RFID Software Installation Guide

This chapter describes how to install the Sun Java System RFID Software Event Manager. The following sections are included in this chapter:

• Preparing to Install RFID Event Manager
• Installing the Event Manager
• Installing the RFID Management Console
• Troubleshooting During RFID Event Manager Installation

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Preparing to Install RFID Event Manager

Before beginning your installation of RFID Event Manager, decide whether you are using Typical Installation or Custom Installation.

• Use Typical Installation to install all event manager components except the ALE Web Service, see To Install RFID Event Manager Using Typical Installation
• Use Custom Installation to install the RFID Event Manager and the ALE Web Service. See To Install the Event Manager and ALE Web Service Using Custom Installation
• Use Custom Installation to create a distributed RFID installation. See Creating a Distributed RFID Software Installation.

Creating a Distributed RFID Software Installation

An alternative configuration to a typical installation of Sun Java System RFID Event Manager is to deploy the RFID Event Manager's Control Station on a different host in the subnet from that used for the Execution Agent. An Event Manager can be distributed over multiple computer nodes so that there is no single point of failure.

The Sun Java System RFID Event Manager is designed to process streams of tag or sensor data (event data) coming from one or more reader devices. To localize reader traffic, an enterprise may have numerous instances of the RFID Event Manager's Execution Agent at each geographically remote site, such as a store, distribution center, or warehouse. A typical store or warehouse is likely to have many readers. Given the amount of network traffic from readers, it is important to localize data by enabling the RFID Event Manager's Execution Agents to filter the tag data at each site, instead of sending it over the Internet.

Jini Group Name

The RFID Event Manager is a Jini-based event management system. A Jini system is a distributed system based on the idea of federating groups of users and the resources required by those users.

When installing multiple Control Stations in the same subnet you should verify that the Jini Group is consistent amongst files and unique for your deployment.

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Installing the Event Manager

Use the installation wizard to install the RFID Event Manager. You have two installation types to choose from, Typical and Custom.

Use Typical Installation to install all Event Manager components on one machine. Typical installation installs the following components:

• RFID Control Station Components - The control station contains components necessary to run the code provisioner, the Jini lookup service, and the workload monitor.
• RFID Execution Agent
• RFID Common Files

Use Custom Installation to create a distributed installation or to install the ALE web service.

Custom installation enables you to select one or more of the following components:

• RFID Control Station
• RFID Execution Agent
• RFID Common Files
• ALE Web Service

1. Get the software.

• For web download: download and unzip the software into your rfid-download-dir

Be sure you have the correct download file for your platform:

• Solaris OS on Sparc - RFID_SystemSoftware_SPARC.zip
• Solaris OS on x86 - RFID_SystemSoftware_X86.zip
• Linux - RFID_SystemSoftware_LINUX.zip

• For CD installation, insert the CD

2. Enable access to the X server.

% xhost + machine-name

3. Become a superuser (root).

% su root

4. Set the DISPLAY environment variable to display to your machine name. For example, using the csh:

% setenv DISPLAY machine-name:0.0

5. Start the installation.

• For web download, follow these steps:

a. Change to the directory rfid-download-dir/rfidem, where the variable, rfid-download-dir, represents the directory containing the unzipped download file.

b. Start the installer.

#./setup

The Welcome page displays. Proceed to Step 6

• To use the CD, follow these steps:

a. Change to the rfidem directory

b. Start the installer.

#./setup

The Welcome page displays. Proceed to Step 6

6. From the Welcome page, click Next and follow the instructions on the installer wizard pages to complete the installation.

You need to know the hostname of the system you are installing on and the Jini group name for the control station. The group name must be unique for every control station you set up. The group name gives the control station its identity over the network. The software comes with a default group name of AutoID. Also see the section Jini Group Name.

1. Verify that your application server is running before starting this installation.

2. To install RFID Event Manager and ALE Web Service, begin the installation as described for doing a Typical Installation. See To Install RFID Event Manager Using Typical Installation.

3. Select Custom Installation and select ALE Web Service (leave the other components selected).

When you select the ALE Web Service, the Application Server Selection Panel is displayed during the installation.

4. When the Application Server Selection Panel is displayed, select the application server that you are using for deployment of the ALE Web Service.

Application Server Configuration panel lists the parameters appropriate to each application server. See TABLE 3-1.

