Tag: networking

How do I install the Solar client?

The Solar client is installed directly from your application server using Java. The only prerequisite is Java 6, which you can find on the web start page below.

To access the server, you will need to know the correct web start URL to enter in your web browser. To assemble this, you will need to know two pieces of information:

The installation URL will look similar to: http://192.168.0.100:2080/

To install Solar, navigate to the URL using the web browser of your choice and click the Click Here to Install Solar Eclipse button.

If you receive an error, make sure that Java 6 is installed. If not, use the Click Here to Install Java link to install the appropriate version of Java. You will need administrator privileges to install Java, but not Solar.

Solar is a Java Webstart application, so it is installed on a per-user basis, not a per-workstation basis like Eterm. The benefit is that all users, even non-administrator users, can install Solar. The downside is that you cannot load Solar one time for all users of the workstation. You may, however, create a normal Windows shortcut to the Solar URL, which will allow users to click a single link to launch Solar, regardless of whether it was previously installed or not.

To give users a direct link from which to install or launch Solar, you may send a hyperlink or create shortcut directly to the web start URL. To obtain this URL, right-click on the Click Here to Install Solar Eclipse link and copy the URL. The URL should be similar to to following:

http://172.17.188.36:2080/SolarInstallService.jnlp

How do the Solar and Eterm clients communicate with the server?

The Eterm (TUI) client communicates with the UniVerse database server via the telnet protocol (TCP port 23). It uses a proprietary implementation of the ViewPoint terminal type to offer additional features in Eclipse (send/receive files, drag/drop, hyperlinks, etc.).

The Solar (GUI) client communicates with the JBoss application server via the HTTP and HTTPS protocols (default TCP ports 2080 and 2443). It is deployed using Java Web Start.

In both cases, the business logic is performed on the database and application servers, not in the client installed on each workstation.

Eclipse Network Utilization

We are often asked how much bandwidth is used by Eclipse for planning new deployments. Here are some guidelines for estimating the network utilization of Eclipse users based on real-world data we’ve gathered from existing Eclipse customers:

  • Solar customers: 3 KB/s (24 kbps) per user
  • Eterm customers: 1 KB/s (8 kbps) per user

As you can see, the bandwidth requirements for Eclipse are quite low, but it’s important to take into consideration that users’ Internet usage is not limited to Eclipse, and Eclipse performance will suffer if the software has to fight for bandwidth being used for other means (i.e. streaming video and audio, file sharing, etc.). As such, we recommend prioritizing the following protocols used by Eclipse through QoS whenever possible:

  • The Eterm client communicates using the telnet protocol (TCP port 23).
  • The Solar client communicates using a proprietary web service protocol (TCP ports 2080 and 2443).
  • The Eclipse signature capture and document imaging processes communicate over standard Microsoft file sharing protocols.
  • The Eclipse printing processes communicate over standard Windows and UNIX printer ports (i.e. socket, LPD, etc.).

During the initial Solar client installation and after each Eclipse “point” upgrade, the Solar client will perform a one-time download of approximately 20 MB of data. For branches with large numbers of users, this can cause a temporary spike in bandwidth consumption when a large number of users launch the new version of Solar for the first time.

For analyzing your users’ unique usage patterns, we recommend using your network hardware’s built-in tools bandwidth utilization monitoring, or by running Wireshark on a workstation.

How do I find my Linux server’s IP address?

To find the LAN IP address, open a shell and run:

/sbin/ifconfig

Look for the inet addr in the output, which will look like below:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:22:19:84:9B:E8
          inet addr:192.168.1.89  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::222:19ff:fe84:9be8/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:8380921 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:8360250 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:806377947 (769.0 MiB)  TX bytes:752649055 (717.7 MiB)
          Interrupt:169 Memory:f8000000-f8012100

How do I find my AIX server’s IP address?

To find the LAN IP address, open a shell and run:

ifconfig -a

Look for the inet addr in the output, which will look like below:

en0: flags=5e080863,c0
        inet 172.17.188.74 netmask 0xfffffe00 broadcast 172.17.189.255
         tcp_sendspace 131072 tcp_recvspace 65536
lo0: flags=e08084b
        inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000 broadcast 127.255.255.255
        inet6 ::1/0
         tcp_sendspace 131072 tcp_recvspace 131072 rfc1323 1