5 Launching Guardian

The following sections provide information for starting the Guardian User Interface and Guardian Command Line Interface (Guardian Headless Mode):

Section 5.1, "Overview"
Section 5.2, "Start the Guardian User Interface"
Section 5.3, "Start the Guardian Command Line Interface"

5.1 Overview

Oracle Guardian has two modes of operation:

Guardian User Interface — This is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that provides the ability to perform the majority of Guardian tasks and activities. However, this interface does not include the scripting capabilities provided by the Command Line Interface. See Section 5.2, "Start the Guardian User Interface."
Guardian Command Line Interface (CLI) — The Command Line Interface provides scripting capabilities. Scripts are useful for automating repetitive or complex tasks that are performed frequently. See Section 5.3, "Start the Guardian Command Line Interface."

5.2 Start the Guardian User Interface

The Guardian is located in the Guardian installation home directory. For example:

<Guardian_Root>\guardian.exe

In the preceding path name, <Guardian_Root> represents the Guardian installation directory.

Each time you start the Guardian User Interface, you are prompted to select a Guardian Workspace. If you do not want to select the Workspace each time you start Guardian, you can specify a default location and select an option to skip this process in the future. Instructions are provided below. For a description of the Guardian Workspace, see "About Oracle Guardian" in Oracle Guardian User's Guide.

To start Guardian and select a Workspace, do the following:

Open the Guardian User Interface.
- In Windows:
  
  Select Start > Oracle Guardian > Guardian or double-click on guardian.exe in your Guardian installation home folder.
- In Linux:
  
  Change directories to the installation directory, and enter the following command:
```
./guardian.sh
```
Guardian first displays the initial splash screen while loading, and then displays the Select Workspace dialog box.
Select or create the folder (directory) to use as your Workspace folder.

Important:
Do not place this folder within the Guardian installation directory. Otherwise, when conducting automatic updates of Guardian, your Workspace will be overwritten and the data will be lost. In addition, if you are upgrading from a previous Guardian release and have not yet imported your old Workspace, do not select the default because that may cause old contents to be overwritten. Make sure that you select a location that is different from the Workspace used by the previous Guardian version.

To use an existing folder, click Browse to open a directory browser from which you can select the folder.

To create a new folder:
1. Click Make New Folder.
2. Select the location for the folder.
3. Enter the name of the folder
4. Click OK.
  
  This creates or selects the file and returns to the Select Workspace dialog box.
(Optional) Specify this as the default Workspace.

If you do not want to select the Workspace each time you start Guardian, select the checkbox for Use this as the default workspace and do not ask again.

Note:
You can change this setting later by selecting Prompt for workspace on startup in the Guardian Preferences configuration page. For instructions, "Select Workspace" in Oracle Guardian User's Guide.
Click Finish.

Guardian loads the selected Workspace and completes the startup procedure.

5.3 Start the Guardian Command Line Interface

The Guardian Command Line Interface (CLI)—also referred to as Guardian Headless Mode—is a set of Guardian commands that can be issued directly from the operating system command prompt. A Guardian CLI command is available for almost every task in the Guardian User Interface. For a complete description of these commands and their syntax, see "Command Reference" in Oracle Guardian User's Guide.

To start the Guardian Command Line Interface, do the following:

Note:

Guardian Command Line Interface commands are case sensitive.

At the operating system command prompt, change directories to the Guardian installation directory.
Enter the Guardian Headless command.
- On Windows:
```
guardianHeadless.cmd 
```
- On Linux:
```
guardianHeadless.sh 
```
(Optional) To see a list of CLI commands and their syntax, enter the CLI Help command at the operating system prompt.
- On Windows:
```
guardianHeadless.cmd -g help 
```
- On Linux:
```
guardianHeadless.sh -g help 
```

The Command Line Interface uses your specified Guardian Workspace as the location for all CLI operations, unless you specify otherwise in each command. Identifying the Guardian Workspace location is essential for accessing the correct set of active domains, Domain Inventories, and Evaluation Summaries. For instructions about how to select a Guardian Workspace, see "Select Workspace" in Oracle Guardian User's Guide.

The following are some examples of Guardian Headless command lines:

guardianHeadless.cmd -g listActiveDomains
guardianHeadless.cmd -g activateDomain -t http://localhost:9116 -u un -p pw -c true -data "D:\MyData\Guardian Data Directories\
Installer-2079"
guardianHeadless.cmd -g createShortcut -d Naxos_localhost_9116 -b 2
guardianHeadless.cmd -g deleteShortcut -s "Security Advisories in Naxos"

The output of each command is sent to the following output file:

headless_output.txt

The output file is created in your current directory, and is overwritten each time you run a Guardian Headless Mode command.

For a complete list of Guardian Command Line Interface commands and syntax, see "Command Reference" in Oracle Guardian User's Guide.