Preparing the server for hosting a MICHAEL platform
Preparing the server consists mainly of installing the underlying components needed to run the MICHAEL platform. These components are a Java virtual machine, a Web server and a Servlet engine. Many times, these components are already installed on a server, so these steps are not needed.
1) Java virtual machine
Java is available for many platforms and its installation is easy. There are various Java distributions but the most common one is Sun's reference implementation. Before installing Java, please remember these two important notes:
- It is more appropriate to install a Java development kit instead of a Java runtime environment, since some compilation must be done to run the Web interface.
- Although the latest version of Java is 1.5.x, it is highly recommended to install and use Java version 1.4.x for the MICHAEL platform. It is possible to run the platform on Java 1.5.x, but everything has not been tested and may not run properly.
You can download a Java virtual machine for Windows, Solaris and Linux at the following address: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html . For other operating systems, please search on the Internet for the appropriate location.
2) Web server
A Web server is needed for the MICHAEL platform; most of the times, the Apache HTTPD server is used, but others are possible.
On most computers other than the ones running Windows, a Web server (usually Apache) is already installed, so you don't need to follow this step. Also, if you plan to only test or do a temporary installation of the MICHAEL platform, you don't have to install a Web server since the servlet engine (see next section) provides one.
This step is thus rarely needed, but to download a Apache HTTPD server please go to http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi . Installation instructions are at http://httpd.apache.org/docs/ for version 1.3 or http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/ for version 2.0. Both versions are correct for MICHAEL.
3) Servlet engines
The MICHAEL platform needs a servlet engine to run; usually, Apache Tomcat is used for this purpose. A servlet engine is a complement to the Web server, but most servlet engines – including Tomcat – may provide their own embedded Web server. Whether you choose to use a specific Web server or the one embedded in your servlet engine depends on the general server configuration strategy. We recommend to use Apache HTTPD server for official Web servers on the Internet, but for a simple local site or for presentation purposes, using only Tomcat is enough.
You may download Tomcat here: http://jakarta.apache.org/site/downloads/downloads_tomcat-5.cgi . Please not that version 5.5.x of Tomcat is for Java 1.5.x; version 5.0.x of Tomcat is for Java 1.4.x. So if you follow the MICHAEL recommendation, you should use version 5.0.x of Tomcat .
Installation instructions for Tomcat version 5.0.x are here: http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-5.0-doc/setup.html . If you need to link Apache and Tomcat together, there are various options, such as mod_jk and mod_proxy . The Tomcat documentation explains what to use and how to install.
Important : it is highly recommended to install Tomcat in a directory path without spaces and non ASCII characters. Avoid installing in C:\Program Files on Windows!