Quick Installation Guide For FFE

FFE Installation Troubleshooting Guide For Windows

Overview:
This guide is intended to assist technical support personnel and/or network administrators with the FFE installation procedure so that they know exactly what FFE requires in order to function properly. Using this guide, you should be able to troubleshoot any problems either with the installation itself or with potentially conflicting programs. The guide consists of two parts: a basic overview of the system and its components, and a list of common error conditions that can occur during installation.

What is Installed?
FFE for Windows requires four main components:
A TCP/IP stack: This can be any WINSOCK compatible stack (almost all currently available stacks are WINSOCK compatible). The TCP/IP stack included with Windows '95 will work fine. Your computer must already have TCP/IP properly installed. FFE does not install this stack. If you can use the Netscape Navigator browser to access the FFE Distribution Page, then you probably have all of the required TCP/IP connectivity required. If for some reason you need help in obtaining TCP/IP for your computer, please contact your local network administrator or the Computing Help Line, 854-1919.

Sybase 16 bit System 10 Open Client (version 10.0.3): The installation program installs Sybase Open Client in C:\SQL10. Open Client makes Sybase databases accessible to client programs by installing a number of DLLs (Dynamic Link Libraries) onto your system along with some connection information. The DLLs are installed in the C:\SQL10\DLL directory. This directory, as well as the C:\SQL10\BIN directory (containing utility programs) are added to your path in AUTOEXEC.BAT. In addition, an environmental variable, SYBASE, is also added to your AUTOEXEC.BAT and set to C:\SQL10. This variable tells the Sybase drivers where to find configuration information.

Sybase System 10 ODBC drivers (Intersolv version 2.1) along with 16 bit ODBC v2.1: These are installed in your Windows System directory and configured. If you already have ODBC installed, then you may receive warnings during the installation, but these usually will not prevent it from working. The 2.1 Sybase System 10 drivers are defined in ODBCINST.INI, and the particular ODBC datasources (FFETEST for testing and FFEPROD for production) are added in ODBC.INI.

FFE for Windows: FFE itself consists of a number of files installed into the C:\FFETEST directory (production will be C:\FFE). Generally, these pose no problem. A program group is also added to Windows containing FFE for Windows (test) and the Sybase utility programs.

Common errors and pitfalls:
The TCP/IP Stack:
Most TCP/IP stacks will work with FFE and its components. A few odd ones may not implement the Winsock protocol properly, but none have been identified as of yet. FFE does not provide support for configuring the TCP/IP stack since this is a general networking issue. If Netscape works, FFE will almost certainly work.

Sybase Open Client:
There are two main potential sources for trouble in this part of the installation. We have endeavored to make the installation program smart enough to recognize almost all contingencies, but undoubtedly more will come up.

The AUTOEXEC.BAT file is too strange to be successfully altered by the installation program. The following items must be inserted into the PATH variable: C:\SQL10\DLL and C:\SQL10\BIN. In addition, the SYBASE variable must also be set to C:\SQL10. If your AUTOEXEC has many conditions and multiple boot areas, then it is possible that these will not be set properly. This is usually fairly easy to fix upon inspection. If this seems to be a problem, then we suggest that you back up and print out the AUTOEXEC.BAT file so that it can be faxed to a technical support person.

A previous version of Sybase Open Client has been installed. FFE for Windows requires the latest Sybase Open Client drivers (10.0.3). If the installation program finds a previous version of Sybase, it will not replace it because of potential application and configuration conflicts. In this case, the old version needs to be removed manually. Replacing an old version primarily consists of installing the current version in C:\SQL10, replacing any references to the older directory in the path statements in AUTOEXEC.BAT, and setting SYBASE=C:\SQL10 in AUTOEXEC.BAT. The older version does not need to be explicitly deleted because without the settings in AUTOEXEC.BAT, it will not be used by the system. Once the new version is working, please delete the old one.

Note: The SYBASE environmental variable is also set by the Sybase for DOS installation, but is not actually used by DOS. The FFE for Windows installation program places its SYBASE setting at the end of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file so that it will supersede any previous settings. FFE for DOS should continue to work normally.
The INI subdirectory located below the directory pointed to by SYBASE contains the SQL.INI file, which tells Sybase how to connect to its servers. It must contain the following definition. This should be taken care of by the installation program except under strange circumstances. If SYBASE@CUAIX07 does not appear in the list of servers using the WDBPING utility (explained below), then this line may need to be added.

SQL.INI section (to be added)

Sybase ODBC driver:
Note: In order to function, ODBC requires a number of DLL components to be placed in the Windows System directory (generally C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM). It also requires two INI files in the Windows (generally C:\WINDOWS) general directory to be set up properly. Note that later versions of ODBC (v2.5, 3.0) do not use these INI files, but make changes to the System registry.

List of required files for the Windows System directory: (List to be added later)

Sections which must be added to ODBC.INI in the Windows directory: (to be added later)

Sections which must be present or added to ODBCINST.INI in the Windows directory: (to be added later)

Troubleshooting programs:
WDBPING: Sybase connectivity can be checked using the WDBPING program. Run this and choose the SYBASE@CUAIX07 server to ping. When you click ping, it will report success if Sybase Open Client has been installed correctly. A variety of error messages will signal an improper installation.