5. Enter the requested parameters for the application server that you select and continue the installation.

In configuring a distributed installation, you need at least one control station on one machine, and multiple agents on other machines. The Execution Agent components check-box would be unchecked in such an instance. The execution agents are installed on one or more different machines.

1. To create a distributed installation of Event Manager, begin the installation as described for doing a Typical Installation. See To Install RFID Event Manager Using Typical Installation.

2. Select Custom Installation and install only the Control Station on one machine, machine A.

3. On machine B, use Custom Installation to install only the Execution Agent.

When prompted specify the IP address and hostname for machine A where you have installed the Control Station.

4. When you have finished installing the distributed components, you can start each component on its respective machine. See Appendix A for the location of the start scripts and their descriptions.

Also see Appendix A for the location and description of all the provided scripts.

1. After you install Event Manager, change to the install directory containing the start script:

cd install_dir/bin

2. Execute the script to start all the components of the Event Manager.

./startall

3. (Optional) To see the EPC viewer, execute the script to start the viewer.

cd install_dir/bin

./tagviewer

4. (Optional) To verify proper installation, run the pmlreader. For example, type:

./pmlreader

You see output similar to the following:

pmlreader: Using property file: /

/etc/opt/SUNWrfid/system/Simulators.properties

pmlreader: Creating new Reader (port=9011, readerepc=urn:epc:tag:gid-96:1.255.1, epc=urn:epc:tag:gid-96:1.1.100, tagSetSize=10, generator=com.sun.autoid.simulator.StaticEPCGenerator, minCycleTime=9000, maxCycleTime=11000)

pmlreader: Waiting for readers to complete

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Installing the RFID Management Console

RFID Management Console is a new feature of the RFID Software. RFID Management Console is a graphical user interface for managing the readers and components of RFID Event Manager system.

RFID Management Console may be used to both monitor and modify the various components of the RFID Event Manager. The console provides insight into the health of the readers and components and can be used to quickly assess the status of the RFID Event Manager system.

RFID Management Console may also be used to modify various read and write attributes of the RFID Event Manager components as the system is running. See Sun Java System RFID Software 2.0 Administration Guide for more details on using the RFID Management Console.

In a typical installation, the RFID Management Console would most likely be installed on the same machine as the RFID Event Manager, but this is not a requirement. The RFID Management Console can be installed on any machine as long as there is a supported application server installed on that machine.

1. Verify that a supported application server is running before starting this installation. See Supported Software Platforms.

2. Verify that you have a supported database installed. See Supported Software Platforms.

You need to know the configuration information for your database to proceed with installation of the management console.

3. Get the software as described in Step 1 of the procedure, To Install RFID Event Manager Using Typical Installation.

4. Enable access to the X server.

% xhost + machine-name

5. Become a superuser (root).

% su root

6. Set the DISPLAY environment variable to display to your machine name. For example, using the csh:

% setenv DISPLAY machine-name:0.0

7. Start the installation.

• For web download, follow these steps:

a. Change to the directory rfid-download-dir/rfidmc

b. Start the installer.

#./setup

The Welcome page displays. Proceed to Step 8

• To use the CD, follow these steps:

a. Change to the rfidmc directory

b. Start the installer.

#./setup

The Welcome page displays. Proceed to Step 8

8. From the Welcome page, click Next and follow the instructions on the installer wizard pages.

9. When installation is complete, perform the following post-installation steps by using the appropriate procedures for your platform, application server and database.

a. Complete the configuration of your application server using one of the following procedures:

• To Complete RFID Management Console Setup Using Sun Java System Application Server (Solaris OS)
• To Complete RFID Management Console Setup Using BEA WebLogic 8.1

b. Do the database setup using the procedure for your installed database:

• To Create the RFID Oracle Database Tables For RFID Management Console
• To Create the RFID PostgreSQL Database Tables For RFID Management Console

10. When installation and setup are complete, start the RFID Management Console using the procedure To Start the RFID Management Console.

1. Update the server.policy file, by following these steps:

a. In a terminal window, change to the directory containing the RFID policy file and find the file named server.policy.

• Solaris - the directory is /opt/SUNWrfidmc/policy/
• Linux - the directory is /opt/sun/rfidmc/policy/

This file needs to replace the file of the same name that is located in the application server's configuration directory.

b. Copy server.policy to your application server's configuration directory.

The path to this directory depends on your application server installation and the location varies depending on the specific platform and version of the application server that you are using.

