3 Installing Eloquence on the Windows 32 bit platform

Configuring the eloqsd service

The eloqsd service is an important part of Eloquence. It is responsible for the following tasks

Eloquence A.06.00 implements its own file sharing capabilities through the eloqsd server. This makes it independent of the availability of specific network file systems (NFS/SMB) and overcomes inappropriate limitations.

In order to run the eloqsd service it is required to adapt your system configuration. This involves the following steps:

Registering the eloqsd server with the Windows NT operating system

The Eloquence server software is installed as Windows NT services. During the installation process the eloqsd.exe executable is installed in the Windows NT system directory (usually \WINNT\SYSTEM32). In addition, it is automatically registered with the Windows NT Service Control Manager.

NOTE: Manual registration of the eloqsd service with the Windows NT Service Control Manager is usually not required since the Setup program performs a default registration. Unless you need any of the special installation variants noted below you can skip this section.

In order to manually register the eloqsd server with the Windows NT Service Control Manager you must execute eloqsd.exe with the -install argument:

  1. Log on as Administrator.

  2. Open a Command Prompt window and change to the Windows NT system directory where the eloqsd.exe executable is located. This is usually \WINNT\SYSTEM32.

  3. Execute the following command: eloqsd -install. This makes the eloqsd server available to the Windows NT Service Control Manager. The NT service name is "EloqSD".

As a special installation variant, it is possible to install multiple instances of the eloqsd server on a single machine. In such a scenario, a single eloqsd.exe is made available to the Windows NT Service Control Manager more than once, with each instance using a different NT service name.

Let us assume, for example, that you intend to setup a second eloqsd server in order to make private files accessible which need special privileges. The first thing you should consider is that every eloqsd instance must have an unique NT service name. Since the first eloqsd has been installed with the Setup program, its NT service name is "EloqSD". The second eloqsd needs a different name, so let us choose "Private EloqSD".

To make this second eloqsd available to the Windows NT Service Control Manager, follow the steps shown above. In the last step, you provide the NT service name after the -install argument: eloqsd -install "Private EloqSD"

The Windows NT Service Control Manager now knows about two instances of the eloqsd server, each with its own NT service name and treats them as two different services although both refer to the same eloqsd.exe file. You could now provide them with two different startup options and different command line arguments (please refer to the following section "Service configuration").

If you want to uninstall the eloqsd server, it is important that you first remove it from the Windows NT Service Control Manager before you actually delete the eloqsd.exe file:

  1. Log on as Administrator.

  2. Make sure that the eloqsd server is not running:

* From the Start menu, choose Settings - Control Panel. This opens the Control Panel window.

* Double-click the Services icon. This opens the Services dialog.

* Locate the EloqSD entry in the service list and verify that its Status column is empty. If not, select it with the mouse, press the Stop button, confirm with "Yes" and wait until the service has been stopped.

NOTE: If you have installed multiple instances of the eloqsd server, you must repeat this for each instance (where each instance has a different NT service name) since each of these instances refers to the same eloqsd.exe file.

  1. Open a Command Prompt window and change to the Windows NT system directory where the eloqsd.exe is located. This is usually \WINNT\SYSTEM32.

  2. Execute the following command: eloqsd -remove. This removes the eloqsd server from the Windows NT Service Control Manager.

NOTE: If you have registered multiple instances of the eloqsd server, you should repeat this for each instance, providing the NT service name after the -remove argument.

For example:

eloqsd -remove "Private EloqSD"

After you have stopped and unregistered every instance of the eloqsd server you can safely delete the eloqsd.exe file.

Configuring your System

This involves the following steps:

Configuring the TCP eloqsd service

You may want to define the eloqsd service names in your SERVICES file. This is optional, as you can specify the port number directly in the eloqsd.cfg configuration file.

Your SERVICES file is located in the directory \WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC. Please add a line like below:

eloqsd    8100/tcp    # Eloquence A.06.00 eloqsd server
where the first column specifies the service name (eg. eloqsd) and the second column the associated port number and protocol (eg. 8100/tcp). The selected port numbers may not already be in use by another programs.

Configuring the default eloqsd account

The eloqsd server requires you to specify an account name in the configuration file. This account is used

to define the access rights which are used unless a specific account is defined for the user.

You may specify any existing account in the configuration file (for example the guest account) or you may create a new user account "eloqsd" which is used by the eloqsd server.

