Configuring NFS support

You can configure IBM® Rational® Asset Manager to work with a bundled Network File System (NFS) server so that assets on the Rational Asset Manager server are available to an NFS client. In this scenario, assets stored in Rational Asset Manager can be mounted as files on another computer. For example, you could mount a .ear file stored in Rational Asset Manager to install it on another computer. In this scenario, there is no need to download the .ear file and then delete it after installation. Also, less disk space is required on the client computer. Disk space can be a concern when using virtual images in the cloud.

Before you begin

NFS server software is supplied with Rational Asset Manager. The NFS server does not have to run on the same computer where Rational Asset Manager runs.

The Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed on the computer where the NFS server runs must be version 1.6 or higher.
You must have the appropriate JDBC JAR files available on the NFS server for the type of database used by Rational Asset Manager. For example, you need the db2jcc4.jar if the Rational Asset Manager server is using IBM DB2®.
The NFS server must have access to the database and the persist folder used by Rational Asset Manager. To learn more about the persist folder, see Configuring storage.

Procedure

Log in to the Rational Asset Manager web client as a repository administrator.
Click Help.
In the Help drop-down list, click Extensions.
On the Extensions page, in the Rational Asset Manager NFS Server section, click nfsRAMserver.zip to download the NFS server software.
On the computer where you plan to run the NFS server, extract the nfsRamserver.zip file. Extract all of the JAR files in the nfsRamserver.zip file to the same directory.
On the Extensions page, in the Rational Asset Manager NFS Server section, click Go to Tools section to download nfsd.properties file to download the sample nfsd.properties file. The Create NFS server properties file page is displayed.

On the Create NFS server properties file page, specify the following information, and then click Download.

Option	Description
NFS Cache Directory Location	Type the path name of the directory where the NFS server can cache information
Asset Persist Directory Location	Type the path name of the persist folder for Rational Asset Manager.
File Systems to Export	Type the path names of any directories on the NFS server that you want to make available to NFS clients.

Save the NFS server properties file in the same directory where you extracted the nfsRAMserver.zip file. The NFS server properties file is created using the information that you specified and information extracted from Rational Asset Manager.

Optional: Edit the NFS server properties file to change the relationships that are followed when an asset is mounted. For the com.ibm.nfs.export.asset.relationships.follow property, type a comma-separated list of the relationship names.
Optional: Edit the NFS server properties file to change the number of levels of related assets to retrieve. For the com.ibm.nfs.export.asset.relationships.depth property, type an integer, or type -1 to follow an unlimited number of levels of related assets. The default number of levels of related assets to retrieve is 10.
If an NFS server is running on the computer where you plan to run the Rational Asset Manager NFS server, stop the local NFS server. Typically, on most UNIX or Linux operating systems, you type service nfsserver stop on the command line to stop the NFS server. You cannot run the Rational Asset Manager NFS server when other NFS server software is running on the same computer.

Start the Rational Asset Manager NFS server by issuing one of the following commands at a command prompt.

Option	Description
`java_home`\bin\java -jar nfsRAMserver.jar	If the JDBC JAR files have the default names and are in the same directory where you extracted the nfsRAMserver.zip file.
`java_home`\bin\java -jar nfsRAMserver.jar `JDBC_JAR_directory`	If the JDBC JAR files have the default names and are in a different directory from where you extracted the nfsRAMserver.zip file. JDBC_JAR_directory is the fully-qualified path name of the directory containing the JDBC JAR files.
`java_home`\bin\java -jar nfsRAMserver.jar `JDBC_JAR_1` `JDBC_JAR_2` ...	If the JDBC JAR files do not have the default names. JDBC_JAR_1, JDBC_JAR_2, and so on, are the fully-qualified path names of the JDBC JAR files.

You must be logged in with administrator privileges to start the NFS server.

Results

The NFS server starts. Assets on the Rational Asset Manager server are available to NFS clients with the correct security token. Any assets exported from the local filesystem are available to all NFS clients.

Note: NFS access is read-only. You cannot make changes to a mounted asset in Rational Asset Manager from an NFS client. Also, you cannot make changes to file systems exported from the NFS server.

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