• For Sun Java System Application Server 7, the path might be: /var/opt/SUNWappserver7/domains/domain1/server1/config/
• For Sun Java System Application Server 8.1, the path might be: /var/opt/SUNWappserver/domains/domain1/server1/config/

2. Log into the application server Admin Console.

3. Click on Apply Changes.

4. Restart the application server.

Update the server.policy file, by following these steps:

1. In a terminal window, change to the directory containing the RFID policy file and find the file named server.policy.

• Solaris - the directory is /opt/SUNWrfidmc/policy/
• Linux - the directory is /opt/sun/rfidmc/policy/

This file needs to replace the file weblogic.policy that is located in the BEA WebLogic configuration directory.

2. Copy server.policy to the BEA WebLogic configuration directory to a file named weblogic.policy.

The path to the configuration directory depends on your server installation and the location may vary depending on the specific platform and version that you are using.

The full path to the policy file is: BEA_install_dir/server/lib/weblogic.policy, where the variable, BEA_install_dir represents your BEA installation directory path name.

Setting Up the Database for RFID Management Console

To use RFID Management Console, you must setup your selected database with the necessary tables. Scripts to do this are provided with the RFID software.

The Oracle SQL scripts to set up database tables and populate them are located in the following directories:

• Solaris OS - /opt/SUNWrfidmc/lib/sql
• Linux OS - /opt/sun/rfidmc/lib/sql

1. If you have not done so previously, get the proper JDBC drivers and install them.

See Installing the JDBC Drivers.

2. Copy the necessary files to a directory on the machine where the database server is running.

Copy the following files:

• oracle_rfidmc_setup
• oracle_create_mcschema.sql
• oracle_create_mcuser.sql
• oracle_drop_mcschema.sql
• oracle_populatemc.sql

3. Change to the directory where you copied the scripts.

4. Login as root.

5. Verify that oracle_create_mcuser.sql points to the correct datafile.

6. In a terminal window, run the script:

#./oracle_rfidmc_setup

The PostgreSQL scripts to set up database tables and populate them are located in the following directories:

• Solaris OS - /opt/SUNWrfidmc/lib/sql
• Linux OS - /opt/sun/rfidmc/lib/sql

1. If you have not done so previously, get the proper JDBC drivers and install them.

See Installing the JDBC Drivers.

2. (Required to use BEA WebLogic 8.1 as your application server): Add location of JDBC driver to the class path.

Copying the JDBC driver jar file to the proper directory will not be sufficient. You must also add the jar file in question to your class path variable, which is set inside the WebLogic start-up script. The name and location of this script file varies greatly, but should be clearly known to your system administrator. For example, the script could be named startWebLogic.sh;

• Modify the class path declaration from:

CLASSPATH = ${EXISTING_CLASSPATH} to CLASSPATH =BEA_install_dir/server/lib/postgres_jdbc.jar:${EXISTING_CLASSPATH} where the variable, BEA_install_dir, represents your BEA WebLogic server installation directory and the variable, postgres_jdbc.jar, represents the proper JDBC JAR file.

3. Copy the necessary files to a directory on the machine where the database server is running.

Copy the following files:

• postgres_rfidmc_setup
• postgres_create_mcschema.sql

4. Change to the directory where you copied the scripts.

5. Login as root.

6. In a terminal window, login as user postgres:

# su - postgres 

7. In a terminal window, run the script:

#./postgres_rfidmc_setup

1. After you install RFID Management Console, restart the application server.

2. Open a web browser and enter the RFID Management Console URL.

The URL is of the following format: http://IP-address:port-number/sdui. The variable, IP-address, is the IP address of the system where the management console software is deployed, such as 10.6.165.71. The port-number is the HTTP port number of your application server. An example is http://10.6.165.71:8080/sdui

The RFID Management Console login screen is displayed. See Sun Java System RFID Software 2.0 Administration Guide for more details on using the RFID Management Console.

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Troubleshooting During RFID Event Manager Installation

1. After installing, if you start your RFID software and attached readers and observe that the readers you have defined don't seem to be responding, an RFID Event Manager with the same group name may be running.

Reason: The Jini Group name must be unique.

Solution: Specify a unique group name. See Jini Group Name. Also refer to Sun Java System RFID Software 2.0 Administration Guide for details on how to correct this situation.

• ^{1 (Footnote) The default domain or instance may vary from system to system.}

RFID Software Installation Guide

819-1696-10

Copyright © 2004, Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.