Managing the ApplinX Server


Starting ApplinX Server

Windows Environment

The ApplinX server can be started either as a Windows service or using a batch file.

Note:
When selecting to run ApplinX as a service it will by default, start automatically when Windows is started.

Start of instruction setTo start the ApplinX server as a Windows system service

  1. In the installation process, define that ApplinX server will run as a Windows system service.

  2. Select Start>Settings>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services.

  3. Start the Software AG ApplinX Server service.

Start of instruction setTo start the ApplinX server using a batch command file

  1. Access the <ApplinX installation>/bin folder.

  2. Double-click startup.bat.

It is possible to configure the server's system properties.

Refer to ApplinX Server, System Parameters for further details.

UNIX Environment

Start of instruction setTo start the ApplinX server

  • In the ApplinX installation directory, start the server using the startup.sh shell command.

It is possible to configure the server's system properties.

Refer to ApplinX Server, System Parameters for further details.

ApplinX Server System Parameters

When running ApplinX server as a batch file, these parameters can be configured in the startup.bat batch file/GXApplinXService.ini/startup.sh.

Parameter Description
com.sabratec.gxhome The location of the applinx_home directory.
com.sabratec.license The directory of the license file.
com.sabratec.useicon Put the server icon in the icon tray.
com.sabratec.conf ApplinX configuration file name - under the config folder of the installation.
com.sabratec.prpfile The location of gxstartup.prp.
com.sabratec.logger Servlet logger.
com.softwareag.applinx.ndt.endians_switch When using Natural UNIX natural data transfer, if the download or upload gets stuck, this may be due to Endian issues and setting this parameter to true may fix this (by default this parameter is false).

The following parameters provide you with the ability to determine the server's system properties. Define these properties in the \config\gxstartup.prp file. These parameters can be overridden by parameters defined in the startup.bat batch file/GXApplinXService.ini/startup.sh files.

Parameter Description
com.sabratec.license The directory of the license file.
com.sabratec.useicon Put the server icon in the icon tray.
com.sabratec.conf ApplinX configuration file name - under the config folder of the installation.
com.sabratec.logger Servlet logger.

Stopping ApplinX Server

Windows Environment

Start of instruction setTo stop the ApplinX server, when started as a Windows system service

  1. Select Start>Settings>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services.

  2. Stop the Software AG ApplinX Server service.

Start of instruction setTo stop the ApplinX server using a batch command file

  1. Access the ApplinX installation folder.

  2. Double-click shutdown.bat.

UNIX Environment

Start of instruction setTo stop the ApplinX server

  • In the ApplinX installation directory, you will find the shutdown.sh shell command.

Connecting to the Server

Start of instruction setTo connect to the server

  1. In the ApplinX Designer, click Connect to Server on the toolbar, or right-click on the relevant server and select Connect.

  2. When connecting for the first time, ensure that the server address (IPv4 and IPv6 address formats are supported) and port that are displayed in the pop-up are correct.

  3. Click OK.

  4. Type the User name and Password and click OK.

Start of instruction setTo disconnect from the server

  1. In the ApplinX Designer, click Disconnect from Server on the toolbar, or right-click on the relevant server and select Connect.

    The communication with the server terminates, and the user's details disappear.

Configuring the Server

To update a Server's configuration, open ApplinX Designer, and either right-click on the server (in the ApplinX Explorer) and select Properties, or select Properties from the Server menu.

The Server Properties dialog box is displayed.

Edit the dialog box as follows:

CentraSite

Enable CentraSite

Selecting this option enables connecting to CentraSite. This is available only when you have a relevant license and have the installed the required Software AG common files. An error message will indicate when one of these are missing. If the common files are not installed, run the Software AG Installer and within "Infrastructure>Libraries" select to install "Shared Libraries" and "CentraSite Libraries".

Host

The name of the host where CentraSite is installed.

Port

The port number used to connect to CentraSite

User

Current user name.

Password

Password of current user.

Test Connection

Clicking on this button will test that a connection with CentraSite has been established.

General

Non secured port

Does not require user name and password authentication.

Secured port

The Secured port check box determines whether SSL is used to securely transfer the data between the client and ApplinX server.

To change the HTTP port, edit the server.xml and gxconfig.xml files.

Load ApplinX archive applications (gxar)

This check box determines whether to automatically update the application with new/updated gxar files. Once selected, ApplinX searches the host-applications folder looking for new/updated gxar files. When one is found, it is loaded automatically as a new/updated application. You must determine how often to search the folder (by default this is set as one minute).

Enable encryption of recorded sessions

Selecting this checkbox, enables encrypting recorded sessions.

Encryption key file

The encryption key enables ApplinX to encrypt and decrypt the recorded sessions. A key is required for each ApplinX server.

Note:
Refer to Recording Sessions for further details regarding encrypting recorded sessions.

License

This page provides information regarding the ApplinX Server license. It includes the number of users, the number of licenses for each type of license, the expiry date, the platforms and the special license terms (such as whether the license includes Web Enablement and/or SOA). Refer to the ApplinX License Keys.

Log

The server log can be accessed from ApplinX Administrator or from the ApplinX Designer. Refer to Viewing Server Logs for further details.

Level

The contents of the log file are as detailed as this property defines, where every level includes the levels above it. For example, the Debug level also logs Normal, Warnings and Errors Only levels. Available values: "Errors only", "Warnings", "Normal" and "Debug" (by default Normal is selected).

Log File Name

The log is written to this file.

