Building Distributed
Applications
Using the Progress AppServer


Configuring an AppServer Using the Properties File

Progress stores the configurations for both the NameServer and AppServer products using a properties file (ubroker.properties). The UNIX and NT ubroker.properties files are the same except for platform-specific differences (for example, differences in directory path separators, and the differences between environment variable references in UNIX and registry references in NT).

The properties file stores all the configuration definitions for all instances of the NameServer, and all instances of any AppServer, WebSpeed Server, and DataServer product that run on the same machine. Each configuration definition contains environment variables, registry entries (if Windows NT), and property settings for each product instance.

There is one copy of this file for each Progress installation. Thus, if you install the NameServer on a separate machine from the AppServer product that it manages, the NameServer and AppServer product each have their own copy of the ubroker.properties file.

The AdminServer reads and updates this file according to your instructions using the Progress Explorer and management utilities. The ubroker.properties file is installed in the properties subdirectory of the Progress installation directory (for example, $DLC/properties/ubroker.properties on UNIX, or %DLC%\properties\ubroker.properties on Windows NT). In order for the AdminServer to access the properties file, the file must reside in this directory.

Guidelines for Editing the Properties File

When editing the ubroker.properties file without the Progress Explorer, note that:

The file consists of a hierarchical structure of configuration entities, where parent entities provide configuration information that you can override or extend in each child entity. Each configuration entity has a name that begins the entity definition, and the definition contains configuration settings for one or more products or product instances. The AppServer configurations in ubroker.properties can include:

Configuration Entity
Name
Configuration Entity
Function
[UBroker] 
Defines default property settings for all AppServers, DataServers, and WebSpeed Transaction Servers.
[UBroker.AS] 
Defines default property settings for all instances of an AppServer.
[UBroker.AS.product-instance-name] 
Defines property settings for this instance of an AppServer. The ubroker.properties file can contain several of these entities each with a unique product-instance-name. For an AppServer, product-instance-name is the name you specify for the AppServer instance.

Thus, parent entities provide default values for all of their child entities. For example, the parent [UBroker] contains a set of definitions that can be inherited by its child AppServer product [UBroker.AS] and any other product entities, and then again by its child [UBroker.AS.product-instance-name] and any other product instance entities. However, at any child level, a redefinition of any value supersedes the default value of its parent. All children from the redefinition level down inherit this new value.

Editing and Validating the Properties File

To edit the properties file directly, use a text editor such as vi or Notepad. Once you edit the properties file, use the following utilities to validate the AppServer configuration information in the file:

If the file contains any other Progress Application Server configurations, run the configuration validation utilities for those Unified Broker products to ensure that these configurations are still valid. For more information, see the Progress Installation and Configuration Guide Version 9 for Windows or the Progress Installation and Configuration Guide Version 9 for UNIX.

NOTE: If you always use the Progress Explorer, you never have to use these utilities.

The ASCONFIG utility displays the property settings associated with an AppServer configuration, and checks that the syntax and values are valid. You must run the ASCONFIG utility locally on the machine on which the AppServer is running. The utility does not run across the network.

This is the syntax used to invoke the ASCONFIG utility:

SYNTAX
asconfig
  [
      [
         [ -name AppServer-name ]
         [ -propfile path-to-properties-file ]
         [ -validate ]
      ]
    | -help
  ] 

-name AppServer-name

Specifies which existing AppServer configuration to examine. The name must match the name of an existing AppServer configuration in the specified properties file. If you do not specify an AppServer, the ASCONFIG utility analyzes all AppServer configurations defined in the properties file specified by the -propfile parameter.

-propfile path-to-properties-file

Specifies a filename or pathname to a file that contains the property settings to be validated, for example test.properties. If a filename or pathname is not specified, it defaults to the installation version of the ubroker.properties file, such as:

-validate

Checks the syntax and values of property settings defined in the specified properties file.

-help

Displays command-line help.

For example, the following command validates the syntax and views the configurations of all AppServer instances defined within the test.properties file located in the current working directory:

asconfig -propfile test.properties -validate 

For more information on using this utility, see the "Summary of Management Tasks" section in this chapter.


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