This documentation page is part of a legacy method of installing CAST AIP. This documentation is no longer maintained and may contain obsolete information. Refer to Installation and Configuration with AIP Console.
On this page:
Target audience:
CAST AI Administrator
Introduction
Once the CAST schemas have been successfully installed (see previous step: Install CAST AIP schemas) you now need to initialize some settings that are required by the CAST Management Studio. You can do this in two ways:
- Via the CAST Management Studio GUI - this method is best used in small deployments where only a handful of Applications (and therefore a small number of CAST schema triplets) require initialization. This option requires that you open the CAST Management Studio, connect to EACH Management Service and then configure the required settings for each Management Service schema.
- Via the CAST Management Studio CLI - this method is best used in large scale deployments where many dozens of Applications require initialization. This method allows the settings to be configured via a batch script file and therefore does not require that the CAST Management Studio is opened for EACH Management Service schema.
Via the CAST Management Studio GUI
Launch the CAST Management Studio
The CAST Management Studio can be launched as follows:
- Either by selecting the CAST Management Studio shortcut location in the Start menu (created when running the CAST AIP Windows installer)
- Or by navigating to the CAST installation folder and double clicking the CAST-MS.exe application
- The Database Connection Manager will then be displayed:
- During a combined installation process (simultaneous installation of all CAST databases - Analysis/Dashboard/Management/Measurement Services, see Install CAST AIP schemas) CAST Server Manager will automatically create a connection profile to the Management Service (<prefix>_MNGT) you have installed. If you did not install the CAST databases using a combined install option, then no connection profile will be available and you will need to create one by clicking the button and defining the details of the Management Service (<prefix>_MNGT).
- Select the connection profile in the list, and then click Connect.
- The Startup Wizard will then be displayed.
Using the Startup wizard to define the license key and delivery/deployment folders
The Startup wizard guides you through the configuration of various mandatory settings. These settings are vital to the CAST Management Studio and without them you cannot use CAST AIP:
- Click the Next button to start the wizard.
- This page prompts you to enter your CAST license key:
- Enter the license key provided to you by CAST, the license key is now registered and valid for ALL end-user applications. Note that future Licence Key registration and activation can either be handled using the Help > License Key menu in the CAST Management Studio or by running the ConfigurePlatformPreferences CLI option as discussed below.
- Click Next to move to the next page in the wizard:
- In order to function correctly, the CAST Delivery Manager Tool requires various folders that are used to store source code, logs and temporary files. These folders are required - without them, the CAST Management Studio cannot function. The location of each folder is particularly important, in particular, the CAST AIC Portal must also be able to access the Source Code Delivery Folder.
- Source Code Delivery Folder - a central location for storing successive and compressed versions of an application's source code as packaged by the Delivery Manager(s)
- Source Code Deployment Folder - a location used exclusively by the CAST Management Studio to store the most recent version of the application's source code for analysis in uncompressed format
- Logs folder - a location used to store logs of all interaction with the Analysis or Dashboard Services.
- LISA (Large intermediate storage area) / LTSA (Large temporary storage area) - location to store temporary files generated during the analysis process
- By default, the following paths will be preloaded into each field - you are free to leave the paths at their defaults or customize them as required:
Option | Default Paths | Notes |
---|---|---|
Source Delivery | %SystemDrive%\CASTMS\Delivery | You must define the EXACT SAME Delivery Folder location as defined when you installed the CAST AIC Portal (see Installing and configuring the CAST AIC Portal). You can find out more information about the configuration of the Delivery folders in Where should the Delivery folder be located.
|
Source Deployment | %SystemDrive%\CASTMS\Deploy | A storage location that is only accessed by the CAST Management Studio, as such CAST recommends the use of a "local" folder on the CAST Administration workstation (i.e. the machine on which the CAST Management is installed). |
Logs | %PROGRAMDATA%\CAST\CAST\Log | Use this option to define a log directory in which to store logs of all interaction with the Analysis or Dashboard Services. Once defined, the following log files are generated:
Notes
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LISA | %PROGRAMDATA%\CAST\CAST\CASTMS | This option enables you to define a location (i.e. a folder) on your local hard drive that can be designated for use by the CAST Management Studio to store miscellaneous files generated during the analysis process. These files will still exist once the analysis is complete. Once a location is selected using the browse option, a sub-folder called LISA will automatically be created. Generated files will then be stored in the LISA folder. Notes
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LTSA | %PROGRAMDATA%\CAST\CAST\CASTMS | This option enables you to define a location (i.e. a folder) on your local hard drive that can be designated for use by the CAST Management Studio to store temporary files generated during the analysis process. These files will be removed once the analysis is complete. Once a location is selected using the browse option, a sub-folder called LTSA will automatically be created. Generated files will then be stored in the LTSA folder. Notes
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Please note the following additional information:
- The folders defined in the startup wizard are set on a "per Management Service schema basis". This means that the folders should be used only for the Management Service schema that you connect to. If you connect to a different Management Service schema, you will be required to set new folder locations - and these should NOT be set to the same location.
