[Erlang Systems]

5 Installing Orber

5.1 Installation Process

This chapter describes how to install Orber in an Erlang Environment.

5.1.1 Preparation

Before beginning the installation process for Orber, a Mnesia database schema must exist. This schema will contain information about the location of the Erlang nodes where Orber is planned to be run.

The Mnesia schema can be created by calling the following code in an Erlang shell:
Mnesia:create_schema(NodeList)

NodeList is the list of Erlang node names.

5.1.2 Installing Orber

The next step is to actually install Orber. When the installation is completed Orber will automatically create a few Orber specific Mnesia tables and load them with data.

The installation process will differ slightly depending on whether Orber is running on one or many nodes or if Mnesia is currently running.

Functions to choose from are:

Installation Options is a choice between multi-node or single node installation.

Note!

When starting Orber as lightweight, mnesia and orber:install/* are not required. You must, however, use the configuration parameter lightweight.

5.1.2.1 Single Node Installation

Single node (non-Distributed) installation means that Orber processes will be installed and started on only one node.

In this case, Orber still facilitates external communication with other ORBs through the IIOP protocol.

Single node installation of Orber is suitable in cases where:

Below, is an example of a one node installation where Mnesia is not installed. It is not necessary to have Mnesia running when installing Orber on a single node, as Orber will start Mnesia automatically.

Open an Erlang shell and install the application by typing:

     1> mnesia:create_schema([]).
        
       2> orber:install([]).
        

Note!

In the above example the node list is empty, as the default option is the current node.

5.1.2.2 Multi-node installation

For a multi-node installation there are two extra steps. All nodes must be started and Mnesia must be running.

Below is an example of a multi-node installation where Mnesia is installed:

     1> orber:install([a@machine1, b@machine2]).       
        
5.1.2.3 Running Java clients against Orber.

If you intend to run Java clients, a specific

     <OTP_INSTALLPATH>/lib/orber-<current-version>/priv
        

must be added to your CLASSPATH variable to allow Orber support for the initial references.

5.2 Configuration

The following configuration parameters exist:

IC supply the compile option ic:gen(IdlFile, [{timeout,"module::interface"}]), which allow the user to add an extra timeout parameter, e.g., module_interface(ObjRef, Timeout, ... Arguments ...), instead of module_interface(ObjRef, ... Arguments ...). If, a stub is compiled with the timeout option, the extra Timeout argument will override the configuration parameter iiop_timeout. It is, however, not possible to use infinity to override the Timeout parameter. The Timeout option is also valid for objects which resides within the same Orber domain .

The iiop_setup_connection_timeout, iiop_timeout and iiop_connection_timeout variables should be used. The specified values is implementation specific, i.e., WAN or LAN, but they should range from iiop_setup_connection_timeout to iiop_connection_timeout.

IIOP communication only occurs between different Orber domains and therefore, if IIOP communication is required between two Orber domains, their domain names must be set to different values.

The following options are the possible configurations when using Orber with secure IIOP. Orber currently only supports security with the help of SSL and not SECIOP. To get more information about the SSL read the SSL application manual. The security chapter later in this manual describes how to get security in Orber and how the options are used.

To change these settings in the configuration file, the -config flag must be added to the erl command. See the Reference Manual config(4) for further information. The values can also be sent separately as options to the Erlang node when it is started, see the Reference Manual erl(1) for further information.


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