This post is related to running the File Traverser on a Windows Server. If you are running the File Traverser on a Unix server, follow the directions in the FAST ESP File Traverser Guide.
With the introduction of CTS in FSIS, the File Traverser is no longer the only option to feed file (XML, text, etc…) content to ESP. However, there are plenty of scenarios where the File Traverser is a quick and easy option especially when it comes to testing or feeding files that don’t need to be transformed with CTS or require a mapping stage. Also, if you have a mixed environment with both CTS and the File Traverse being used, then it might make sense to run the File Traverser on the same machine as CTS.
I ran into such a scenario with one of the FSIS environments I was working with. In my scenario, my environment consisted for 3 servers. Two of the servers made up a two node ESP webcluster. The third server has CTS and IMS and is also the location of the content being fed by CTS. This server was also the location of the content being fed by the File Traverser. Therefore it made sense to put the File Traverser on the same machine as CTS instead of creating a share on the CTS serve and having the File Traverser use the share. One of the reasons to avoid the share was to speed up the feeding process since there is latency with feeding content over a network share. Another reason was from a operational perspective, it was logical to place all the feeding processes on the same machine.
The ESP File Traverser Guide has instructions on how to set up the File Traverser to run in stand alone mode which means running it from an non-ESP machine. However, this documentation is lacking some of the key files need to run the File Traverser from a non-ESP machine. After spending a couple of hours doing trial and error hunting around for dlls and other files to support the File Traverser on a non-ESP system, I finally got the File Traverser to run properly. As I mentioned earlier, this information is only relevant for Windows Servers. Specifically, I did this for Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit but I’m sure it will work with other variants of Windows Server.
Perform the following steps in the order specified below. These instructions are based on the fact that the File Traverser is being set up in a the following directory: C:esp. Please make the appropriate changes if you are setting it up in another path.
With the introduction of CTS in FSIS, the File Traverser is no longer the only option to feed file (XML, text, etc…) content to ESP. However, there are plenty of scenarios where the File Traverser is a quick and easy option especially when it comes to testing or feeding files that don’t need to be transformed with CTS or require a mapping stage. Also, if you have a mixed environment with both CTS and the File Traverse being used, then it might make sense to run the File Traverser on the same machine as CTS.
I ran into such a scenario with one of the FSIS environments I was working with. In my scenario, my environment consisted for 3 servers. Two of the servers made up a two node ESP webcluster. The third server has CTS and IMS and is also the location of the content being fed by CTS. This server was also the location of the content being fed by the File Traverser. Therefore it made sense to put the File Traverser on the same machine as CTS instead of creating a share on the CTS serve and having the File Traverser use the share. One of the reasons to avoid the share was to speed up the feeding process since there is latency with feeding content over a network share. Another reason was from a operational perspective, it was logical to place all the feeding processes on the same machine.
The ESP File Traverser Guide has instructions on how to set up the File Traverser to run in stand alone mode which means running it from an non-ESP machine. However, this documentation is lacking some of the key files need to run the File Traverser from a non-ESP machine. After spending a couple of hours doing trial and error hunting around for dlls and other files to support the File Traverser on a non-ESP system, I finally got the File Traverser to run properly. As I mentioned earlier, this information is only relevant for Windows Servers. Specifically, I did this for Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit but I’m sure it will work with other variants of Windows Server.
Perform the following steps in the order specified below. These instructions are based on the fact that the File Traverser is being set up in a the following directory: C:esp. Please make the appropriate changes if you are setting it up in another path.
- Follow the instructions in the ESP File Traverser Guide for File Traversing in Stand Alone Mode for Windows.
- Check if the stand alone machine has the following 2 files in the C:WindowsSysWOW64 directory. If either of these files are missing, copy the files from the ESP Admin Node server to the stand alone server.
- msvcp71.dll
- msvcr71.dll
- Copy the following files from the C:espbin directory on the ESP Admin Node server to the stand alone server.
- libeay32.dll
- pywintypes23.dll
- ssleay32.dll
- Copy the following files from the C:esplib directory on the ESP Admin Node server to the stand alone server.
- iconv.dll
- gigabase.dll
That should be it. The files I’ve listed above are the ones that should be included in the ESP File Traverser Guide but for some reason its not. If you follow the directions in the ESP File Traverser Guide and then add the files above, you should be all set to run the File Traverser from a non-ESP server. The ESP File Traverser Guide also mentions copying the license file which is the fastsearch.lic file located in the C:espetc directory on the ESP Admin Node server.
If you have any questions regarding this blog post, please feel free to email me at at rem@pointbridge.com. I welcome feedback on this content and also greatly appreciate suggestions for grammatical and/or spelling errors.
