Before Installing Server Software

Before you start the installation process, verify that your system meets the requirements listed in "Hardware and Software Requirements" and decide where you want to install the software as explained in "Installation Choices".

Hardware and Software Requirements

Before you start the installation process, verify that the systems on which you plan to install AnswerBook2 server software meet the hardware and software requirements listed in Table 8-2 and Table 8-3.

Table 8-2 Hardware and Software Requirements

Component	Requirement
Documentation server system hardware	SPARCstationTM 2 computer or higher (SPARCstation 5 computer recommended) Intel-based personal computer
Operating environment	Solaris 7 (for SPARC or x86, as appropriate)
Admin GUI and AnswerBook2 client viewer	Any HTML 3.2-compliant browser, such as Netscape Navigator, HotJava, or Lynx

Table 8-3 Disk Space Requirements Table

Directory Path	Description	Space
/usr/lib/ab2/	Contains executable files, server processing files, library files, and graphics and document source files for the product interface.	26.0 Megabytes
/var/log/ab2/	Contains catalog files and log files, if logging functions are enabled.	5.0 Megabytes (recommended - grows as server is used)
/etc/init.d/ab2mgr	Server start-up file	0.01 Megabytes

In addition, you need to set aside some amount of disk space (600 Megabytes recommended) for the actual book files. The exact amount of space depends on the specific collections. For a list of collections available on the Solaris 7 Documentation CD, see the README file located on that CD.

Installation Choices

Before you install the AnswerBook2 server software, you should consider your installation choices:

• Install everything on one system

  The AnswerBook2 server software and Solaris 7 document collections are on the Solaris 7 Documentation CD. If you install both parts of the server product on a single system, when you finish the installation process and start the server, it will be ready to serve documents to all clients. See "To Install the AnswerBook2 Server Software" for more information.

• Install server and documentation on separate systems

  You can install the documentation server software on one system and point to document collections that are located on a different system. You might want to do this if you have minimal space available on your server's system or if you have existing collections on another system. To do this, you need to add each collection manually to the server's database and the Scan for Locally Installed Collections function will not find these collections. See "To Install the AnswerBook2 Server Software" for more information.

• Run a server from the CD

  If you are operating in a non-networked environment (stand-alone) or you only occasionally view the online documentation, you can run the AnswerBook2 server directly from the Solaris 7 Documentation CD. A documentation server run from the CD tends to be slower than a documentation server installed on your system. Do not use this approach if you expect other users to access this documentation server. For more information, see "To Run a Documentation Server From the Solaris 7 Documentation CD".