ABECAS Insight

ABECAS Insight Server can be installed on a machine running SQL Server 2005 64 Bit. The following steps are necessary during this operation:

1. Install the .NET Framework 2.0 and all security updates for the framework on your Windows Server 2003 64 Bit or (for testing purposes) Windows XP Professional 64 Bit machine.

2. Install SQL Server 2005 64 Bit (any edition) and Service Pack 2 for that product.

3. Open the SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration Tool from the SQL Server 2005 folder in the Start Menu and click the Surface Area Configuration for Features link at the bottom of the page.

4. Highlight the CLR Integration node and check Enable CLR integration.

5. Create a folder named AI64 on your C: drive.

6. Right-click on My Computer and select Properties. You can also access this information by opening the System applet in the Control Panel. Click on the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button.

7. When the Environment Variables dialog is open, highlight the Path variable in the System Variables list box and click the Edit button.

8. Add C:\AI64 to your path using a semicolon, as shown.

9. Download the ABECAS Insight 64 Bit Support package here. Unzip the files from this package into your C:\AI64 directory. The package includes the following:

NTWDBLIB.DLL (DB Library) - This file is necessary for the operation of ABECAS Insight on any operating system.

Argos.SqlXpLib.dll - The C# assembly required by ABECAS Insight on 64 Bit SQL Server.

Custom_Script_For_Sql_Server_64bit_PART_1.sql - Script required for installation of the C# assembly.

Custom_Script_For_Sql_Server_64bit_PART_2.sql - Script required for installation of the C# assembly.

10. Install ABECAS Insight 7.3 or higher.

11. Open the SQL Server Management Studio as SA and connect to your local SQL Server 64 Bit installation. Click File -> Open -> File… on the menu or CTRL+O on your keyboard to open a file. Browse to the location of Custom_Script_For_Sql_Server_64bit_PART_1.sql and open it. Click the Execute toolbar button or F5 on your keyboard to run the script.

note: This script will run against the MASTER database- Do not alter the script so that it runs against another database. The path in the script refers to the C:\AI64 folder. You will have to change this part of the script if you have chosen another location for your 64 Bit support files.

12. Open Custom_Script_For_Sql_Server_64bit_PART_2.sql and change your current database to ABECAS_CS, or another ABECAS Insight database. You must run this script once in every ABECAS Insight database on your SQL Server other than ABECAS_SHIP. Click the Execute toolbar button or F5 on your keyboard to run the script.

You must follow these steps in order to ensure that the ABECAS Insight Server will function properly. In addition, you must perform steps 11 and 12 after any update to your ABECAS Insight system, as the setup program does not yet fully support 64 Bit installation.

Most users employ the default ABECAS Insight database, ABECAS_CS. In certain cases, you may want to create one or more additional ABECAS Insight databases:

• An additional database is needed for training or testing
• Two databases require very different user security
• Discrete business entities can be separated for maximum performance

In these cases, you can use the database version control program, UPDATEDB, to create a new, empty database.

Login to your ABECAS Insight Server. Click on the START button, select the RUN option, and type the following command into the RUN dialog and click the OK button:

X:\ABECASCS\SCRIPTS\DATABASE\UPDATEDB /C /DABECAS_NEW

In this case, X: is the drive where ABECAS Insight is installed and ABECAS_NEW is the desired name for the new database.

note: There is a space before each forward slash. There are no other spaces in the command.

UPDATEDB will ask you for the SA password and create the database.

Next, you should create a database alias so that your ABECAS Insight users can access your new database.

1. Right-click on the Blue A tray icon and select SETTINGS -> GENERAL.
2. Click on the SERVER tab on the left-hand toolbar.
3. Click on the DATABASE icon on the left-hand toolbar.
4. Click the ADD button on the right-hand side of the dialog.
5. Enter the ALIAS name. This must start with “ABECAS_” and will, in most cases, be the same as the database name. The database name is automatically filled in for you when you enter the ALIAS name.
6. Select your desired ALIAS parameters- I typically turn on the 300 record limit to avoid accidentally pulling back unmanageably large results.
7. Select OK on all dialogs.
8. Restart the ABECAS Insight Server 2.0 service.

It is important to remember that you must update all your ABECAS Insight databases when you upgrade your ABECAS Insight installation. When you install your next update, do the following:

1. Click on the CUSTOM checkbox to configure your installation.
2. Click on the SERVER component in the custom dialog.
3. Click DETAILS to access server configuration options.
4. Click on the UPDATE MULTIPLE DATABASES checkbox.
5. SELECT OK and NEXT to proceed with the installation.

UPDATEDB will now display a list of databases during installation. You might want to run the installation program immediately after creating your new database so that you do not forget this vital step.

note: Certain ABECAS Insight programs, such as the ED (EDI) Module, will require special consideration in multi-database environments.

It is always preferable to install ABECAS Insight and the SQL Server 2000 data files on your largest physical drive or partition. Users often install SQL Server 2000 using the default configuration, which installs all SQL Server databases on the C: drive.

If you are low on disk space on your C: drive, you can move the system databases without reinstalling SQL Server. The system database that experiences the most size fluctuation is TEMPDB. This is where all cursors, temp tables, and other temporary objects are stored. TEMPDB is also one of the easiest SQL Server system databases to move.

You will use the Query Analyzer to move the TEMPDB database. Make sure that there are no active connections to the SQL Server. Open the Query analyzer and run the following queries:

note: Your desired drive is represented by X:

use master

go

Alter database tempdb modify file (name = tempdev, filename = ‘X:\MSSQL\DATA\tempdb.mdf’)

go

Alter database tempdb modify file (name = templog, filename = ‘X:\MSSQL\DATA\templog.ldf’)

The target folder must already exist. I have chosen X:\MSSQL\DATA, but you can alter the text between the single quotes to suit your needs. If you have created additional files or filegroups in TEMPDB, you’ll have to handle those as well.

You must restart the SQL Server for this change to take effect. You must also delete the old TEMPDB files, as they are not automatically cleaned up. By default, the TEMPDB files are located here:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\DATA\tempdb.mdf
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\DATA\templog.ldf

As always, you should make sure that you have a good backup before changing the configuration of your SQL Server.

It is sometimes necessary to stop or start all three ABECAS Insight server components at the same time. The ABECAS Insight tray icon programs ask for confirmation before shutting down any services. However, you can quickly restart all three services using a CMD (Windows Command) file.

Login to your ABECAS Insight Server machine as an administrator. Open NOTEPAD and create a file on your C: drive called AIRESTART.CMD

note: You will have to use the Save As command and change the Save As Type drop-down list to All Files in order to ensure the proper file name.

Enter the following lines into AIRESTART.CMD:

net stop “abecas insight server 3.0″
net stop “abecas insight server 1.0″
net stop “abecas insight server 2.0″
PING 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 10000 >NUL
net start “abecas insight server 2.0″
net start “abecas insight server 1.0″
net start “abecas insight server 3.0″

note: The use of PING is a rather inelegant way make the system wait for 10 seconds before restarting ABServer 2.0.

Save your changes to the AIRESTART.CMD file and place a shortcut to the file on your server’s desktop. You can adapt the commands in this file to create a shortcut that only stops the services, or even use the built-in Windows scheduling facilities to automate the process.

You should never perform this function while there are active connections. This will unload the services without warning and drop all existing connections. ABECAS Insight clients, ABComm, EDI, XM, and Event Scheduler programs may behave unpredictably and will eventually lose connection to the SQL Server