Hi Richard,

Ingres 2.0 and above allow for the batch modification of vnode entries
via netutil either on a local machine or across the LAN. Ingres/NET
changes can be implemented in login scripts or rolled out overnight (if
that is possible in a Citrix environment??)

See http://support.ca.com/techbases/ingres/4344.html for some examples
on how you use these features.

Regards,

grant

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-info-ingres@ams.org [mailto:owner-info-ingres@ams.org] On
Behalf Of Richard Harden
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 7:09 AM
To: info-ingres@ams.org
Subject: Ingres II 2.0 in a Citrix environment

Hi People,

My companies IT dept is just about to commence implementing thin-client
computing using Citrix.

Given that the citrix farm is likely to comprise of a 100 or more blade
servers, each with an identical ingres client installed is any one aware
of
a way to automate any modifications to the ingres net connections and to
roll it out across all the ingres installations

given that the connection information is held in the
%II_SYSTEM%\ingres\files\name directory in
IINODE_XX and IILOGIN_XX files where XX is the hostname, hence unique
across
the entire farm.

thanks in advance

Richard Harden

Richard,

Can you not push the changes as part of the login process for the user?
That way you don't need to have the virtual client running to do it
remotely, through 1 huge script or several smaller scripts.

<disclaimer>
I must stress that taking the IINODE_ and IILOGIN_ files and replicating
them is not supported. It appears to work ok but may not in future.
</disclaimer>

Saludos

Grant

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-info-ingres@ams.org [mailto:owner-info-ingres@ams.org] On
Behalf Of Richard Harden
Sent: 18 November 2003 09:31
To: info-ingres@ams.org
Subject: Re: Ingres II 2.0 in a Citrix environment

Hi Grant,

Thanks for the reply.

At the moment I have used the netutil -file <fname> option to batch
create
the current netutil information.

The two IINODE and IILOGIN files were then saved (without the
_HOSTNAME),
then the packager who made the wise installation that would be run
against
the farm servers, as a last step stopped the ingres client service,
copies
these two files with the correct _[hostname] part of the file name, then
restarts the service.

This works fine for installing the for the first time, (OH yes, the
service
starts as localsystem, with the config.dat edited with '*.' instead of
the
[hostname]. so the one file can be used on every server.)

For security reasons, there is no actual 'ingres' login available (read,
I
am not part of their organisation, and they are paranoid) and as such I
will
not even know the qty and hostnames(or locations) of any of the citrix
servers, however I am still required to manage their ingres
configurations
and assist in ingres related problems and issues.

For me to use the -vnode option to remotely manage the information, it
would
require me to have a vnode in my own local files for each and every
citrix
server with ingres client installed, then a batch file from hell to run
the
same netutil batch file against every farm member.   e.g.

for %%C in (very long list) do call netutil -vnode %%C -file <fname>

and you can guarantee that it won't all go on one line.

I guess I was really after..... are there any citrix management tools
that
can be run at the farm level that are capable of shutting down the
ingres
service, copying a new set of files into the correct locations with the
right names and re-starting the service for every server in the farm

realising that there must also be some intelligence so that success or
failure could be tracked in the event that there were clients connected
and
in use when the update was scheduled to be done (even in the wee hours)

I guess this is bleeding edge at the moment, especially as this version
(of
ingres) is not cetified on citrix, and I'm sure I will find more
problems
like II_TEMPORARY location for example, and the need to write to
wg4l.log
and errlog.log

Oh well, I guess I will have to suck it and see.

Thanks again.

Richard.

Hi Richard,

Ingres 2.0 and above allow for the batch modification of vnode entries

via netutil either on a local machine or across the LAN. Ingres/NET

changes can be implemented in login scripts or rolled out overnight (if

that is possible in a Citrix environment??)

See http://support.ca.com/techbases/ingres/4344.html for some examples

on how you use these features.

Regards,

grant

-----Original Message-----

From: owner-info-ingres@ams.org [mailto:owner-info-ingres@ams.org] On

Behalf Of Richard Harden

Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 7:09 AM

To: info-ingres@ams.org

Subject: Ingres II 2.0 in a Citrix environment

Hi People,

My companies IT dept is just about to commence implementing thin-client

computing using Citrix.

Given that the citrix farm is likely to comprise of a 100 or more blade

servers, each with an identical ingres client installed is any one aware

of

a way to automate any modifications to the ingres net connections and to

roll it out across all the ingres installations

given that the connection information is held in the

%II_SYSTEM%\ingres\files\name directory in

IINODE_XX and IILOGIN_XX files where XX is the hostname, hence unique

across

the entire farm.

thanks in advance

Richard Harden

Richard,

What I did here was create a single installation of Ingres on one
CITRIX server box using the II_HOSTNAME facility. The hostname I used
here was WINPC so it was independant of the server name. I only then
had to install Ingres once, on the master installation node. Our
CITRIX people then cloned the disk to the other 20 servers in the farm
and renamed the node names (hence the use of the II_HOSTNAME to keep
Ingres independant of the actual node name).

 This setup is useful when a node needs rebuilding or additional
nodes are to be added, the Ingres administrator is not involved !!
Also because the configuration on every box is the same and the
underlying files are named identically (e.g. Names area) files can be
copied at will (who would do such a thing ?).

 Gotcha's are the symbol.tbl file going walkies on reboot (use
SRVANY.EXE off the W2K resource kit to create an automatic recovery
service that starts before Ingres does and puts the SYMBOL.JIC into
action !) and GCC's deregistering themselves (run more than one and
the problem will go away...).

 As for configuration, use the netuil -file scripts.

I'm pretty sure IngresII 2.0 is NOT supported under CITRIX (terminal
services), you'll have to install 2.6 + Patches !

 Hope this all helps (Is Ingres actually in use in NZ ?)

 Cheers

 Gary

Just to clarify something Gary said:

We haven't certified any Ingres release against Citrix. We know that
some customers are using it successfully with some minor issues. What
2.6+SP2 introduces is full support for Microsoft Terminal Services.
Terminal Services and Citrix - though they perform a similar task, are
not the same. There's been some confusion over this, especially when the
terms are used interchangeably.

As many of you will know, the symbol.tbl file disappearing is not
limited to Citrix, or even Windows. However Citrix seems to exacerbate
it by having more activity on the file. It's a problem that's been very
difficult to track down and fix all the causes of. However the next
version of Ingres will maintain a shadow symbol.tbl to allow us to
recover from this problem automatically (much as Gary's service does).

I don't know of any plans to officially certify Citrix. Speak to your
account manager if you want more on that.

HTH
Paul