There are four steps that you should take in preparation for using xfServer:
| 1. | Install your client and server systems |
- On your server system, follow the instructions that came with your Synergy/DE distribution to install xfServer. The server can be any Windows, UNIX, or OpenVMS machine. Every client will need a log-in and home directory on the server machine.
- On your client systems, install Synergy DBL 6.1 or higher. (Version 9.3 or higher is required for encryption.) Client capabilities are included in the runtime. The client can be any Windows or UNIX machine. The client version must be the same as the server or lower; using a newer client with an older server is not a supported configuration and causes the error “Unsupported server version/Feature not available” (SRVNOTSUP).
- Review the Synergy DBL and xfServer release note files (REL_DBL.TXT and REL_SRV.TXT) for any additional features or last-minute information.
| 2. | Ensure TCP/IP communication |
Use the synxfpng utility to ensure that your client and server systems are able to communicate via TCP/IP. By default, xfServer communicates on port 2330. See synxfpng utility.
| 3. | Organize your data files |
Make sure the data files you want the clients to share are located on the server and have the correct permissions.
| 4. | Prepare your application |
To prepare your application, do the following:
- Determine the environment variables you will use to specify the server name or address. See Why use environment variables with xfServer? for information on the advantages of using environment variables.
- Use those environment variables within your application’s file specifications to specify file locations. Note that a remote file specification cannot reference another remote file specification when the first file specification is on Windows.
- Define the environment variables on the client to point to the correct server (or local) address.
- Decide if your data needs to be encrypted. See Using client/server encryption.
Restrictions
Note the restrictions for the following statements and subroutines when used with xfServer.
- COPY subroutine—Supported only for text and binary files on OpenVMS xfServer. Copying ISAM files to and from OpenVMS is not supported.
- GET and PUT statements—We do not recommend using GET and PUT statements in a heterogeneous client/server environment. Remote fixed I/O (GET and PUT) is not transparent between client/server systems with different native line terminators (for example, Windows and UNIX). To allow for this, you may have to change client applications to support multiple operating system file types. Your client application must know where the file is located and account for either zero, one, or two line terminators when specifying the destination record size.
- GETFA subroutine—Only the following keywords can be used with xfServer: IDK, IKL, IKP, ISZ, KRF, NDN, NKY, OMD, ORG, OST, RFA, RMT, RSZ, SLC, SLE, VER, XFP, XFR, XFS, XFT. All other keywords require a local file system and cannot use xfServer file syntax.
- LPQUE statement—Supports printing local files on printers accessible to the local machine and printing remote files on printers accessible to the remote machine. On Windows, we recommend that the client generate a print file locally and then print it on a printer accessible to the client. We do not recommend that the client print a remote file using xfServer; however, if you choose this configuration, the printer must be attached directly to the server machine. Network printers are not supported from xfServer on Windows.
- MERGE statement—Not implemented on OpenVMS xfServer.
- RENAM subroutine—When using remote specifications for new_name and old_name, any server name that is specified as part of new_name is ignored, and new_name is assumed to be on the same machine as old_name.
- SETDFN subroutine—Not implemented on xfServer.
- SORT statement—A temporary file is created by SORT and placed in the following default locations:
- On Windows, it is placed in the directory that TMP or TEMP is set to in the Windows registry (not the environment). Use the Synergy Configuration Program to specify a location; see Defining environment variables for xfServer services. If TMP/TEMP are not set, the file is placed in c:\Users\Public\Public Documents. TMP/TEMP should be set to a local directory. Do not set it to a location on the xfServer machine; doing so can cause Visual Studio and other Windows applications to crash.
- On UNIX, it is placed in /tmp.
- On OpenVMS, it is placed in SYS$SCRATCH.
