eBECAS Software Installation

Index

The purpose of this documentation is to to assist the eBECAS network administrator install and maintain eBECAS client and connections to the database service.

Background

eBECAS uses a SQL transaction based database Firebird. Firebird uses a single database file (ends in fdb). This file is only accessed by the Database application running as a service on the server, and never by a workstation. Each workstation communicates over the LAN (or Internet) using the TCP/IP protocol, to the server that runs the Firebird database application service.

The eBECAS application, which is executed (run) by each workstation communicates with the Firebird database application service running on the server, and asks the server to send the data back to the workstation. The data is stored on the server on disk and or in memory. This is an important concept, as you CANNOT take a copy of the database file off the server, and use it as a backup copy. If you copy the database file while the service is active, you can corrupt the database.

System Requirements

eBECAS workstations should be Microsoft XP Professional for any business computer, or Microsoft Vista (in our opinion there is no compelling advantage in using Microsoft Vista and the hardware requirements are more expensive).

All workstations need Microsoft Office although eBECAS only uses Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. You can install and use any version of Microsoft Office on the workstations.

Ideally the server should be a dedicated computer running Microsoft Windows 2003 Server. We have provided tools specifically to backup and restore the database and schedule routine backups on Microsoft Windows servers. You can use Linux as the server to host the database service with improved reliability and performance but will have to manually schedule backups using the Linux operating system cron task.

You can use Microsoft XP Professional as the server if there are 5 workstations or less networked. If you use Microsoft XP as the server, then do NOT to use eBECAS on the same workstation. Using XP Professional as the server requires all internal Firewalls on that computer to be turned off, as communication to the database on the local area network (LAN) from workstations is via tcp/ip. Having a firewall on (internal or external to the operating system) will block all communication to the server (Firebird communicates via the network on port 3050 and 3060). Using XP Professional running as a server means no user should use eBECAS as a workstation on this computer. The XP Professional operating system would also have to be setup never to go to sleep and to be configured and setup to run as a server.

There is no fixed memory requirements on either the workstations or server. If you can run the operating systems, both on the server and on the workstations and you can run Microsoft Office satisfactorily, then you have enough memory. 1 gig byte of memory for every computer would be best as memory is cheap and is more significant than processor speed.

Installation steps

When you first purchase eBECAS, EIT will supply the files and software to get eBECAS up and running on a LAN based network.

The steps involved are:

File Locations

There must be 2 separate folders on the server. One shared, one not. We generally recommend folder names:

\BEC_DATA which is not shared

\BECAS which is shared and gives read and write access to all eBECAS client workstations.

Folder \bec_data which is not shared is where the database file is located e.g. college.fdb, files located here are:

the administration tool BecasDBConfig.exe

and the latest update file Updates.eit

fbclient.dll

Folder \BECAS - shared, read and write access for workstation clients, other files located here are:

ebecas.exe
all templates (*.dot)
ebecas.data
ebecas.dat
fbclient.dll

Server Install

Please see separate set by step instructions from here

Client Install

eBECAS client workstations need to have a shortcut to the file ebecas.exe on the server in the \BECAS folder. It is good practice to have all workstations setup to have the same shared drive accessing the folder \BECAS on the server.

In the \BECAS folder is the file eBecas.dat which contains the name of the server and the database the workstations are using. All workstations automatically access the ebecas.dat file when running the becas.exe in the \BECAS folder.

The eBecas.dat file must be edited to specify the server name and location of the database. You can use Notpad to edit the ebecas.dat text file.

The file consists of 3 lines:

PROTOCOL=TCP/IP

SERVER=SERVERNAME

PATH=D:\BEC_DATA\COLLEGE.FDB

The top line MUST be left as is PROTOCOL=TCP/IP

The next line is the name or ip address of the server. The name of the server can be found using the

Start - Control Panel - System - Computer name

The name is the text before the first . in the Full computer name.

For example my Notebook has as the Full computer name 600m.Eqware.local The computer name is therefore 600m so if I wanted to access the computer remotely the second line would read: SERVER=600m Please note it can NEVER be localhost

The next line specifies the location of the database on the server. This can never be a shared drive, the drive MUST be physically connected to the server computer.

BecasDBConfig Maintenance Tool

Equator IT provides the program BecasDBConfig.exe which is the maintenance tool to be used for eBECAS to provide optimization, backup, restore, updates and patches to the eBECAS database. BecasDBConfig.exe can be downloaded and extracted from the zip file from here For details on using BecasDBConfig please refer here

Place the BecasDBConfig.exe in the correct folder as suggested above

Running BecasDBConfig.exe Make sure you have all the files needed as specified in the folders above, if the database needs to be created, specify the location (folder) on the settings screen and database name on the server local drive, not on a mapped drive. If the database exists, check if BecasDBConfig can make connection by pressing the test button on the settings screen. You can press the Browse button and locate the database file. The database ends in .FDB

Test Connection You can verify you can connect to the database by pressing Test Connection on the Settings screen.

This above screen is displayed when successfully connected. It displays the College the software is licensed to, the expiry date of the software, database version and maximum concurrent users, and if any users are connected.