single configuration that is both cost effective and performs great in all common scenarios we would suggest a dual-core Linux box with between two and four gigs of RAM. Increasing the box to a dual-processor/dual-core system will literally double your performance as well. If growth is important, getting the box with only a single processor installed and half the RAM is a great way to leave room for growth without breaking the bank.
Please note that if you need more than about two gigs of RAM for ES4, your best choice of platform is a Solaris 64 bit machine, with the "Any Unix" version of ES4 download. See Performance and Optimization for how to configure ES4 to use additional RAM. If you do not configure ES4 to use extra RAM you are limited to 64MB for ES4.
Operating System
Windows
To install and run ElectroServer 4 on Windows you will need a version of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.6 or newer. The required JRE is contained within the ElectroServer installer. So you don't need to worry about tracking it down on the Internet, it the ElectroServer installer will do it for you.
Download
To install ElectroServer, you first need to download the Windows installer and save it to a known location.
Install
Locate the file you just downloaded and double-click it. Follow the series of prompts to complete installation.
During the installation process you will be asked a series of questions. The most important of these is if you are installing Professional or Enterprise. If you are not sure which to choose, use Professional. The rest of the prompts will be defaulted for you; only change them if necessary. One key thing to remember is the administrator username/password and the web server IP/port. You will need those to get into the Web based administrator panel.
Once the installer completes, you will have finished installing ElectroServer 4 successfully.
Start ElectroServer
To start ElectroServer 4, click Start > All Programs (or Program Files) > ElectroServer 4 > Start ElectroServer.
ElectroServer should start up without any problem. The console window will remain open as long as the server is running. If started properly, the last entry in the console window will say "ElectroServer has started successfully". If you install different versions of the server (Registry or Gateway) the command will be named appropriately but the server will start the same.
OS X
ElectroServer is based on the latest Java platform, 1.6. If your version of OS X supports Java 1.6, then you can use the "Other Unix" instructions to install ElectroServer.
Linux with RPM
Installing ElectroServer on a Unix server that supports RPM files is quite simple. The server will deploy the correct version of the Java runtime for you automatically.
Download
To install ElectroServer, you first need to download the RPM installer and save it to a known location.
Install
Pull up a command-prompt on your server. You can do this with telnet, SSH, or any number of other techniques.
Navigate to the folder where you saved the RPM file.
Run the following command, replacing <file name> with the actual name of the file you downloaded:
rpm -i <file name>
That's it!
The server and JVM will deploy automatically into the "/opt/ElectroServer_<Version>" folder.
Start ElectroServer
To start the server, you simply need to execute "./ElectroServer" (without the quotes) from within that folder.
To prevent the server from stopping when you close the console, you need to use the nohup command. It would look like this in that case:
nohup ./ElectroServer &
Other Unix
Installing ElectroServer on a Unix server using tar.gz is a straight-forward process. You will need to install the latest release of the 1.6 Java Virtual Machine for your platform before you can start the server.
If you install the VM and the server won't start, you will need to define the environment variable "INSTALL4J_JAVA_HOME" to point to your VM installation folder.
Download
To install ElectroServer, you first need to download the tar.gz installer and save it to a known location.
Install
Pull up a command-prompt on your server. You can do this with telnet, SSH, or any number of other techniques.
Navigate to the folder where you saved the tar.gz file.
Run the following command, replacing <file name> with the actual name of the file you downloaded:
gunzip <file name>
This will unzip the file and remove the ".gz" extension as it's no longer "gzipped".
Run the following command, replacing <file name> with the actual name of the file without the ".gz":
tar xvf <file name>
This will extract the server into a sub-directory of your current working directory named "ElectroServer_<version>".
Start ElectroServer
To start the server, you simply need to execute "./ElectroServer" for Standalone mode, or "./Registry" for Registry mode and "./Gateway" for Gateway mode from within the folder.
To prevent the server from stopping when you close the console, you need to use the nohup command. It would look like this in that case:
nohup ./ElectroServer &
Initial Configuration
Registry and Standalone
Both the Registry and Standalone server instances use the same configuration file, found in the installation directory/server/config folder: ES4Configuration.xml.
This file contains the name of the instance as well as the web server configuration. It's critical that the web server is configured with an available port and IP otherwise you will be unable to access the web administration. See also Web admin start up settings.
For a step by step installation guide of the Registry server, please see Registry Installation.
Gateway
Gateway instances use their own configuration file in the installation directory/server/config folder: GatewayConfiguration.xml.
Like the registry/standalone configuration, this file also contains a "name". This name is used to identify the instance in the web administrator.
The file also contains an entry for a pass phrase. This value is necessary for the gateway to log into the registry server when it connects. This value must match the same value in the registry server otherwise the gateway will fail to log into the registry.
Finally, the file contains a pair of entries that contain the IP and port of the registry server. These entries need to be the same as the matching settings in the registry for distributed mode to work.
For a step by step installation guide, please see Gateway Installation.