Grant the background login right to users

Each system account associated with an eloqsd user must have the right to log on as a batch job. This must be setup manually using the Windows NT User Manager or the Windows NT User Manager for Domains, respectively:

  1. Log on as Administrator.

  2. Start the User Manager or the User Manager for Domains, respectively. It is located in the Start menu (Programs - Administrative Tools).

  3. From the Policies menu, select User Rights. This opens the User Rights Policy dialog.

  4. Check the Show Advanced User Rights option.

  5. From the Right list, select Log on as a batch job.

  6. Use the Add... button to add the users or groups who should have access to the eloqsd server. To grant this right to all accounts you could simply select "everyone".

Configuring the eloqsd server

The eloqsd server is configured by editing the eloqsd.cfg, eloqsd.user and eloqsd.share configuration files. They are located in the Eloquence configuration directory. All configuration files provide complete inline documentation and are included at the end of this document for your reference.

The location of the Eloquence configuration directory depends on where the the Eloquence has been installed. All Eloquence configuration files are installed in the etc subdirectory of the Eloquence installation directory. This is usually C:\Program Files\Eloquence.

Each configuration file is responsible for a specific part of the eloqsd configuration:

eloqsd.cfg
Is used for the general configuration of the server.
eloqsd.user
Eloqsd provides its own user configuration. This makes it possible to define eloqsd users without the need to have a system account for each individual user. Instead eloqsd users are associated with system accounts.
eloqsd.share
This configuration file is used to define resources which can be accessed through the eloqsd server.

Configuring the eloqsd server startup

After the eloqsd server has been registered with the Windows NT Service Control Manager it can be accessed using the Control Panel:

  1. From the Start menu, choose Settings - Control Panel. This opens the Control Panel window.

  2. Double-click the Services icon. This opens the Services dialog.

  3. Locate the EloqSD entry in the service list (or the service name you have specified during the service installation) and select it with the mouse.

Now you should specify the Startup Options by selecting the Startup... button:

Alternatively, you can specify a different account using the This Account option, but concerning to the eloqsd server this will not make a big difference.

When you have setup the Startup Options, you can define additional arguments for the eloqsd server as an option. This is usually not required (if a single instance of the eloqsd server is used) since all settings are normally provided in the eloqsd.cfg configuration file. However this can be used for tracking down problems (starting the eloqsd server temporarily with different log options) and is mandantory if you have multiple eloqsd instances.

Possible arguments are:

 -c name    = configuration file
 -d flags   = log flags
 -l name    = log file name
 -s name    = service name (tcp/ip transport)
OptionDescriptionEquiv.*
-c nameSpecifies the configuration file name 
-d flagsSpecifies the server log flags.LogFlags
-l nameSpecifies the server log file.LogFile
-s nameThe service name (as defined in /etc/services) or the port number where the server should listen for requests. The default value is eloqsd.Service

*Equivalent configuration file directive.

For example, if you wish to specify a different TCP/IP service name (the default is "eloqsd"), you could enter the following into the Startup Parameters field:

  -save -s 8567
This will make the eloqsd server listen to the TCP/IP port number 8567. The leading -save argument makes this command line persistent, so that the same arguments are used each time this eloqsd server instance is started. If you do not specify the -save argument this options will be used only once.

Any persistent command line is associated with the NT service name, so you can (actually must) provide separate arguments to each instance of the eloqsd server.

If you want to make sure that the command line is empty and that any persistent command line is deleted, just specify -save without any additional arguments.

At this point, everything is configured and the eloqsd server can be started. Select the Start button and wait until the startup has completed.

If you did not specify a log file, the eloqsd server will write log messages to the Windows NT Event Log. You should periodically check this in order to get aware of possible configuration problems:

  1. Start the Event Viewer. It is located in the Start menu (Programs - Administrative Tools).

  2. From the Log menu, select Application. This shows the contents of the Application Log Queue.

At this time, there should be three entries concerning the EloqSD noting that the server has been installed, started and activated.

The eloqsd HTTP status display

When the ServiceHttp is defined in the eloqsd.cfg configuration file, you can use a WEB browser such as Netscape to view the configuration and state of the eloqsd process in your network.

To access the eloqsd server, you need to provide a URL like below:

http://server:port/
where server is the host name or IP number of the system running the eloqsd server and port is the port number used for serviceHttp in the eloqsd.cfg file.


Eloquence Installation and Configuration - 19 DEC 2002