There are three basic steps to using AcuServer® file server software in a UNIX environment.
If you have not already installed AcuServer on your UNIX server, see UNIX System Requirements and Installing a UNIX Server for a list of installation requirements and procedures.
If AcuServer is already installed, proceed to the next step. There is nothing on the AcuServer distribution media to install on the client machine. However, you should ensure that every client system that will use AcuServer has a licensed copy of an ACUCOBOL-GT® runtime, the same version as AcuServer. You may need to set up client passwords, user names, and host names. See Installing the Client for more information.
AcuServer system configuration consists of:
With the exception of the FILE_PREFIX and possibly CODE_PREFIX variables, none of the runtime configuration variables requires modification. See Runtime Configuration Variables for information about runtime configuration variables.
None of the server configuration variables requires modification; however, you may want to modify them to gain control over or initiate certain functions like file locking, multiple-record mode, or error trace flushing. If you want to implement UNIX security rather than AcuServer system security, you must set the SECURITY_METHOD variable to LOGON in both the runtime and server configuration files. See Server Configuration Variables for information about server configuration variables.
AcuServer file access security is managed by a site-configured access file called the server access file. You must create a server access file (default name /etc/AcuAccess) before AcuServer will start or establish connections with clients. See Creating or Opening an Access File for step-by-step instructions. See The Server Access File for general information about the file.
AcuServer will not run on a UNIX server unless proper ownerships and permissions are set. Setting ownerships and permissions requires root privileges. Use the UNIX utilities chown and chmod to set ownerships and permissions, as described in Ownerships and Permissions.
To use AcuServer, your applications must use remote name notation to reference files located on the server. The ACUCOBOL-GT runtime looks for remote name notation to identify requests to AcuServer. Remote name notation has the format @servername:pathname. You may add a remote path to the FILE_PREFIX or CODE_PREFIX configuration variables. Alternatively, you can define file name aliases in the runtime configuration file. A file name alias is a string that will replace the literal name in the ASSIGN TO clause of a SELECT statement. See Accessing Remote Files for more information on remote name notation.
AcuServer services are handled by the acuserve daemon running on the server. The acuserve command can be invoked from the command line to start and stop AcuServer (the acuserve daemon), retrieve AcuServer operation status, unlock stranded files, and create and maintain the server access file. See Administrator Utilities and Functions for complete details.
Be aware that the configuration of AcuServer system security is very important to safeguarding your data files and network computers. See the information in System Security before placing AcuServer into open service.