- You must ensure that:
- a different location is used for each folder (i.e. the Delivery folder should not be a sub-folder of the Deployment folder or vice-versa)
- each folder is completely separate from the location used to store your source code - i.e. errors will arise if you configure the Delivery and Deployment folders to be located in sub-folders of a source code storage location
- For custom paths, you can use the following syntax:
- D:\CAST\DELIVERY (folder local to the host machine) - always enter an absolute path. Please DO NOT use a mapped drive path (created using the Windows GUI or the subst Windows command) that points to a folder on the local machine or to a remote network share - doing so can cause an error that will prevent the CAST AIC Portal/CAST Management Studio from functioning.
- \\HOST\CAST\DELIVERY (folder on a remote network share). Note that forward slashes will also function.
- The default paths that are pre-populated into the fields are taken from the CASTGlobalSettings.ini file (a file located at the root of the CAST AIP installation folder - see Appendix - Modifying default CAST data storage locations) - changing the location in the CASTGlobalSettings.ini file will not affect the settings defined in the GUI.
- Make your choice and then click Finish to complete the Startup Wizard.
- The CAST Management Studio will then be displayed.
Via the CAST Management Studio CLI
When using this method, you must repeat the instructions for each Management Service schema that you have installed - however, you can combine the instructions for each Management Service schema in one batch file and then run that batch file to configure all settings on one go. See Automating CAST Management Studio tasks for more information.
To use this method, CAST recommends creating an empty batch file and placing the required commands in the batch file - the batch file can then be executed simply by double clicking it. To execute the action via the command line, you must specify the CAST-MS-CLI.exe executable (rather than the CAST-MS.exe executable). The syntax required is as follows:
CAST-MS-CLI.exe ConfigurePlatformPreferences -connectionProfile "<profile_name>" -licenseKey "<license_key>" -sourceDeliveryFolder "<path_to_delivery_folder>" -sourceDeploymentFolder "<path_to_deployment_folder" -temporaryWorkingPath "<path_to_parent_folder_for_LISA>" -storageWorkingPath "<path_to_parent_folder_for_LTSA>" -logRootPath "<path_to_logs_folder>"
Option | Description |
---|---|
-connectionProfile | Specifies the name of connection profile to use to connect to the chosen CAST Management Service schema. You can obtain this information from the Connection Profile dialog box in the CAST Management Studio - note that Connection Profiles can include white space, in which case, please ensure that you surround the name with quote marks: During a combined installation process (simultaneous installation of all CAST databases - Analysis/Dashboard/Management/Measurement Services, see Install CAST AIP schemas) CAST Server Manager will automatically create a connection profile or profiles to the Management Service(s) (<prefix>_MNGT) you have installed. If you did not install the CAST schemas using a combined install option, then no connection profile will be available and you will need to create one by clicking the button and defining the details of EACH Management Service schema (<prefix>_MNGT) that requires initialization. |
-licenseKey | Enter the license key provided to you by CAST. |
-sourceDeliveryFolder | Enter the location for the Source Code Delivery Folder and Source Code Deployment Folder. Please see the section above for more information about the path syntax that can be used. |
-sourceDeploymentFolder | |
-temporaryWorkingPath | Enter the location for the LISA (Large Intermediate Storage Area). A LISA sub folder will be created in the chosen location. |
-storageWorkingPath | Enter the location for the LTSA (Large Temporary Storage Area). A LTSA sub folder will be created in the chosen location. |
-logRootPath | Enter the location for the Logs folder. An absolute path is required. You can use either back or forward slashes. By default all log files generated by the CAST Management Studio will be date stamped. |
Output codes
The CLI will return two output codes:
- 0 = No error (successful execution)
- 2 = Error exists (for example the license key may be in the wrong format)
Logging
By default (if no logging option is used in the CLI), the CLI will use the following location to store the log file relating to this process:
%TEMP%\CAST\CAST\<version_number>\CAST-MS<number>.log.txt
You can override the default log location using the following syntax enclosing the string in double quotes if it contains white space. The specified folder does not need to exist already:
-logRootPath <string>
Example
The following example updates one Management Service schema with a license key, a Delivery folder path, a Deployment folder path and includes a log file location:
CAST-MS-CLI.exe ConfigurePlatformPreferences -connectionProfile "v830_mngt on CastStorageService _ NEFYN:2280"-licenseKey "xxxxx" -sourceDeliveryFolder "D:\CAST\Delivery" -sourceDeploymentFolder "D:\CAST\Deploy" -storageWorkingPath "D:\CAST\Storage" -temporaryWorkingPath "D:\CAST\Storage" "-logRootPath "C:\CAST\Log"
Notes
- Once the settings have been successfully initialized using the command line interface, opening the CAST Management Studio and connecting to the Management Service in question for the first time will NOT cause the Startup wizard to be displayed.
- It is possible to use the CLI interface to update all settings EXCEPT -sourceDeliveryFolder and -sourceDeploymentFolder once they have already been set either via the Startup wizard or via the CLI.