Before Installing the Xinet Software

The Release Notes accompany every major release. Please review this document before installing the Xinet software.

Use the latest Java version

Solr Search indexer and Solr run on a Java Runtime Environment, and therefore require at least Java 1.8 to be installed on the Xinet Server (as of Xinet Version 19.0.2).

Licensing and Hardware IDs

The Xinet hardware ID, a necessary variable to generate a Xinet license string, is based on hardware specific information and will change depending on what hardware changes are done to a particular machine. If VMware is used as a hypervisor with Xinet installed on a guest OS, it is important to keep the MAC address of the network interface consistent. Any RAM or CPU changes or moving of a VM with the Xinet server installed on it, will not affect the Xinet hardware ID.

Background

When a virtual machine is powered on, the VMware application automatically assigns it a MAC address. The software guarantees that virtual machines are assigned unique MAC addresses within a given host system. However, the software does not guarantee that a given virtual machine is assigned the same MAC address every time it is powered on. In addition, the VMware application does its best, but cannot guarantee, to automatically assign unique MAC addresses for virtual machines running on multiple host systems. A conflict may arise, for example, if the virtual network adapters on different physical servers share the same subnet and are assigned the same MAC address.

Avoiding MAC Address Changes

To avoid changes in the MAC address automatically assigned to a virtual machine, you must not move the virtual machine's configuration file. Moving it to a different host computer or even moving it to a different location on the same host computer changes the MAC address.

Note: Customers who require updating their VM configuration file (which will change their hardware ID and make their license invalid), can email operations@northplains.com to request a new license prior to making any changes. Your previous license will be disabled if a new license is requested for the same sales agreement.

Note: To preserve a virtual Ethernet adapter's MAC address, you must be careful not to remove the adapter. If you remove the adapter, then recreate it, the adapter may be assigned a new MAC address.

Manually Assigning a MAC Address

To guarantee that the same MAC address is assigned to a given virtual machine every time, even if the virtual machine is moved, or to guarantee a unique MAC address for each virtual machine within a networked environment, you can assign the address manually instead of allowing VMware Workstation to assign it automatically.

To assign the same, unique MAC address to any virtual machine manually, use a text editor to remove three lines from the configuration file and add one line. The configuration file has a .vmx extension at the end of the filename. On a Linux host, a virtual machine created with an earlier VMware product may have a configuration file with a .cfg extension.

Open the virtual machine's .vmx configuration file with a text editor. The .vmx file is typically located in the directory where you created the virtual machine.

Remove the three lines from the configuration file that begin with:

ethernetN.generatedAddress

ethernetN.addressType

ethernetN.generatedAddressOffset

Add a new static MAC address line to the configuration file with help of the following entries:

ethernetN.address = "00:50:56:XX:YY:ZZ"

ethernetN.addressType = "static"

Save the configuration file

In this example, XX must be a valid hexadecimal number between 00h and 3Fh, and YY and ZZ must be valid hexadecimal numbers between 00h and FFh. VMware Workstation and Fusion virtual machines do not support arbitrary MAC addresses, you must use this format.

As long as you choose a value for XX:YY:ZZ that is unique among your hard-coded addresses, conflicts between the automatically assigned MAC addresses and the manually assigned addresses should never occur.

To change the MAC address to a non-”VMware address (in the case of a P2V where software on the PC is licensed against the original MAC address) add these lines to the .vmx:

ethernetN.addressType = “static”

ethernetN.address = “<address>”

where N is the adapter being changed.

Microsoft Office documents previews

If your site is interested in displaying previews of Microsoft Office documents, you should install LibreOffice.org software before installing the Xinet software. For more information, see About Microsoft Office Previews. (Note that we will not support OpenOffice.org as of Xinet 20.0.)

For users wanting to convert to Xinet from another product:

If you are converting to one of Xinet’s products from a Helios product, an IPT product, or the Columbus AppleTalk Package (CAP), review the information in Conversions from other systems to Xinet products.

Directory Services / Active Directory:

If you are planning to use Directory Services/Active Directory, review Technote 218 before installing the Xinet software. Technotes are available on www.northplains.com/xinet. Log into the AXI Support site and click TECHNOTES.