Installing and using the SAN Volume Controller Information Center

This document describes how to install and use the Information Center and the PDFs that the SAN Volume Controller installation program creates on your hard drive. This document describes using both the web installer and the DVD-based installer program. The first few steps are for using the web installer only.

1. Web-installer only: Click the web installation program for SAN Volume Controller to open a download panel.
   
2. Web-installer only: Locate the File Download panel if it opens behind your other windows, then click Run or Save.
   

   Tip for Mozilla users: You will likely have to download the file and then click it in the download list that Mozilla maintains, to continue the rest of the installation. Internet Explorer provides the Run option, but still waits for the file to download before initiating the rest of the installation.
   You can save the code, or click Run to get started installing the SAN Volume Controller Information Center. After verifying the publisher, a download panel is displayed.

   
3. DVD-installer only: When installing from the DVD, a command window opens, where you must click within the command window and press a key to start the installer:
   
4. Read and accept the license terms to continue, then click Next.
   
5. When the Installation utility opens, click Next to continue.
   
6. Choose an installation location; then click Next.
   
7. Review the selections you have made, then click Install.
   

   The SAN Volume Controller Information Center requires approximately 1.1 GB of free space that unpacks to 1.1 GB of data on your hard disk. The space used is primarily for the IBM User Interface Help System built on Eclipse 3.4.3, but also includes translations of previous version Information Centers and eLearning.

8. As the installation proceeds, you can see it install various components of the Information Center, as well as the PDFs.
   

   A progress bar at the bottom of the window indicates the progress of the installation. The PDFs are installed in the PDFs folder in the installation root directory.

   An uninstall program is created and provided as a menu selection on the Start menu. The InstallAnywhere program names the uninstaller "Change SAN Volume Controller 6.2.0 IC installation.exe". The uninstaller is the last component to install.

   A successful completion panel is displayed after all the code is installed.

   
9. Click Done on the Installation Program window to close the program.
10. Click Start > All programs > SAN Volume Controller 6.2.0 IC to access the options.
11. Verify that the installation is complete by viewing the Information Center entries in the Start menu list of programs.
    The Start menu has options for SAN Volume Controller 6.2.0 IC to perform the tasks shown in the following illustration:

    
    Two ways of accessing the SAN Volume Controller Information Center exist:

    • Stand-alone mode which is ideal for a laptop and personal use, opening an Information Center automatically.
    • Information center mode, which is referred to as shared mode in this document and in the Start menu, does not open an Information Center automatically. You must open a browser window to point to its URL.

    Information Center mode is ideal for a server that everyone in a company might access. The SAN Volume Controller Information Center has more information about each mode.

    Stand-alone mode opens the SAN Volume Controller Information Center automatically in a browser window by using a loopback port and web address.

    Access the shared-mode Information Center by entering the web address of the Information Center into a browser window. The default for the SAN Volume Controller Information Center is this address:

    http://server_name_or_IP:9999/help/index.jsp

    The port is 9999, which a later step shows how to change, if necessary.

    You can view the PDFs directly without going through the Start menu by changing directories to the PDFs directory in the installation root directory and clicking the start.html file.

    The page that opens when you select to view a PDF is a simple HTML page that is not part of the Information Center. Simply close the page when you are done.

    
12. You can start the Information Center immediately on port 9999, or you can change the port to a port that works for your workstation.

    To change the port, open the installation_root_directory\SAN Volume Controller 6.2.0 IC\svcic\IC_start.bat file in a flat-file editor, and change 9999 to the port of your choice, then save and close the file.

    
13. Double-click the IC_start.bat command file directly to start the SAN Volume Controller Information Center, or select to start the shared Information Center from the Start menu.

    To stop the Information Center, double-click the IC_end.bat command file directly or select to stop the shared Information Center from the Start menu.

    Anyone who can access the server or workstation by its IP address or fully qualified DNS name can access the Information Center at the http://server_name_or_IP:9999/help/index.jsp web address.

14. If you changed the port number, access the information center using the following information from the IBM User Interface Help System built on Eclipse 3.4.3:
    1. Open the browser in which you want to run the information center.
    2. Enter the following syntax as the web address:

       http://server_name_where_you_installed:port/help

       For example, if you installed the Information Center on server_abc, using port 3737, your web address is: http://server_abc:3737/help

    3. After typing the web address in the browser, press Enter to access the Information Center.
15. After the Information Center starts, you can find more information about stopping, starting, and using the Information Center in the information container that is labeled IBM User Interface Help System 3.4.3 Documentation.
    
    This set of topics describes these items:

    • Starting and stopping the help system in stand-alone mode, which is how you might do it when you want to run the Information Center just for yourself
    • Starting and stopping the help system in information-center mode, which is how you do it on a server that you want many people to be able to access
    • Navigating in the help system
    • Searching in the help system
    • Printing in the help system
    • Accessibility and keyboard shortcuts in the help system
    • Troubleshooting, although some of the topics are for an IBM service representative
    • Building your help system, in case you want to use open source DITA or HTML to add your own documentation plug-in to the Information Center
16. As someone accesses a shared Information Center instance for the first time, the command window shows Eclipse loading the TOC XML files, and the Information Center is displayed in the user's browser.
    

    The IBM User Interface Help System runs under an Eclipse javaw instance. When you stop the shared Information Center, the Eclipse instance is ended. Sometimes, Eclipse leaves a javaw instance running after you end it from the Start menu.

    Troubleshoting tip: If you stop an Information Center instance, then later, cannot start the Information Center in a new instance, the reason is probably that the original javaw instance never ended.

    If you have a stubborn javaw instance, open the Task Manager with Ctrl-Alt-Del to view processes. Sort them alphabetically and select a javaw instance to stop. Unfortunately, there is no way to determine which javaw instance to end. You can always restart any Java programs that you inadvertently shut down.

    
17. Uninstall the Information Center by clicking Uninstall the Information Center from the Start menu, if necessary, such as before installing the Information Center in a new location.