Open log folder

Enables you to see the list of existing log files.

Max. file size

Starts a new log file after the current file has been filled to the maximum file size.

Save History

Selecting this check box determines whether backups of old log files will be saved, after restarting the server.

The radio button options determine the number of backups saved before overwriting the old log files. For example: 10 means "save the last 10 log files, in addition to the current one, then start to overwrite". When selecting All Files, old log files are never deleted. Default value is "10".

Outgoing SMTP Server

Server Address

The IP address of the SMTP server.

From address

Mail sent as part of a Procedure, requires using a From address, which is defined in the procedure. When the From field in the procedure is left empty, the address defined here, in the Default From address, will be used.

Requires authentication

For security reasons, you may want to require authentication. Enter the Account name and Password.

Note:
Only an Administrator is able to change the server's configuration.

WS-Stack

Enables selecting whether to work in embedded (default) or in external mode. Use the Embedded mode when WS-Stack uses the same Tomcat as ApplinX and also when working with Web Services created in previous ApplinX versions (Administrative Web Services and Procedure Group generated Web Services). Use the External mode when not using the same Tomcat as ApplinX, for example when working with one WS-Stack Web application for all SAG products or when working with a WS-Stack Web application which is on a different machine.

When connecting to a WS-Stack installation on a different machine, you are required to enter the following:

Host/IP

The host name or IP Address (IPv4 and IPv6 address formats are supported).

Port

The Tomcat port where WS-Stack Web application is deployed.

Servlet name

The URL of the servlet that the WS-Stack uses for deployment tasks.

User

The user name used by WS-Stack.

Password

The password used by WS-Stack.

Click Test Connection, to test the connection to the remote machine.

Refer to Integration between ApplinX and WS-Stack

High Availability

This section covers the following topics:

Eliminating Single Points of Failure

This is achieved by adding redundancy to the system, so that failure of a component does not mean failure of the entire system. ApplinX provides the following:

  • Several ApplinX servers can run in a server's farm configuration. This should be used in combination with an external load balancing solution.

  • Several web applications can be deployed and used on the client side. An external load balancing solution is needed.

Reliable Crossover

In multithreaded systems, the crossover point itself tends to become a single point of failure. When an ApplinX server is down, sessions that are currently being served by this server will go down and not transfer to another running server. However, using the suspended state in connection pools (see Connection Pool States), ApplinX can handle planned maintenance cycles that will start diverting sessions into other servers and take the server down for maintenance only when there are no attached sessions. This means that new users/sessions will not get served by this server, but currently active sessions will continue to run until finished. This minimizes the number of users actually affected by maintenance cycles. Monitoring the session's activities and state can be done using the ApplinX administrative web services API, specifically Retrieving Server Information and Retrieving Session Information.

Detection of Failures as they Occur

ApplinX provides multiple monitoring, logging and tracing facilities:

Accessing Server Information

This feature provides important information required for monitoring the server's status and activity history.

Start of instruction setTo access the Server's status and activity history

  1. In the ApplinX Administrator, click Server Information on the toolbar, or from the Tools menu, select Server Information.

  2. Click Close to exit the Server Information dialog box.

graphics/ServerInformation.png

Server

Server Status

"Running" when the server is connected.

Version

The ApplinX server's version.

Started

The date and time the server was last initialized.

Sessions

Total

The total number of sessions connected to the server presently.

Active

The number of currently active sessions.

Idle

The number of sessions currently idle (connected, but detached).

Processing

The number of sessions currently processing XML requests.

History

Number of Sessions

The total number of sessions that have connected to the server since it was last initialized.

Threads

Started Threads

The number of threads that were activated.

Idle Threads

How many threads were activated, but are currently not used.

Memory

Allocated Memory

The total amount of memory (in bytes) that is currently allocated to ApplinX server on the Java Virtual Machine.

Free Memory

The amount of memory (in bytes) currently available for ApplinX to use.

This information can be accessed using the API detailed in Retrieving Server Information.

Viewing Server Logs

The Server Log includes information as to the Server's activities and problems. The contents of the server log file are defined according to the settings configured in the Server Parameter>Log node. The Server Log can be accessed either from ApplinX Administrator, from ApplinX Designer or via an external browser: ApplinX Administrator can be used by administrators and/or developers. Administrators who do not have ApplinX Designer can access the Server Log from the Designer. Administrators who do not have ApplinX Designer or ApplinX Administrator can access the Server Log via an external browser.

Start of instruction setTo View the contents of server log files from within ApplinX Administrator

  1. In the ApplinX Administrator, click Server Log on the toolbar to view the current log file's contents. To view previous log file history: click the Server Logs node under the Management node. The paths of these log files; according to the Server definitions (see Server Configuration) appear in the Main view.

  2. Double-click a file's name. A dialog box with the file's contents appears.

  3. Click Refresh, or press the F5 key on the keyboard to renew information on the log file manually. Check Auto refresh to automatically refresh the log file.

  4. Click OK to exit the Log File window.

Start of instruction setTo View the contents of server log files from within ApplinX Designer

  1. In the ApplinX Designer, either right-click on a server and select Show Server Log, or select Show Server Log in the Server Menu.

  2. To view previous log file history select the relevant file from the list of files in the File name field.

  3. Double-click a file's name. A dialog box with the file's contents appears.

  4. Click Refresh, or press the F5 key on the keyboard to renew information on the log file manually.

  5. Click Restart Log to restart the log. The previous data is saved to a file, and a new file is created.