Client Installation Pack





We attempt to make your local benchKeeper Client installations easier by providing a "Client Installation Pack" that can be installed in your local benchKeeper Server. Not only does this save us some bandwidth charges, it provides for a nice fast and easy installation for your local environment.





The Client Pack basically consists of all of our benchKeeper Client installers, as found on our web site, that can be downloaded as a single large archive. This deployment package can then be dropped into the benchKeeper Server installation, which allows it to be served out locally to your Local Area Network. This provides for a much easier local installation, as the System Administrator doesn't have to mess around with installation CD's, shared drives, FTP, etc. All they have to do is send out an email pointing to the locally accessible URL and let the target clients perform their own installations.





This package can be found on the download page of our web site, but be aware that it may not be available for a couple of days after a new release. It is generally released within a week of the main software.







Overview





The benchKeeper infrastructure utilizes a web and application server for it's main communication. We take advantage of this by using these already functioning services to serve out local, "web delivered" on-line documentation, among other things. It is this same infrastructure that allows us to provide the functionality of the Installation Pack.



The services that are being deployed by benchKeeper consist of various archive files located in the deploy directory of the benchKeeper server installation. You'll find files with the extensions of ".war", ".sar", among others. Each one of these files is analyzed, expanded, and deployed by the embedded application server when it is runnint. It should be stressed that most of these files are absolutely critical for the successful and proper operation of benchKeeper, and great care should be taken when dealing with them!





One of these files is called benchKeeper-clientPack-default.war , and basically is an empty placeholder for the Installation Pack that consists of nothing more than a web page that says "the Installation Pack hasn't been installed yet". You can view this page by accessing the local benchKeeper Server web page at http://benchKeeperServer:8888 where benchKeeperServer represents the IP address or the hostname for the running benchKeeper Server.





Basically, the Installation Pack is installed by adding the Installation Pack archive file that was downloaded from our website. It is very important that the version number for the Client Installation Pack is the EXACT same as that of the benchKeeper Server, otherwise the installed clients will not be able to successfully interact with the benchKeeper Server.





It is equally important that you have only 1 Client Installation Pack archive file (other than the default) in the deploy directory, or else the first one listed alphabetically will be the one that is served by the web server.







Installation Instructions





  • Obtain the Client Installation Pack - The client installation pack is a single, relatively large file, that can be downloaded from our web site. Please go to http://www.benchkeeper.com and navigate to the download section. Once there, download the file to the machine that has the benchKeeper Server installed. The file is in a "war" format, and may pose problems for some browsers, so you may have to "right-click" and "save target file as" if you experience problems. The files are of the format X.X.X-benchKeeper-clientPack.war , where the "X.X.X" represent the application version number (for example: 1.2.3-benchKeeper-clientPack.war ).






  • Remove Any Existing Client Installation Packs - Locate the installation directory for the benchKeeper Server. Within this directory you will find another directory called deploy . Within this deploy directory, remove ALL files that are of the format X.X.X-benchKeeper-clientPack.war . All of our client packs are labelled with a descriptor that defines which Client Pack it is. For example, 1.2.3-benchKeeper-clientPack.war represents version 1.2.3 of the Client Pack. benchKeeper-clientPack-default is the "empty" Client Pack that comes with a default benchKeeper Server installation, and SHOULD NOT BE REMOVED. There can only be ONE single Client Pack installed at one time. Having more than one will result in the first one (alphabetically) being used.






  • Install the New Client Pack - Move or Copy the downloaded Client Installation Pack into the deploy directory. You do NOT have to stop the benchKeeper Server in order to do this, as the Server will automatically detect the change and incorporate the new Installation Pack. Depending on the performance of your hardware, this deployment could take anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes. That being said, should you experience any problems with the installation, try restarting the benchKeeper Server, as that should resolve the problem.






  • Test the New Client Pack - Ensure that the benchKeeper Server is operational, and open the main Server web page. If you are running your benchKeeper Server on the same machine as your browser, you can use the URL of http://127.0.0.1:8888 to access the main page. Once there, you can click on the "BenchKeeper Client Installers" link (which would point to http://127.0.0.1:8888/benchKeeper-clientPack/index.html ). This page is the main InstallAnywhere installation page that is found on our public website, and will guide the end-user through the benchKeeper Client installation process.








De-Installation Instructions





  • Remove the Client Installation Pack File - Simply remove the installed Client Installation Pack file from the deploy directory. You do NOT have to stop the benchKeeper Server in order to do this, as the Server will automatically detect the change and stop serving the Installation Pack files. Depending on the performance of your hardware, this removal could take anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes. That being said, should you experience any problems with the de-installation, delete the Client Installation Pack file and then try restarting the benchKeeper Server.




NB: Do NOT remove the file labelled benchKeeper-clientPack-default.war . You should only delete the files labelled X.X.X-benchKeeper-clientPack.war .





Caveats





If you've already downloaded the file that is the Client Installation Pack, you will know that it is pretty big (around 350MB). Every time the BK Server is started, it has to deploy this war file, which can take anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes, depending on the speed of the machine that it is installed on. This means that it can take significantly longer for the benchKeeper Server to start up with the Client Installation Pack installed, especially on slower machines.





Because of the resulting increased startup time, you may not wish to install the Client Pack on Standalone deployments (as in a single-user laptop, etc.). You could also just keep the Client Installation Pack file out of the deploy directory, and only copy it in there when needed.









If you have any questions about or problems with this procedure, please don't hesitate to visit the Support and Community links on our website.