| 132 Virginia Ave, Hawthorne, QLD 4171 |
| Phone: 07 3395 7733, Fax: 07 3395 7732 |
| http://www.lennox.com.au eMail: doug@lennox.com.au |
| Suitable Server Machines |
| Any modern Pentium 4 based PC is a capable
server platform for LILAC operations. The
detailed specifactions depend upon the scale
of the network that is supported. A 4 GHz CPU
with 2 Gb RAM will handle the largest
situations with ease. Avoid over-complex server hardware. Any form of "RAID" architecture is expensive, pointless and unreliable. |
| Server Operating Systems |
| Windows XP Professional is the minimum
spec version of Windows for the LILAC server
role - in new installations. XP will handle any
number of local and remote LILAC client
connections, but Microsoft imposes an
arbitrary and artificial limit of 10 connections for
File Server connections to an XP "Server". In practise this means that Windows 2003 Server (Standard Edition) is the appropriate server operating system for all but the smallest networks. |
| There are two folders associated with
LILAC operations on the server computer. C:\LILAC3 and C:\DATA3 The LILAC3 folder contains all the executable programs, document formats and data-dictionary files which form the LILAC software distribution. These are overwritten every time a new software release is installed on the server. The LILAC folder should be visible as a share on the network with read-only privileges for normal users. The DATA3 contains the files comprising the LILAC database. It is only accessed by the LILAC server process "action" on the server PC. The DATA3 folder should not be shared out onto the local network. Typically these folders will be located on the root of the "C" drive as shown. Other drive letters may be used where necessary, but in general multi-partition hard-drives or multi-drive PCs should be a thing of the past. The use of "drive-letter mapping" where drive letters such F or G etc are used to represent shared folders across the local network is not recommended. |
| Folder Usage |
| LILAC Server as "Windows Service" |
| The "Action" Server Process for LILAC |
| The LILAC server process (action.exe) is to be found on the
C:\LILAC3\Reports folder. The command line to run it is of the
form c:\lilac3\reports\action.exe 2001 where 2001 is the usual TCP port that LILAC clients use to connect to the LILAC server process. The working directory of action.exe should be set to C:\DATA3 so that action can open the files comprising the LILAC database. |
| Running action.exe as a "Windows Service" is permissable. It
has the advantages that the LILAC server can be started as
part of the Windows boot process, and the Windows desktop
of the server computer is not cluttered in any way. A program called Lilac_As_Service.exe is available from our ftp site to create the necessary entries in Windows Service Manager database. In other respects the set up of LILAC is identical as to when action.exe is running as a normal user process. |
| The LILAC Windows User Account |
| The installation of the the LILAC server
software should always be conducted using a
limited or non-privileged user account not an
administrator account. Where LILAC is not to
be run as a Windows Service, then action.exe
should be run after logging into such an
account, typically from the start-up menu of
that user. The use of limited user accounts greatly enhances the security of your server against intrusions, and infections by worms or viruses. |
