Razor(R) Copyright 1992 - 2002 Visible Systems Corporation www.visible.com Introduction ------------ For those already familiar with Razor in the UNIX environment (RazorUNIX), Razor server on NT (Razor) will look quite familiar. Razor supports all of the Razor remote clients which are PC clients, UNIX remote clients, and IssueWeaver. Administrative functions may be performed via the Razor Admin program. Requirements ------------ - Networked Windows NT 4.0 Workstation with Service Pack 6 or greater. - Administrator login account. Installation as well as all of the administration of Razor can be done by a user that is a member of the Administrative group for the machine. - NTFS disk partition with enough free disk space for installation. - NTFS disk partition(s) with enough free space to create and maintain the desired Razor databases. Installation - General Notes ---------------------------- Those already familiar with the UNIX administration of Razor will notice that the classic installation steps (uncompress, tar xf, rz_install) have been replaced by an automated install script. Once installed, you will find "Razor" installed on the Start menu. The installation enforces certain rules, including, but not limited to... - Installation must by performed by a member of the Administrative group. - Installation must be installed on an NTFS partition. - Installation path must not contain embedded spaces. Among other things, the installation will create directory "/tmp", if it does not already exist, at the root level of the partition containing the Razor installation. Since Razor installs as "Razor", a conflict exists with pre-4.1e installations of RazorPC clients which installed as "Razor". If RazorPC clients are already installed, they must first be un-installed before installing Razor. Starting with the 4.1e release, installations of the RazorPC clients will install as "RazorPC". Prior to starting installation... --------------------------------- - Determine the NTFS partition on which Razor will be installed. - Determine whether or not IssueWeaver is to be installed. A web server must already be installed on the licensed NT host. Once Razor is installed, Issueweaver may be installed at any time. Refer to the section "Issueweaver installation" in this document. - Determine the location for Razor databases. Razor databases must reside on local NTFS disk partitions. - If installing for the first time, please follow the steps found in "Installation - Procedure". Otherwise, if upgrading, please follow the steps found in "Upgrade - Procedure". Installation - Procedure ------------------------ If upgrading an existing installation, please refer to the Upgrade procedure. Otherwise, ... Login as local Administrator or as a user that is a member of the Administrative group. Terminate all windows applications. Un-install the old RazorPC (pre-4.1e) client installation if it exists. Install Razor, RazorPC*, and RazorSCC. All may be installed from the single self-extracting executable "Razor_.exe". (RazorSCC is an integration with Window-based IDE's. Refer to Appendix E of the Razor manual for details.) Please install to the provided default directory. If you choose to use the installer provided browser to change the installation path, PLEASE TAKE CARE THAT THE CORRECT CASE IS PROVIDED IN THE "Path" FIELD OF THE BROWSER BEFORE ACCEPTING IT. Reboot the machine. Login as local Administrator or as a user that is a member of the Administrative group. Refer to "IssueWeaver installation" for details on installing IssueWeaver. Upgrade - Procedure ------------------- Do not un-install the existing Razor installation. The installation script will detect the current installation and upgrade it. All database servers, the license manager and the Syslog manager must be stopped via Razor Admin (refer to "Razor Admin" in this document for instructions on starting this program). Reboot the NT workstation. Login as local Administrator or a user that is a member of the Administrative group. Terminate all Windows applications. Install Razor, RazorPC*, and RazorSCC. All may be installed from the single self-extracting executable "Razor_.exe". The upgrade will install over the current installation directory. Reboot the machine. Login as local Administrator or a user that is a member of the Administrative group. Refer to "IssueWeaver installation" for details on installing IssueWeaver. Razor Admin ----------- Administration/configuration of the Razor installation should be performed via the Razor Admin program. This program is included in the RazorNT installation. This graphical user interface is invoked from the start menu: Start->Programs->Razor->Razor Admin Select the "Help" button on the main dialog for additional information. License Keys ------------ To run Razor and RazorPC either as a demo or a purchased product, you will need to obtain license keys. Demo license keys may be obtained automatically via our web site at: http://www.visible.com/Products/Razor/keys.htm In order to provide license keys for purchased licenses, we require specific information about the machine that will be licensed. The required information can be obtained via the Razor Admin program. Please forward the output from selecting "Razor ID" from the "License Manager" pulldown menu to 'razor_license@visible.com'. License keys (either evaluation or purchased) should be entered via the Razor Admin program. Select "Keys" from the "License Manager" pulldown menu. Enter the keys in the appropriate fields on the newly active GUI. A "Help" button is available on this dialog for additional information. License Manager Modes --------------------- The Razor license manager supports validation of the following files for remote user verification: - Razor password file (default) - Local password file (Auto-Login capability) - Local and Razor password file The license manager mode may be changed via the Razor Admin program. To do this, stop the database servers and license manager (select "OnApplication" from the "Help" pulldown menu for details). Once the license manager is stopped, select "Configuration" from the "License Manager" pulldown menu. The "Razor License Manager Configuration" dialog provides the validation selections. Select the "Help" button on this dialog for additional information. If either the default (Razor password file only) or combined (local and Razor password files) validation modes are used, the Razor administrator will be required to create and maintain the Razor password file (refer to "Razor Passwords" in this document). Getting Started --------------------- Before you can start to use Razor, you must install the license keys and create a database. Popup windows will be displayed to remind the user. The Syslog manager, license manager and database servers may be started from the Razor Admin program (refer to "Razor Admin" in this document). Each of the following functions may be performed from this program. Start License manager Select the "Start" button in the "License Manager" status area. Start Syslogd Select "Start" from the "Syslog Manager" pulldown menu. Create the database repository and your first database Logged in as local Administrator, select "New" from the "Database" pulldown menu. The "New Database" dialog will be displayed. Select the "Help" button for additional information. We also offer a "tutorial". Select "New Demo" from the "Database" pulldown menu. The "New Demo Database" dialog will be displayed. Select the "Help" button for additional information. Start database server To start the database server, you must first select the database via the "Select" button. Once you have selected the database, the "Start" button will be available. Run client against new database Select "Programs->RazorPC->razor" from the Start menu. This will start a PC client desktop. Select issues, versions, or threads from the desktop's Application pulldown menu. An example of how the path statement should appear on the PC client follows: D:\Visible\Razor\\RAZOR_UNIVERSE Refer to the Readme file via the desktop's Help->Readme menu selection for assistance connecting with the Razor license manager and desired database server. Razor Program Group ------------------- Once the installation process is complete, the following program items will be available: - Razor Admin (Administration Tool) - Razor csh (c shell) - Razor ksh (korn shell) - Shortcut to Services (Shortcut to NT Services panel) The Razor Admin program provides a GUI interface for administering the Razor installation. Supported functions include entering license keys, starting/stopping Syslog manager, license manager, database server(s) as well as creating/configuring databases and adding database groups. The Razor csh and Razor ksh each start the requested shell. These are Posix compliant versions of the UNIX C shell and the Korn shell. Program items "Start License Manager" and "Stop License Manager" as well as "Start Syslog Manager" and "Stop Syslog Manager" are provided as a convenience to the Razor administrator. The same control is provided via the NT Services panel. This functionality may also be performed via the Razor Admin tool. Program item "Shortcut to Services" is provided as another convenience to the Razor adminstrator and does nothing more than popup the NT Services panel. Environment ----------- Administration of the Razor installation should be performed via the Razor Admin program (refer to "Razor Admin" in this document). If you decide to administer Razor via the provided shells, we suggest that the "Razor csh" be used since that is the assumed environment for all examples. The shells are POSIX compliant versions of the C shell and the Korn shell and, therefore, require POSIX compliant shell syntax. Of particular importance is the syntax used to represent drive letters, "///". For example, the "/tmp" directory of drive D: is known as "//D/tmp". Referring to "/" simply means the top level of the current drive. When providing a fullpath (i.e. when creating a new Razor database), it is important to include the drive letter, otherwise, the path will be relative to the current drive rather than a fullpath. ALWAYS use upper case when providing the drive letter. The system wide environment parameters, RAZOR_HOME and RAZOR_LICENSE_DIR, are established during installation. Parameter RAZOR_HOME points to the location of the Razor binaries, scripts, help files, etc. Parameter RAZOR_LICENSE_DIR points to the directory containing the license file, etc. The other important environment parameter is RAZOR_UNIVERSE_DIR. This parameter points to one of any number of databases. These environment variables are used internally by the various Razor binaries and scripts. Pointing to a Razor database within the shell (csh only) is done by running the alias RazorDB_ which will set RAZOR_UNIVERSE_DIR appropriately. Starting one of the shells is as simple as double-clicking over the appropriate shortcut in the Razor program group or selecting one via the Start menu (Start->Programs->Razor...). Databases --------- Creation and configuration of