Pre-Installation: Setup your Environment

Creating a shared or host directory is a prerequisite step that must be done before installing the Server Cluster. This directory will be created and configured so that it gives shared permissions to all of the Server Nodes (physical or virtual) within the Cluster. Additionally, domain users with administrative privileges must be made available to run the install.

Create an installation directory and enable sharing

Create a folder to hold the Server, Share, and Database (if on same machine) directories created during the install process. An example could be: C:\SHARED

The actual Clarify Server Cluster will be installed to this directory (containing the Clairfy_5_Server and Clarify_5_Share directories. The Clarfiy_5_Database folder (containing the database) may or may not be within the host directory as well, depending on your specific Cluster configuration.

The installer creates a Cleo directory, by default. Based on the example above, it could be C:\SHARED\Cleo

  • (For Linux) The Cleo directory must be owned by the Clarify user, and with full permissions. The permissions of the Clarify_5_Server and Clarify_5_Share will be handled by the install, and will not have to be explicitly set.
  • The local user for Clarify should be explicitly added to the common folder and given full control.
  • This directory must have sharing permissions with all other machines in the Server Cluster.
Note: Do not run virus protection software over the above directories. (Turn off if running)

Create a Domain User with Administrative privileges

(For Windows)
  • The Server Cluster install executable must be run as an Administrator (or user under an Administrator Group).
  • Create a domain user that will be used to run and manage the Server Cluster.
(For Linux)
  • A domain user is required. The user must already exist prior to installation.
  • The install must be run as the Clarify user, from the terminal.

Create Symbolic links

Symbolic links are a special kind of file that points to another file, much like a shortcut in Windows or a Macintosh alias. Unlike a hard link, a symbolic link does not contain the data in the target file. It simply points to another entry somewhere in the file system.

(For Linux) You must use a mounted drive. This makes the particular filesystem accessible at a certain point in the Linux directory tree. Symbolic links are created with the ln command. For example, the following would create a soft link named link1 to a file named file1, both in the current directory.

$ ln -s file1 link1

(For Windows) This example shows how to create a symbolic link using a command prompt.

Create symbolic links to C:\SHARED on each machine that will part of the Server Cluster.
  • Start a command prompt as an administrator.
  • Run the command
    mklink /D <link path> <target path>   
    For example:mklink /D C:\SHARED \\172.16.7.5\SHARED
Note: Make sure Windows Firewall is off (or configured properly) for each machine.

Additional Notes

  • Be aware of what directory you are in within the command prompt window, as the symbolic link will be created in that directory.
  • Verify that you can view the resources within the folder after creating the symbolic link.

Ensure certain power save settings are disabled

Default power save settings on Windows servers may disable network adapters; doing so will cause Server Cluster performance to interrupt. Always make sure that the power save settings for network adapters (on all servers) are disabled. This can usually be done through the Device Manager.