Version 6.3.13 for Windows
 —  Installation  —

Installing Natural or Natural Runtime on a File Server

A server installation has a variety of advantages over installing Natural or Natural Runtime on single PCs. You can install Natural or Natural Runtime once on a file server and then access it from any number of client PCs, saving disk space and time.

This document describes how to install Natural and Natural Runtime on a file server and how to prepare the client PCs to access the file server installation. It covers the following topics:


Installation Procedure Overview

A setup program is provided for installing Natural or Natural Runtime on a file server. This program decompresses the files contained on the installation medium, copies them to the file server you specify and thus makes them available for a number of client PCs. After Natural or Natural Runtime has been installed on your server, from there you start a short client installation for each PC you want to be able to access Natural or Natural Runtime. A setup program guides you step by step through both installation procedures.

The installation procedure is used for first-time installations of Natural or Natural Runtime as well as for update installations (in which case previous configuration information is used by the setup program).

With Natural Runtime, only a subset of the Natural features will be installed. Natural Runtime and Natural are two entirely separate environments. The Natural Runtime installation procedure, however, is almost identical with the Natural installation procedure.

File Server Installation

A file server installation consists of two phases:

  1. Configuration Phase
    Environment information is collected. You are prompted to enter certain installation values; other values are automatically included by the setup program. The installation parameters are displayed for confirmation prior to the actual installation. During this phase you may cancel the setup procedure at any time or step back to previous dialogs. No changes to your system will occur during this phase.

  2. Installation Phase
    The files are copied. The setup program installs Natural or Natural Runtime according to the values you entered during the configuration phase.

Client Installation

After the file server installation is completed, a short installation must be performed for each client PC. This is necessary because some parts of Natural or Natural Runtime may not reside on a server during the execution of Natural or Natural Runtime, for example, terminal emulation. Additionally, the client installation registers the Natural or Natural Runtime environment to the client PC and creates the shortcuts on the Windows desktop.

A client installation also consists of two phases:

  1. Configuration Phase
    User information is collected. If a license key file is required, you are prompted to provide it.

  2. Installation Phase
    The product registration is performed and the shortcuts are created on the Windows desktop.

Important:
You must have administrator rights to install Natural or Natural Runtime.

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Installation Steps on the Server

This section describes how to install Natural or Natural Runtime on a file server.

The following topics are covered below:

Starting the Setup Program

Before you start the setup program, ensure that your system meets the requirements outlined in the section Installation Prerequisites.

Important:
Due to a changed update behavior of Microsoft Windows Server 2003, the destination location for a Natural file server installation must be on a different machine. Otherwise, you will run into problems when you later install a Natural update.

Start of instruction set To run the setup program

  1. Close all active Windows applications.

  2. Insert the Natural installation medium into the drive.

    The setup program is automatically started and the initial installation screen appears.

    Note:
    If the autostart feature of your operating system is disabled, execute Setup.exe which can be found in the root directory of the installation medium.

  3. Choose Server Installation in the initial installation screen.

    The following screen appears.

    Server installation

  4. Choose either Natural or Natural Runtime in this screen.

    The welcome screen for the selected product appears.

  5. Choose the Next button to proceed.

    Now, you will be guided through the installation for the selected product. Proceed as described below.

License Agreement

After the welcome screen, the license agreement screen is displayed. To proceed with the installation, you have to accept the terms in the license agreement.

Choose Destination Location

In this screen, you specify the destination folder for the file server to which Natural or Natural Runtime will be installed. All PCs that will use the file server installation must have access to a common share located on this file server.

To specify the path, it is recommended to use UNC notation, for example:

\\server-name\share\path
  1. If necessary, choose the Browse button to change the path. Please note that it is recommended to use UNC notation.

    Important:
    If you do not use UNC notation, the drive specified must be identical on all clients. Otherwise, access will not be possible.

    "natural\n.n" (where n.n is the current version number) will automatically be added to the path you have specified.

  2. Choose the Next button to proceed.

Notes:

  1. An update installation will take place when the third digit in the version number, which indicates a correction level, changes.
  2. If the installation program detects an older version of Natural or Natural Runtime on the same location (with the same two-digit version number in the path), you will be asked whether you want to update the installation. If you do, make sure no client is accessing the former installation while the update installation is performed. Choose Yes to overwrite your existing Natural or Natural Runtime version with the newer version. In the process you will be prompted for information about the features you want to install and the parameter specification resulting from your choice.
  3. A parallel installation of another Natural version in a different directory (that is, with a different version number in the path) cannot be updated.
  4. With a file server installation, it is not possible to migrate parameter files from a parallel installation of another Natural version to the newest version of Natural.

Select Features

In this screen, the standard features to be installed are preselected. You can add or remove features according to your needs. What you select here, will be available for the clients who access this Natural or Natural Runtime installation. Different screens appear for Natural and Natural Runtime:

Depending on your choice of features, further information may be required.

Natural

This screen appears when you install Natural.

Select features

  1. Select the features you want to install.

  2. Choose the Next button to proceed.

Natural Runtime

This screen appears when you install Natural Runtime.

