To install and set up DBabble Server simply follow the installation instructions below. Apart from the site-specific information you will enter during installation, DBabble Server is virtually ready to go.

• Windows NT/2000 Installation
• UNIX Installation
• Upgrading
• Moving to another system
• Installing multiple servers on one machine
• Problems
• Uninstalling DBabble

 

Windows NT/2000 Installation

1. Do not try and install or upgrade DBabble onto a mapped network drive from a different machine - it won't work properly. You need to run the installation program on the machine it will be installed and run on
2. To download DBabble Server from netwinsite.com click on download and on the download page click on your operating system : (OR FTP the files from ftp://ftp.netwinsite.com/pub/dbabble)
3. Either double click on the file you downloaded in Windows explorer, or from MS-DOS command prompt, type in the file name you downloaded to run the self extracting archive and installation procedure

   Example: dbabblesvr26e.exe

4. You will have to accept the license agreement and be asked for an installation directory.
5. After installing, you should go to the listed web page to complete the setup. The default location of your server is http://domain.name:8132. For example http://free.dbabble.com:8132. In versions 2.3i and later, to perform the initial setup, you should go to the administrator page at http://domain.name:8132/admin. For example http://free.dbabble.com:8132/admin. All pages are also available through a secure (encrypted) connection by using https instead of http and changing the port to 8133 instead of 8132. For example: https://free.dbabble.com:8133/admin.

UNIX Installation

1. To download DBabble Server from netwinsite.com click on download and on the download page click on your operating system : (OR FTP the files from ftp://ftp.netwinsite.com/pub/dbabble typically dbabblesvrVER_MACHINE.tar.gz, e.g. dbabblesvr26e_linux_libc6.tar.gz)

2. Extract to a temporary directory in your own account and run the setup utility

   /home/chrisp> gunzip dbabblesvr26e_linux_libc6.tar.gz
   /home/chrisp> tar -xvf dbabblesvr26e_linux_libc6.tar
   /home/chrisp> cd dbabble
   /home/chrisp/dbabble> su root
   /home/chrisp/dbabble> ./install
   
   

3. Notes:
   • You do not have to be root to install DBabble, but if you are not, then features that require the server to listen on ports below port 1024 will not work. All features can be configured to listen on higher port numbers, but accepting incoming email will not work on ports other than 25 unless you have an email server set up to forward messages received for DBabble on to the appropriate DBabble port.
   • If you do not have gunzip installed on your machine, try "gzip -d" instead.
4. You will have to accept the license agreement and will be prompted for an installation directory. After installing, load up your favorite Web Browser and go to the location listed at the end of the installation to complete the setup after which you can login and start using it. The first user to login has administrator privileges. The default location of your server is http://domain.name:8132. For example http://free.dbabble.com:8132. In versions 2.3i and later, to perform the initial setup, you should go to the administrator page at http://domain.name:8132/admin. For example http://free.dbabble.com:8132/admin. All pages are also available through a secure (encrypted) connection by using https instead of http and changing the port to 8133 instead of 8132. For example: https://free.dbabble.com:8133/admin.

5. During installation, DBabble tries to append a line to the default linux startup script file (/etc/rc.d/rc.local) to start DBabble automatically every time the system restarts. If your system has a different startup-script, you will have to append the startup line manually. Assuming you have installed DBabble to /usr/local/dbabble, then the line you should add to your startup-script should be

