Preparations for First Time GridLink Installation

GGY offers assistance with GridLink farm installation in many ways. One of them is to set up a Web meeting and walk the user through the installation procedure. This can give the user a quick startup and has been proven to be very efficient and helpful.

In addition to providing necessary server information to GGY for creating a licence file, the user is required to make certain preparations prior to this meeting. The following is a guideline:

GridLink Server Information

1. The list of all servers
2. The list of windows logon IDs of all users who might submit jobs to the GridLink farm
3. Where to install GridLink (the drive and directory name on all servers)
4. Where to install AXIS (the drive and directory name on all servers)
5. Decide where to put your datasets
6. Decide whether you want to use mapped drives or UNC paths for your dataset location

We suggest that you create one directory (e.g. AXISAPPS) and put GridLink / AXIS sub-directories underneath it so that it is easier to exclude them from real-time anti-virus scanner if you have any.

Accounts

1. Create a Windows service account to run GridLink service. (needs to have the full access rights to AXIS and GridLink folders.)
2. Decide a user account used to run GridLink Utility. (needs to have local administrator’s rights on the servers.)

Please read the following article to make sure that these accounts have the required permissions and user rights.

GridLink Permissions and User Rights

Please note that more accounts will be needed if you wish to use Access Group feature.

Downloads

Please download AXIS library, AXIS installation and GridLink installation packages.

You can download AXIS library and AXIS installation package from:

http://www.ggy.com/downloads/authenticate.asp?page=downloadindex

(Please note that a user name and a password are required.)

You can download GridLink installation package from:

http://www.ggy.com/gridlink/current_release.htm#CurrentRelease

Library Installation

You need to log on to each server and install AXIS library manually. After extracting all files from AxisLib.exe, you will find “LibrarySetup.exe”. Please make sure to use this tool to install libraries.

You don’t need to install the following:

1. MDAC (should be pre-installed)
2. the security key driver (KeyLok & Sentinel)
3. PDF driver (if you don’t output PDF files)

Normally, the only thing that you need to install is the CodeBase driver.

Please note that in order to use AXIS Formula Table Accelerator, you need to have .Net Framework installed on all servers.

1. AXIS versions prior to 12.4.01.001 work with .Net Framework 1.1. It comes with 32-bit Windows, but not 64-bit ones. If you are using a 64-bit Windows version, you need to manually download and install .Net Framework 1.1 on all servers. Please refer to our KB article "AXIS And 64-bit Windows Operating Systems" for more details. It includes a download link to .Net Framework 1.1.

http://www.ggy.com/support/kbase/kbdetails.asp?articleid=597

2. AXIS 12.4.01.001 and later versions require .Net Framework 3.5 SP1. Please refer to our KB article "Notice of changes to AXIS system requirements" for more details. It includes download links to .Net Framework 3.5 SP1:

http://www.ggy.com/support/kbase/kbdetails.asp?articleid=707

Microsoft Service Pack Alert

A severe DAO bug in DAO Database Library as a part of Service Pack 1 for the Microsoft Vista Operating System that also affects Windows Server 2008 (including HPC Server 2008) was discovered. If you run AXIS on a machine with the faulty Microsoft Library, you will probably damage your AXIS datasets permanently. This has been fixed in Microsoft hotfixes and Service Packs released later.

Please refer to our online KB article "Microsoft Service Pack Alert" for more information. You can download a test program to check if the faulty library is present on your computer. If it is, then please make sure to download and install the new Microsoft Service Pack.

Now, you are ready for GridLink installation.