Distributed transaction sample: part 2 - software installation and basic setup

Installing necessary software and performing basic set up of the environment for the distributed transaction sample application.

On my machine I created a VirtualBox image, running Windows XP SP3, with all updates applied. One disk is allocated to the virtual machine. It is 18 GB, using the NTFS file systems, and compression of all files enabled. Currently it has roughly 5 GB free space. The virtual machine has 1 GB of memory assigned to it. If you can allocate more memory, performance will be better.

Network setup

For reasons explained later, the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the machine is important, and it must be set before other products (especially Java CAPS 6) are installed. If your machine already has a proper FQDN and is connected to a name server so that lookups and reverse lookups are supported, you can skip the next few paragraphs. If that isn't so, you'll find here how the FQDN for a Windows machine can be set up:

• go to Control Panel -> System -> Computer Name
  (or My Computer -> Properties -> Computer Name)
• Click the Change... button
• Type the computer name. This will become the host-name part of the FQDN
• Click the More... button
• Type the Primary DNS Suffix of this computer. This will be the domain part of the FQDN.

The FQDN of the Windows machine will be <computer-name>.<primary-dns-suffix>

On my machine this looks like:

The FQDN of my machine is statler.muppets.local (don't use muppets.com, as that points to the official Disney Muppets site, and that's not what we want).

To ensure a consistent FQDN and enable lookups and reverse lookups, a name server was installed in the Windows machine. If your machine is already registered in a name server, and that name server can be used from your machine, you do not have to install your own name server. The name server I use is ntbind 9.3.2, which can be downloaded here.

Unzip the zip file found there in an empty temporary directory. Then execute BindInstall.exe, found in that temporary directory to install the name server. On my machine Bind is installed in directory c:\bind.
Here you will find the configuration files used on my machine to set up statler.muppets.local as the FQDN for the machine, which has ip-address 192.168.2.185. To copy this configuration to your Bind installation:

• empty (or remove) the etc and zones directories in your bind directory (e.g. c:\bind)
• unzip the configuration files in your bind directory, maintaining directory structure
  This will put the config files in your bind etc and zones directory.

If the FQDN of your machine is not statler.muppets.com, or if the ip-address of your machine is not 192.168.2.185, change the config files (in the bind etc and zones directories) accordingly.

Note: I tried to configure BIND to automatically go to the outside world if a host name is not found in its local configuration, but somehow I did something wrong there. If anyone spots the error, I am interested to hear how to configure it properly. Currently I configured my usual DNS server as the alternate one in network configuration (see below), and that also works.

Now configure your ethernet connection:

• in Control Panel -> Network Connections, right-click your ethernet connection and select Properties
• select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) in the list of protocols, and then click the Properties button
• now configure the connection:
• • set your chosen ip-address and the correct subnet mask
  • if you have a connection to the outside world, configure the Default gateway with the address of your router
  • set the Preferred DNS server to the ip-address of your machine. This will ensure that the Bind server will be used to resolve names.
    If your machine is reistered in another name server, configure this name server as the preferred one
  • if you want to be able to connect to the outside world, set the Alternate DNS server to the server you usually use as your name server. Quite often this is the address of your router
  • click the Advanced... button
  • go to the DNS tab
  • ensure that the DNS suffix for this connection is properly set to your domain name

Here is the configuration of the network on my machine:

Visual Studio, .NET, and other Microsoft Windows tools

If you want to be able to change the WCF samples I will provide later, you must install Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. A free version (Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Express) is available for download here. The sample WCF client and service are both in C#, and SQLServer is not used, so the only component you have to install to be able to change and rebuild the sample is Microsoft Visual C#. On my system I installed all Visual Studio components.

Now download and install the latest update for .NET. On my system .NET 3.5 is installed. .NET 3.5 can be installed through the Windows update site. If Windows Update does not list it, you can find it here.

Download and install the Windows and .NET SDK, which is found here.
Please note that even for Windows XP, you should choose "Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5".

Install Windows Support tools if they are not yet present on your system (if they are installed, they should be in Program Files\Support Tools). These tools are found on the Windows XP installation cd in directory Support\Tools In this directory, execute suptools.msi.

Install the certificate management snap-in:

• Click on Run (in Start menu) and type mmc. Then press Enter
• In the mmc go to the File Menu and select Add/Remove Snap-in
• In the dialog box that pops up click the Add button
• From the list select Certificates and click OK
• On the dialog that appears, select Computer Account and click the Next button
• On the next dialog ensure that Local Computer is selected and click the Finish Button
• Click the Close button in the Add Standalone Snap-in dialog
• Click the OK button in the Add/Remove Snap-in dialog
  Now you will have a certificate management tool for Windows
• When closing the management console, save the settings as Certificates.msc

This looks like:

You can start the tool via Start->Programs->Administrative Tools (if you don't have that you can enable it by right clicking on the task bar and then customising the task bar). For your convenience you can also create a shortcut to the certificates management console. Create a new shortcut, and in the location field type Certificates.msc.

Install the WS-AT management user interface:

• Start a command window (DOS prompt)
• Navigate to directory C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.1\Bin
• Now register the WS-AT management user interface by executing command:
  C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\regasm /codebase WsatUI.dll

Oracle

Oracle Database and Client software must be installed. This software can be downloaded from the Oracle site. To run the sample you must also install the Oracle Data Access Components (ODAC). The Oracle .Database Extensions for .NET and the Oracle Data Provider for .NET are used in the sample.

On my system I installed Oracle's 11g Enterprise Edition (not all features installed) and Client. The specific versions are: Oracle Database 11g version 11.1.0.6.0, Oracle Data Access Components for Oracle Server 11.1.0.6.21, Oracle Client 11.1.0.6.0, and Oracle Data Access Components for Oracle Client 11.1.0.6.21. In both the ODAC installations I installed all available options. Other versions that support .NET should also be alright.

Don't forget to run the necessary scripts to set up ODAC in your database.

Java JDK 1.6 and JCE unlimited strength security jurisdiction policy

Download the latest Java 6 JDK from here. Install Java JDK 6 by running the downloaded program and following the instructions.

Download Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files 6. The download needed to install this policy is found here (near the bottom of the page). Unzip the file in a temporary directory. The read-me file in that temporary directory explains the (simple) steps to install JCE unlimited strength jurisdiction policy.

Portecle

To make handling of certificates in Java keystores easy (with a GUI), download and install Portecle, a key management tool. It can be found here. After download do the following to install and run:

• Installation is done by simply unzipping the files in a convenient location
• Run the tool by executing javaw.exe -jar portecle.jar in the directory where you unzipped Portecle.
• For your convenience you can create a shortcut with this command, and put it somewhere in the start menu or the quick launch tool-bar. In the directory where you unzipped Portecle, you will also find an icon (portecle.ico) that you can associate with the shortcut.

If wanted/needed you can replace the Bouncy Castle jar file of Portecle with a newer version (found here). If you do this, just replace the bcprov.jar file in your Portecle installation directory (where you unzipped Portecle) with the bouncy castle jar you downloaded (rename the downloaded jar file to bcprov.jar if needed)..

Java CAPS 6 (GA version)

Install the GA version of Java CAPS 6 (see here on how to get it if you don't have it yet). Run the installer and follow the instructions. On my system the default values for port numbers and such have been used.

The sample discussed in these log entries should also work with OpenESB, but I have not tested that.

Your environment is now prepared to set up and run the distributed transaction sample.

Posted at 12:02PM Sep 01, 2008 by marjo in Distributed transaction  |  Comments[1]