   /usr/local/dbabble/dbabblesvr_start
   

Upgrading

• To upgrade your server, just download and run the standard installer. The trial download is exactly the same as the full version as all you have to do is enter your license key to keep the trial version working longer than a month. Install the server over the top of your existing server and all your existing settings (including your licence key) will be maintained.
• Follow steps 1 and 2 listed in the installation instructions. Below are some additional notes about the upgrade process.
• We recommend backing up your existing installation before performing the upgrade so that you can restore it in the unlikely case that something does go wrong. You should stop your server before beginning the backup procedure.
  • Backing up your Unix Server - backup the entire /usr/local/dbabble directory together with /etc/dbabblesvr.ini
  • Backing up your Windows Server - backup the entire C:\dbabblesvr directory together with the dbabblesvr.ini file and service executable file which are found in the Windows directory. e.g. C:\winnt\dbabblesvr.exe and C:\winnt\dbabblesvr.ini
Upgrading your server usually takes less than a minute, so disruption to your users should be minimal.
• An associated version of the windows client is included in the upgrade. Windows client users are automatically informed that a new version is available for them to upgrade to if they want, and they just have to click "yes" and DBabble will download and perform the upgrade for them. If they choose not to upgrade their client immediately, then they are able to upgrade to the new version of the windows client later by right clicking on the DBabble icon in the system tray and choosing upgrade. However, non-administrator users are not informed about new versions for at least 10 minutes (use the setting delay_tell_upgrade to changes this) after the server upgrade to give you a chance to confirm the new version works with your server. The DBabble server automatically ensures that users have compatible versions of the windows client by forcing them to upgrade if necessary (not usually the case), but you can force your users to upgrade their client version using the win_version_required configuration setting.
• During upgrading you will have to choose whether you want your existing web template pages and images replaced with the new ones or not. If you replace them, your old ones will be backed up, and if you choose not to replace them, a copy will be installed within the tpl/Original directory anyway. If you have customized your web pages, then you may want to make appropriate changes to your pages to take advantage of any new features available in the new version. DBabble will automatically generate a list of changes made to our template pages between your previous version and the new version (as long as your previous version was 1.2n or later) and save this list in the file tpl/changes.txt. If you have made your own customized pages, you may want to install the new version on a test machine first and update your template pages before upgrading your live server.
• If you have multiple DBabble servers installed on the same machine, the upgrade process upgrades only the default server. For upgrading your other servers, see upgrading the server when running multiple servers.

Moving to another system

If you need to move your DBabble server installation to another system, then make sure you have a valid license key for the new machine before you move it or you may find it will not work. Contact sales@netwinsite.com with your existing registration details and your new machine name to obtain a replacement license key.
Then you must do the following:

• Windows NT (assuming you have installed to \dbabblesvr and your Windows directory is \winnt)
  1. Stop your existing server (net stop dbabblesvr) from a command prompt.
  2. Copy the files \winnt\dbabblesvr.ini and \winnt\dbabblesvr.exe to the new system.
  3. Copy the directory \dbabblesvr to the new system.
  4. From the command line, type dbabblesvr -addsvc to add DBabble to the Windows service database
  5. Start your new server (net start dbabblesvr) from a command prompt.
• Unix (assuming you installed it to /usr/local/dbabble)
  1. Stop your existing server (/usr/local/dbabble/dbabblesvr_stop)
  2. Copy the file /etc/dbabblesvr.ini to the new system
  3. Copy the directory /usr/local/dbabble to the new system
  4. Start your new server (/usr/local/dbabble/dbabblesvr_start)
  5. Add the line /usr/local/dbabble/dbabblesvr_start to your system startup script. For example on linux /etc/rc.d/rc.local

WARNING: Once you have started the new server and users have connected to it, and you decide you need to shift back to the old server for some reason then you must recopy the entire DBabble server directory from the new machine back to the old machine or messages may go missing.

Problems

If for some reason you are having difficulty installing or getting DBabble to work properly, you can try the following

• Have a look in the error log file. On Windows this is in c:\dbabblesvr\log\error.log and on unix /usr/local/dbabble/log/error.log. This file might mention a something that is wrong that you can fix yourself.
• Windows Only - Try running DBabble from the command line instead of as a service. At a DOS prompt,
  • First make sure the DBabble service is not already running by typing net stop dbabblesvr
  • type cd c:\dbabblesvr
  • type dbabblesvr -go
  • This will start DBabble running from the command line, and it will print error messages if anything goes wrong. Press <Ctrl-c> (or type dbabblesvr -stop in an different DOS window) to stop it, or close the DOS window.
• UNIX only - Try running DBabble without detaching it from the console.
  • type cd /usr/local/dbabble
  • type ./dbabblesvr -stop to make sure it is not already running
  • type ./dbabblesvr -nodetach
  • This will start DBabble running from the command line, and it will print error messages if anything goes wrong. Press <Ctrl-c> (or type ./dbabblesvr -stop in an different window) to stop it.
• If you are still not sure what is wrong, we will be happy to help you. We provide free email support during your trial period and for 12 months after purchasing. Just email us at support-dbabble@netwinsite.com and give a description of what exactly is not working. Please include what system you are using (e.g. "Windows NT 4.0 Service pack 2" or "Linux 6.0"), and what version of DBabble you are using (e.g 2.6e for dbabblesvr26e.exe or dbabblesvr26e_linux_libc6.tar.gz). It is very useful to us if you can send as email attachments the error log and configuration files. (On Windows c:\winnt\dbabblesvr.ini and c:\dbabblesvr\log\error.log) (On Unix /etc/dbabblesvr.ini and /usr/local/dbabble/log/error.log)