Select features

  1. Select the features you want to install.

  2. Choose the Next button to proceed.

Database Settings

In this screen, the values for the database IDs and file numbers for FUSER and FNAT and the default path for the FUSER directory are displayed. Example for Natural:

Database settings

  1. You can change the FUSER settings by choosing the Browse button.

  2. Choose the Next button to proceed.

Web Interface (optional)

This screen appears only if you have selected the feature Web Interface. Example for Natural:

graphics/inst-server-nat-web.png

In this screen, you can verify the HTTP server root directory and the HTTP server script enabled directory for the Web Interface. The paths shown in the screen are the default paths.

  1. If necessary, choose the Browse buttons to change the paths. Please note that it is recommended to use UNC notation.

  2. Choose the Next button to proceed.

Web Interface - Apache (optional)

This screen appears only if you have selected the feature Web Interface and have selected the HTTP server extensions for Apache. Example for Natural:

Web Interface - Apache

In this screen, you can verify the Apache HTTP server bin directory for the Web Interface. The path shown in the screen below is the default path.

  1. If necessary, choose the Browse button to change the path. Please note that it is recommended to use UNC notation.

  2. Choose the Next button to proceed.

Ready to Install

In this screen, your current settings and the features to be installed are displayed for reviewing.

InstallShield Wizard Complete

After the files have been copied to your system, the last screen appears. You can display the Readme information now or later.

  1. Complete the installation process by choosing the Finish button.

    The latest information will be displayed, unless you deselect this option.

  2. Continue with the client installation as described below.

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Installation Steps on the Client

This section describes how to prepare the client PCs to access the file server installation.

After Natural or Natural Runtime has been installed on your file server, it is necessary to perform the following steps for each PC that is going to access this Natural installation.

Starting the Setup Program

Before you start the setup program, ensure that your system meets the requirements outlined in the section Installation Prerequisites.

Start of instruction set To start the setup program

License Agreement

After the welcome screen, the license agreement screen is displayed. To proceed with the installation, you have to accept the terms in the license agreement.

Customer Information

In this screen, you enter your customer information.

  1. Enter your user name.

  2. Enter the name of your organization.

  3. Specify the path to the XML file which contains your license key.

    You can overwrite the default with an alternative path to your license key file or change it by choosing the Browse button.

  4. Choose the Next button to proceed.

Choose Destination Location

In this screen, you specify the destination folder to which Natural or Natural Runtime will be installed.

The default path is displayed according to your %ProgramFiles% system variable setting:

%ProgramFiles%\Software AG\product-name

where product-name is either "Natural" or "Natural Runtime".

  1. You can change this path by choosing the Browse button.

  2. Choose the Next button to proceed.

Natural for Tamino

This screen appears only if the feature Natural for Tamino has been selected during the file server installation.

In this screen, the path and file name of your Natural for Tamino license key file is required.

  1. If necessary, choose the Browse button to change the path.

  2. Choose the Next button to proceed.

Ready to Install

In this screen, your current settings and the features to be installed are displayed for reviewing.

InstallShield Wizard Complete

After the files have been copied to your system, the last screen appears. You can display the Readme information now or later.

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Starting Natural or Natural Runtime

Once the installation process is completed, you can start a Natural or Natural Runtime session.

For Natural, shortcuts for the following product components have been created on your Windows desktop:

If you would like to read more about using Natural, refer to First Steps with Natural.

For Natural Runtime, shortcuts for the following product components have been created on your Windows desktop:

Before using Natural or Natural Runtime, however, you may need to set up parameters and individual settings depending on your environment. If you wish to do so, see Profile Parameter Usage in the Operations documentation. For information on transferring Natural objects from another platform (for example, UNIX), see Object Handler in the Tools and Utilities documentation.

Note:
When Natural or Natural Runtime has been installed in an environment protected by the Windows firewall and can therefore not be started, see Configuring the Microsoft Windows Personal Firewall to Run Natural in the Operations documentation.

Start of instruction setTo start Natural

Start of instruction setTo start Natural Runtime

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Removing Your File Server Environment

You can only delete a file server environment by deleting its file structure with the normal operating system commands used to delete files and folders.

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Removing Your Client Environment

You can remove a Natural or Natural Runtime installation at any time after Natural has been installed.

  1. Choose the Add/Remove Programs feature of your operating system.

  2. In the list of currently installed programs, select Software AG Natural n.n or Software AG Natural Runtime n.n (where n.n is the current version number).

  3. Choose the Change/Remove button.

  4. Select the Remove option button and choose the Next button to uninstall your Natural environment.

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Updating Your File Server Environment

A file server environment can be updated by installing a new Natural or Natural Runtime version.

Note:
It is only possible to update your environment when the third digit in the version number, which indicates a correction level, changes.

With a file server installation, it is not possible to migrate parameter files from a parallel installation of another Natural version to the newest version of Natural.

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Updating Your Client Environment

When a Natural or Natural Runtime client session is started and the system detects that the file server installation has been updated since you last accessed it, you will be asked whether you want to update the client installation. If you choose Yes, the installation will be updated immediately. When the installation is completed, you can start your Natural or Natural Runtime session.

Important:
If you are using the Natural Web I/O Interface, make sure that the required version of Microsoft .NET Framework has already been installed on the client PC before you start the update installation. The required version is listed under Software in the section Installation Prerequisites.

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