COSmanager/User Guide/Installing Applications and Modules

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Revision as of 00:50, 26 April 2006

COSmanager products are installed during the initial configuration or later through the COSmanager configuration menu. Once you choose the application or add-on module to be installed, the procedure is largely automatic; COSmanager copies the files from the distribution tape, adds the product to the COSmanager application table, then performs any product-specific installation tasks.

Whenever an application, module, or patch is installed or deinstalled it is logged in the COSmanager audit trail.

Once a product is installed you may wish to change some of its details in the application table, such as the default version or the name that appears on the button bar.

Like COSmanager itself, some products have a few configuration tasks that must be performed before the software is fully set up. See the application user guide for details of any product-specific configuration tasks.

Application Installation

COSmanager maintains a table of installed applications and modules. In the following procedure, the application installation script COSinst installs the software on a disk and creates an entry in the application table.

Note If you are installing from a tape drive attached to a remote host that does not have COSmanager installed, 
you will need to set up .rhosts correctly on that host. See Installing From a Remote Host.

To install an application or module

• From the COSmanager configuration menu, select COSmanager applications.
• Select Application > Install.
• Enter the following fields:

Type

Where are you installing the COSmanager files from?

tape

a COSmanager distribution tape

directory

a CD-ROM directory structure

file

a file in cpio format containing the distribution

Host

name Choose the host to which the tape drive is attached or on which the file or directory is stored.

Install from

If you are installing from tape, enter the no-rewind device name for the drive the tape is loaded in. The device name must begin with /dev.

If you are installing from a CD-ROM directory structure, enter the name of the top-level directory.

If you are installing from a cpio archive (for example, if you used dd and ftp to copy the distribution file from a tape drive on a remote host), enter the full file name.

Press Accept. If you are installing from tape, COSinst asks you to confirm when the tape is loaded. It then rewinds to the beginning of the tape to read the list of applications.

Note If you see error messages relating to permissions problems when installing from a remote host, .rhosts may not be set up correctly. See Installing From a Remote Host.

• Choose the application(s) you want to install now.

Note If there is a software patch for the product on the distribution tape, you must first install the application, then install  the patch.

For each application, COSinst will ask you to provide license details and a target directory name.

• Enter the information for the chosen product from your Licence Key Details form. For more information on licensing, see To License an Application.
• COSinst displays the default target directory for this product. Modules are normally stored in a subdirectory of the parent application.

Edit the directory name if you want to install to a different location. When the directory name is correct, press Accept.

If the directory already exists, COSinst warns you that the current contents of the target directory will be overwritten. If you want to install over the existing directory, press Accept again. If you want to save the existing version, you must first rename it.

Note You can’t install the same application version twice.

• COSinst unloads the application into the target directory, and performs any application-specific steps.

Press Continue. If there is another application to be installed, COSinst asks you to confirm the target directory.

When all the products have been installed, COSinst rewinds the tape and returns to the list of installed applications, with the new application(s) now showing.

Newly-installed applications will appear on your COSmanager button bar or main menu the next time you restart COSmanager. A configuration menu for each application will appear under the Product configuration menu. Modules will be merged into the menu structure of the parent application.

For details of how to deinstall the application, see To Deinstall an Application or Module.

To Configure an Application

Some COSmanager applications have a number of tasks that should be run in order to set up an initial configuration for the product. These products have an Initial configuration option under the product’s configuration menu. See the configuration chapter of the product’s user guide for any product-specific configuration notes.

Installing From a Remote Host

If you want to install a COSmanager application from a tape drive attached to a remote host, and that host does not have COSmanager installed, you will need to edit its .rhosts file to allow COSmanager root access to the target host. On the remote host, edit .rhosts in the root directory. Add this line: targethostname root

...where targethostname is the name of the host on which you are installing an application.

Caution This .rhosts entry gives root users on the remote host root access on the targethost. 
You must delete this entry from the .rhosts file as soon as the installation procedure is finished.

Alternatively, you can use dd to extract selected files from the tape and ftp or rcp to copy them to the remote host. The first file on the distribution tape (file 0) contains the install script FSinstall and a ‘table of contents’ listing the COSmanager applications stored on this tape. The second file contains the COSmanager framework. Each subsequent file contains a COSmanager application.