databases as well as the addition of new groups to existing databases is supported by the Razor Admin program. It is recommended that a common repository (directory) be created that will contain all Razor databases. Although databases may be located on any NTFS partition and do not have to belong to a general repository, it is recommended that a common repository be created. The recommended repository location is "/razor_db", where is the location of the Razor installation such as "D:\Visible". Once the repository is created, the individual database folders should be created. The names used as the database folders are up to the Administrator. For example, databases DB1, DB2 and DB3 might be represented as... D:\Visible\razor_db\DB1, D:\Visible\razor_db\DB2, and D:\Visible\razor_db\DB3. It is up to the Administrator to manually create a given database folder. The database creation process will prompt for the location of the database to be created at which time the database folder would be entered as a fullpath such as D:\Visible\razor_db\DB1. Once the repository has been created, simply run the Razor Admin program to create a new database. Select New from the Database pulldown menu on the main toolbar of this program. Within the limits of system resources, any number of databases may be created on the Razor host. Database administration ----------------------- Database administration is performed via the Razor Admin program. The Razor Admin GUI enables the user to create new databases, add groups for issues and file version control, and edit the database control files with the editor that is provided. Select "On Application" from the Help pulldown menu on the main toolbar of this program for details. IssueWeaver installation ------------------------ Before beginning the installation it is recommended that you first take the following actions... - Verify a web server is installed and functioning properly. - Record the location of the web server's cgi-bin and documents (i.e. htdocs) directories. Open a "Razor csh" and do the following... - If it does not already exist, create directory "/tmp" on the disk partition containing the web server installation. For example, if the web server is installed in "//F/Program Files/Apache Group", create directory "//F/tmp" with world access. - Invoke the IssueWeaver installation script as follows... % $RAZOR_HOME/scripts/rz_iw_install Refer to the IssueWeaver manual for further instructions as to invoking IssueWeaver via a web browser. Razor Passwords --------------- If your site has decided that remote user validation will be performed against the Razor password file or against both the local and Razor password files (refer to "License Manager Modes" in this document), the Razor administrator will need to create and maintain the Razor password file. Until the password file is created, remote clients may login as "guest" (no password required). It is recommended that the Razor administrator create the password file as soon as possible after having completed the installation. A Razor user account in the password file consists of user, password and user group. Razor user accounts are for Razor use only and need not have any association with UNIX/PC user accounts, domains, passwords and/or groups. The password file may be created/modified via the Razor Admin program by selecting Remote Users from the License Manager pulldown menu. If this selection is not available ("grayed out"), make sure that the access controls for modifying the password file (ADD_USER, MODIFY_USER and REMOVE_USER) are set for the Razor administrator. To view/modify the access controls, select Editor from the Database pulldown menu. Double-click on the file "Access List" on the Razor Table Editor. Refer to the Razor manual, Chapter 2, "Remote client password", for details. Limitations - email ------------------- Razor on NT does not yet support receipt of email. This means that email database synchronization, email issue submittal and email query are not supported. Razor's NT Server supports sending email via Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI). E-mail messages may be sent upon state changes of issues and submission of error logs to support. Outlook and Outlook Express are supported. Your NT machine must have a default simple MAPI client. Razor administrators can enable capture of email message, which for any reason, have failed to send successfully by making the minor modification to $RAZOR_HOME/scripts/rz_sendmail_nt as follows... - Change the line that reads... REMOVE_EMAIL_LOG=1 to... #REMOVE_EMAIL_LOG=1 ...If a failure occurs, the email message will not be removed. The prospective email message will be saved to a file named $RAZOR_HOME/email_log.. Razor administrators can disable the sending of email by making a minor modification to $RAZOR_HOME/scripts/rz_sendmail_nt as follows... - Change the line that reads... ATTEMPT_EMAIL_SEND=1 to... #ATTEMPT_EMAIL_SEND=1 ...This will simply disable the sending of email and the generation of the log file $RAZOR_HOME/email_log.. It is recommended that once enabled the Razor administrator periodically check $RAZOR_HOME for email_log files and dispose of them appropriately most likely by emailing them directly to razor_support@visible.com. The files are not aged out so the administrator should periodically delete them as well. Finally ------- Enjoy! Please send your suggestions/comments to: razor_support@visible.com Your inputs (good or bad) are very important to us! Visible Systems Corporation www.visible.com