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BASIC ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS


This chapter covers the basic SOLID Server administrative tasks. It tells you how to:

Installing SOLID Server

If you have not yet installed SOLID Server, follow these quick-start instructions, or refer to the Read Me First notice delivered with the product diskettes for a detailed description of the installation.

To Install Your SOLID Server


For installation instructions for Novell Netware, UNIX, VAX/VMS and Open VMS operating systems, refer to the Read Me First notice.


Installing Solid Drivers

Some environments include SOLID Server drivers (ODBC, UNIFACE) on a separate diskette. To install the drivers:

Starting SOLID Server

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You start SOLID Server by clicking the icon labeled SOLID Server in the SOLID Server program group.

When SOLID Server is started, it checks if a database already exists in the SOLID directory, that is, the directory where you installed SOLID executables. If a database file is found, SOLID Server will automatically open that database. If not, which is the case when you start the server for the first time, a new database will be created.


On UNIX operating systems , you start the server by entering the command solid at the command prompt. When you start the server for the first time, enter the command solid -f at the command prompt to force the server to run in the foreground.
On Novell Netware, you start the server by entering the command load solid.nlm at the command prompt.
On Open VMS, you start the server by entering the command run solid at the command prompt


Creating a New Database

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Dialog 1. Username and password entry.

If a database does not exist, SOLID Server will automatically start creating a new database. In the Windows environment, creating the database begins with Dialog 1 prompting for the database administrator's username and password.

To Create a New Database

The username and password are case insensitive. The username must have at least two characters; the password at least three. You can use lower case letters from a to z, upper case letters from A to Z and the underscore character ‘_’, and numbers from 0 to 9.


NOTE. You must remember your username and password to be able to connect to SOLID Server. There are no default usernames; the username you enter when creating the database is the only username available for connecting to the new database.


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Dialog 2. Creating a new database.

After accepting the database administrator's username and password, SOLID Server will create a new database. By default the database will be created as one file (solid.db) into the SOLID directory, where the executables are located. This is indicated by Dialog 2. The time that the database creation process takes depends on the hardware platform you are using.

After the database has been created, SOLID Server starts listening to the network for client connection requests. In the Windows environment, you will see a SOLID Server icon, but in most environments SOLID Server will run invisibly in the background as a daemon process.


NOTE. Create immediately a backup of your database to be able to use the log files to perform a roll-forward recovery.



In OS/2, UNIX, Novell Netware, VAX/VMS and Open VMS operating systems, if you do not have an existing database, the following message appears:
Database does not exist. Do you want to create a new database (y/n)?
Answer y(es), and SOLID Server will prompt for the database administrator's username and password. When they have been accepted, a new database will be created.



NOTE. If in the Windows environment you double-click the icon of a running SOLID Server, nothing will happen. SOLID Server is a background process that only reacts to messages from clients through the communication interface.


Connecting to SOLID Server

After starting your SOLID Server, you can test the configuration by connecting to the server. You can connect to the server from your workstation by using either SOLID Remote Control or SOLID SQL Editor.


NOTE. You need to have the privileges of SYS_ADMIN_ROLE or SYS_CONSOLE_ROLE to be able to connect to a server using SOLID Remote Control.


Connecting with SOLID Remote Control

To Start SOLID Remote Control

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SOLID Remote
Control Icon

  • Start SOLID Remote Control by clicking its icon. You will see SOLID Remote Control’s desktop and the dialog Server definition. In the Server definition dialog you will see a server named DEFAULT.
  • Click the DEFAULT icon or press the Connect button on the dialog box.
    A logon dialog box will open.
  • Enter the username and the password you entered in the appropriate text boxes when you created the new database.
  • Press OK.

  • After a while, you will see the server STATUS page opening. A connection to the server has been established.

To Disconnect from the Server

Close the window or choose Exit form the File menu.

Refer to on-line help for detailed instructions on using SOLID Remote Control.


On OS/2, UNIX, VAX/VMS, Open VMS and Novell Netware platforms you use the SOLID Remote Control (Teletype) program to test the configuration. See the chapter Using SOLID Database Tools for detailed information.


Connecting with SOLID SQL Editor

To Start SOLID SQL Editor

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SOLID SQL Editor Icon

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Connect button

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Dialog 3. Logon dialog box.

  • Start SOLID SQL Editor by clicking its icon.
    Click the Connect button. The logon dialog box appears on the top of the SOLID SQL Editor's document window. The dialog box shows the default server name you will connect to. You may change this name if you want to connect to another SOLID Server. The default Server name can be changed permanently by editing DSN parameter in [SQL Editor] section in the configuration file solid.ini.
  • Enter your username and password into the appropriate fields, and press the OK button to continue.
    The password will be displayed as asterisks. The message bar in the lower left corner of the document window will confirm that the connection is established.

To Execute a Predefined Query

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Executing a predefined datadictionary query

  • Select a predefined data dictionary query from the list box on the toolbar, and press the button located directly left of the list box.
    The results of the query will be shown in the lower part of the window.

To Load and Execute an SQL script

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SQL button to execute current statement

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SQL button to execute all SQL statements

  • Press the open file button on the left side of the toolbar.
    The Open file dialog will appear.
  • Select a sample SQL script to be loaded, and press OK button to continue.
    The script will be loaded to the SOLID SQL Editor's document window.
  • Press the SQL buttons on the toolbar to execute current or all SQL statements of the loaded script.

Refer to on-line help for detailed instructions on SOLID SQL Editor.

Viewing the SOLID Server Message Log

SOLID Server writes all error and info messages to a text file. This message log file is named solmsg.out and it is located in the SOLID directory. You can view this file using any text editor or file viewer. The error messages and their explanations are listed in Appendix A SOLID Server Error Messages of this document and in electronic format as the SOLID Server Error Messages Help.

Shutting Down SOLID Server

You can shut down SOLID Server either by

All the shutdown mechanisms will start the same routine, which writes all buffered data to the database file, frees cache memory and finally terminates the server program. Shutting down a server may take a while since the server must write all buffered data from main memory to the disk.

To Shut Down the Server Using SOLID Remote Control


NOTE. You need to drop all users to enable the shutdown process.


To Shut Down the Server from the Server Computer in the Windows Operating System


On OS/2, UNIX, VAX/VMS, Open VMS and Novell Netware use the SOLID Remote Control (Teletype) program to shut down the server. See the chapter Using SOLID Database Tools for detailed information.


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