Installing the Automic Web Interface

The Automic Web Interface allows you to make Automation Engine accessible to more users. This topic guides system administrators through the installation and configuration of the web interface.

Note: The Automic Web Interface and the AE server must have the same release version. To check other compatibility issues, see Automic Compatibility Matrix.

System Overview

The graphic below is a high-level overview of the installation process where the highlighted correspond to the areas where you must do something to install the Automic Web Interface.

Click the image to expand it.

Installation Steps

Installing the Automic Web Interface

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Deploying the WAR File

»

Configuring the Connections to AE Systems

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Starting AWI

Installing the Automic Web Interface

Note: Go to Automic Compatibility Matrix to see which version is compatible with AWI.

Tomcat

1. Go to the Tomcat homepage and download and install the required version. You will find the installation instructions and other relevant information on their homepage.

   Windows: Download the 32-bit/64-bit Windows Service Installer package. This will install Tomcat and a Windows service for it.

2. Use the memory parameter Heap size to increase the memory that Tomcat can allocate to AWI to at least 2GB.

   By default, Tomcat allocates a low amount of memory to an application. This is not sufficient for AWI, which keeps a lot of UI state data in memory.

   Windows:

   1. Go to the bin folder in your Tomcat installation (...Apache Software Foundation\Tomcat<version>\bin).
   2. Right-click the .exe file and, from the context menu, select Run as administrator.

   3. On the Java tab, set the heap size by setting the Maximum memory pool to the maximum possible on your system, for example 8192MB (-Xmx8192m).

   Linux:

   In the CATALINA_OPTS environment variable, set the heap space to the maximum possible on your system, for example 8192MB.

3. Make sure that Tomcat starts automatically when you start the server in which it is installed, for example, with a Windows service or an init script.

4. Start Tomcat and go to the default URL to verify that it is responsive.

WebSphere

1. Go to the IBM WebSphere homepage and download and install the required version. You will find the installation instructions and other relevant information on their homepage.

   Important: The JAXB supplied by WebSphere does not provide the configuration required by AWI. To ensure that it runs properly, you must disable the JAXB and configure WebSphere as described in the following steps.

2. Change the classloader delegation mode PARENT_FIRST (default) to PARENT_LAST. To do so you can do one of the following:

   • Use the WebSphere® Application Server Deployment editor

   • Use the command line

   Important: If you have other applications running on WebSphere, please make sure that you only change the classloader setting for the Automic Web Interface module.

3. Turn off web services annotation scanning and set the correct JAXB context as follows:

   1. In the WebSphere administrative console select Servers.
   2. Expand Server Type and select WebSphere application. Select the name of your server.
   3. Expand Java and Process Management and select Process Definition.
   4. In the Additional Properties section click Java Virtual Machine.

   5. In Custom Properties do the following:

      1. Set the com.ibm.websphere.webservices.DisableIBMJAXWSEngine property to true.

         If it does not already exist, you can create it clicking New.

      2. Set the javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext property to com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.ContextFactory.

         If it does not already exist, you can create it clicking New.

4. Restart WebSphere.

   Go to the default URL to verify that it is responsive.

WebLogic

Go to the Oracle WebLogic homepage and download and install the required version. You will find the installation instructions and other relevant information on their homepage.

The Automic Web Interface does not require any specific WebLogic configuration.

Deploying the WAR File

If you are using Tomcat, copy the awi.war file to the webapps folder of the Tomcat installation. If the Tomcat is running, the awi.war file will be deployed automatically, creating a folder with the same name.

Important! Deleting the awi.war file removes the corresponding subfolder, which also undeploys the AWI.

If you are using WebSphere or WebLogic, please refer to their official documentation for more information.

Configuring the Connections to AE Systems

The Automation Engine is AWI's backend and provides the databases as well as all object types and definitions. The file uc4config.xml (...\AWI\config) allows you to define one or more AE systems in which AWI users can log into. Whether users can select an Automation Engine connection or are restricted to only the first connection that is defined here, depends on the settings of the automationEngine.index property of the configuration.properties file. For more information, see configuration.properties.

1. In your web application server go to the folder …\<AWI>\config.

2. Rename the file uc4config.xml.sample to uc4config.xml.

   Note: Some configuration files are delivered with the extension "sample" to ensure that your existing configuration files will not be overwritten when you update the AWI installation.

3. Open the renamed file and update the configuration as described in the list below.

4. For the changes to take effect, stop and restart your application server.

Structure

The list that follows explains the structure of the file and describes the parameters and settings with their possible values.

• <configuration>

  The beginning of the configuration.

• <trace count="count" xml="XML trace"></trace>

  Options for the trace file for the AE API calls. This logs the communication between AE and AWI from the AWI point of view.

• <connections>

  The beginning of the elements for the connections to AE systems.

• <connection name=name" system="system">

  Define one <connection> element for each AE system that you want this AWI instance to be able to connect to.

  name = An alias for the connection to an AE system. When logging into AWI, this is the name that appears in the Connection field and in its drop-down selection list.

  system = The name of the AE system. This is defined in the Automation Engine's INI file.

  Important:: Every connection must have a unique definition of system and name.

  For more than one <connection> element: By default, when users log into AWI they can choose the connection for the system they want to log into. However, you can force all users to log into a particular connection. To do this, specify the connection in the automationEngine.index parameter in the configuration.properties file. Change the default setting of "-1" (all connections available) to the value for the connection you want. This is a 0-indexed parameter, so "0" means the first connection that is defined, "1" means the second connection, and so on. For more information, see configuration.properties.

• <cp ip="DNS/IP" port="Port"/>

  Definition of the connection to the AE system's communication process (CP).

  DNS/IP = Specifies the name or the IP address of the computer on which the communication process runs.

  Port = Port number of the communication processes in the AE system.

  If you define more than one CP for a connection, the system will try to connect to the first CP in the list, and if it fails, then the system will try the next and so on, until it can connect successfully.

  For more information about the communication processes in AE, see "Establishing a Connection" in the Inside Automation Engine help or PDF.

• </connection>

  The ending of the XML element <connection>.

• </connections>

  The ending of the XML element <connections>.

• </configuration>

  The ending of the XML element <configuration>.

Example

<configuration>

    <logging count="10"></logging>

    <trace count="10" xml="0"></trace>

    <connections>

        <connection name="AE Prod"  system="AEPROD">

             <cp ip="aehost01" port="2217"/>

             <cp ip="aehost01" port="2219"/>

             <cp ip="aehost01" port="2220"/>

        </connection>

        <connection name="AE Test" system="AETEST">

             <cp ip="testsys" port="2217"/>

        </connection>

    </connections>

</configuration>

Starting AWI

1. Enter http://hostName:XXXX/AWI/ in the address bar of your Internet browser:

   • hostName = The name of the computer on which the application server runs, such as "localhost".

   • XXXX= The default port for the application server, which may vary depending on the setup of the application server.

2. Log in to client 0 AWI with your user name and password.

   Client 0 is a system client that is supplied by default with your installation. Here you add further clients, create users, assign them to their corresponding clients, etc.

Note: On the browser, you need enable cookies, disable pop-up blockers, and empty the cache after each upgrade. See Troubleshooting Problems on AWI Clients for tips about how to ensure that users see all AWI parts correctly and have no login problems.

After installing and configuring AWI you can start setting up your system or you can continue with the installation of other plug-ins and components.

For more information, see Requirements and Installation Types.

Next step:

Configuring Automic Web Interface