6. Installing tc Server

This chapter describes how to install the various editions of vFabric tc Server.

6.1 Before You Begin: System Requirements

This section includes topics that discuss tc Server software requirements, such as the required Java Development Kit (JDK) or Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and database server. Read this section before you begin the tc Server installation.

For HQ Server and Agent requirements, see Installation Requirements on the Hyperic documentation Web site.

Required Software: JDK or JRE

No editions of tc Server bundle a JDK or JRE. Before you install tc Server, download and install a JDK or JRE on each computer on which you will install the tc Runtime component of tc Server. If you are installing the HQ components, the JDK or JRE requirement depends on whether you install the platform-specific or platform-neutral version; only the latter requires a JDK or JRE because the former bundles one. See Supported Configurations for platform-specific details of the JDK or JRE versions that are supported and have been tested.

For most platforms you can download and install the Sun JDK or JRE, although for IBM computers you might want to install the IBM-specific JDK or JRE. The following links point to download Web sites:

After you install the JDK or JRE, set your JAVA_HOME environment variable to point to your installation and update your PATH environment variable to point to the JAVA_HOME/bin directory.

Windows only. If you are installing the management components of tc Server (HQ Server and Agent), then you must also set the HQ_JAVA_HOME system environment variable to point to the location of your JDK or JRE. Set HQ_JAVA_HOME as a system environment variable; if you set it as a user environment variable, the HQ Agent aborts on startup.

Possibly Required Software: Database Server

This section applies only if you are using the Standard or Spring editions of tc Server and you want to also install the HQ Server and Agents management components using the platform-neutral version of the HQ distribution.

The HQ Server uses a database to store its metadata. The platform-neutral version of HQ Server does not, however, bundle a database. This means that if you do not have a database server already installed on either the computer on which you are going to install HQ Server or on an accessible remote computer, then you must download and install one. The platform-specific versions of the HQ distribution bundle a non-production database for you to get started, although it is not recommended that you use this database for production purposes.

Use Oracle 10g/11g, PostgreSQL, or MySQL 5.x with HQ Server. During the installation of HQ Server, you will provide the database URL for JDBC connection and the database username and password.

To set up one of these databases for use with HQ Server, see Set Up Hyperic Database.

Installing on Unix Platforms: Important Notes

This section contains notes about installing tc Server on Unix systems.

tar Command Compatibility

If you are installing tc Server on Unix and have downloaded the compressed TAR file format (*.tar.gz), be sure that the tar command on your computer is compatible with the one required by tc Server. Open a terminal window and enter:

prompt$ tar --help

Search the help output for a -z option (which filters the output through gzip); if the tar command on your computer supports this option, then it is compatible with the one required by tc Server and you can begin the installation.

If, however, your tar command does not supports this option, then you must install GNUtar (gtar) from an external source. For example, the Web site Sunfreeware.com includes many free downloads for the Solaris platform, including GNUtar.

After you install GNUtar, update the PATH environment variable (either of the user installing tc Server or the system-wide environment variable) to include the location of the gtar command. The location depends on the directory in which you installed GNUtar.

If you have installed GNUtar, then substitute the command gtar for any references to tar in the following install procedure.

Spaces in File and Directory Names

On Unix systems, avoid pathnames containing spaces. Directory and file names containing spaces can cause errors in scripts when added to search paths or specified as command arguments.