InfoFUSION Client/Server Environment Setup in Solaris

2.1 InfoFUSION Client/Server Environment Setup
2.1.1 Nethost.tbl file
When the server daemon (infonetd) is started, it performs the following:

• get the hostname or IP address using system API gethostname()
• looks into the nethost.tbl file (in the Tables area) for an entry that begins with the hostname

Each entry in the nethost.tbl file must be in the following format:
hostname, protocol, port_num, loopback
where,

hostname
the host name or IP address of the server.

protocol
the name of the communications protocol. Always set to “tcp”.

port_num
the port number on the host that the server daemon will monitor for client requests. The port number should not be used by another application. Check /etc/hosts. Always use port number higher than 5000.

loopback
loopback is either YES or NO, depending upon whether the host’s communications protocol allows a bypass feature when connecting to the local host. Always set to YES.

Note:
For the client/server connection to work, you must have an identical entry in the nethost.tbl file on the client machine.

Sample entries:
sunny, tcp, 6800, YES
192.9.200.1, tcp, 6003, YES

The first entry specifies that the server daemon on the host machine sunny shall monitor port number 6800 for client activity. The second entry specifies that the server, identified by IP address, shall monitor port 6003. In both cases, the communications protocol is TCP/IP with loopback feature enabled.

2.1.2 The Meta-Configuration file

For UNIX platform:
By default, InfoFUSION looks for the meta-configuration table in the file /usr/lib/infoconfig. The meta-configuration table is a file that lets you configure InfoFUSION system. This file specifies the location of the InfoFUSION root directory and other non-default locations for one or more InfoFUSION areas.

A meta-configuration file must at least contain the ROOT entry, where it specifies the directory where InfoFUSION is installed.

For example, if you installed InfoFUSION in the directory called /infofusion, then the entry should read
ROOT = /infofusion/
Other useful entries include DBROOT and DATABASES.

DBROOT
indicates the directory where your databases are located.

DATABASES
indicates the directory where the database configuration tables are located.
This meta-configuration file must be validated. This is done by placing the full path and the full name of the file in the file /usr/lib/infovalid. You are responsible for creating and maintaining the file.

For example, if you create a new meta-configuration file called newmeta in the /usr/lib directory, then you would validate this file by placing the following entry in the /usr/lib/infovalid file:
/usr/lib/newmeta

For Windows NT platform:
The meta-configuration is found in $ROOT\Bin directory. The entries in the infoconfig file is exactly the same as the one in UNIX platform.
However, no validation is required in this platform and therefore the infovalid file is not required.

2.1.3 The INFOConfig Environment Variable

You need to set the INFOConfig environment variable to the name and path of the meta-configuration table. Upon startup, InfoFUSION will query this environment variable and the specified meta-configuration.
The INFOConfig environment variable can either be defined in the user’s login script (.profile or .login) or it can be defined from the command line.

2.1.4 The INFONETD Server Daemon

Before any InfoFUSION client application can communicate with the InfoFUSION server, you must ensure that the InfoFUSION server daemon (infonetd), a program that causes the server to monitor a particular port on the host machine is running.

To start the infonetd on UNIX
Issue the following command:
nohup infonetd [-log logfile] [-user userid] [-name hostname] & where,

nohup
is the UNIX no hang-up command, which eliminates the possibility of being disconnected mid-process.

infonetd
is the name of the InfoFUSION executable that monitors the specified port.

-log logfile
tells InfoFUSION to record all activity at the specified port. This entry is optional.

-name userid
tells InfoFUSION to start the daemon process using the specified userid.

-name hostname
tells InfoFUSION to use the specified hostname to lookup for the entry in nethost.tbl instead of the default server hostname.
&
is the UNIX parameter that causes processing to take place as a background process.