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Data Center Audit Installation and Setup

  1. Requirements
  2. Definitions
  3. Installation

ADDITIONAL LINKS
Installing the WAMP Web Server on Windows
Installing the XAMPP Web Server on Windows
Installing Microsoft Windows Internet Information Services (IIS) and manually installing PHP and MySQL
Installing on a UNIX/LINUX machine that already has PHP and MySQL installed
Installing Data Center Audit
Operations Guide
Troubleshooting
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Uninstall dca



Requirements
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Data Center Audit (formerly Data Center Audit) is a web based application and is designed to work on any stand alone Windows desktop/laptop or server using a Web Server with PHP and MySQL (such as WAMP or XAMPP). It may also be run on a Linux/UNIX desktop or designated Web Server with Apache Web Server, PHP & MySQL.

PHP is a web scripting language that dca is written in, and MySQL is a database that dca uses to store all data. For more details on each, see http://www.php.net or http://www.mysql.org

WAMP is a free utility that is included with dca. WAMP" stands for Windows Apache Mysql and Php.

XAMPP is also a free utility that is included with dca. It includes Apache Mysql, PHP and Perl.

  • Web Server (Apache, IIS Web Server, etc..)
  • PHP v5+
  • MySQL v5.x+ (*note: Must have a user with database creation permissions)
  • Winzip or another utility that will allow you to unzip the program.

*note: Winzip may be downloaded for free at http://www.winzip.com
Even though you are promted to register, you may use winzip an unlimited amount of times by simply bypassing the messages.
There are other freeware utilities such as Winrar at http://www.winrar.com or IZARC at http://www.izarc.org that work equally as well.




Definitions:
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  • Element - Any host, storage,switch, mvs(mainframe),backup library, or any other machine added to dca

  • Web Server - The machine that hosts your webpage files. The machine that contains your website .html or .php files.

  • Host Name - The name of the machine you are either using right now, or the name of the machine you intend to install dca on.

  • Document Root - The place(directory) on your web server where you place the website file that are shown when you put the URL of your website into your web browser.

  • Web Browser - An application (typically Internet Explorer, Opera, or Mozilla Firefox) that resides on a desktop client machine that is designed to read and interpret the HTML language. After reading the HTML language it displays the results to the screen within the window of the "browser.

  • HTML - HTML Stands for Hypertext Market Language, and is a standard for code that is designed to "serve" pages(information) to your web browser. In essence, there exists a process on the remote machine (known as a "web server") that knows how to read and interpret HTML files and then performs the actions accordingly back to the user in their Web Browser. For example, typical examples in HTML language include displaying text, drawing tables, displaying images, adding colors to the screen.

  • PHP - PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. This means that PHP allows the web designer the ability to execute commands and perform functions that HTML can not. Additionally, PHP may be embedded within PHP so that the viewer of the web page may not simply use the "view source" option of their web browser to see what code the designer created. PHP also allows the web designer the ability to interact with a database, perform more specific and robust form processing, write to files, and many other useful actions.

  • MySQL - MySQL is a database application. It takes data (input) that it is passed, and organizes it into tables and indexes those tables for easy and quick retrieval of the data.

  • MySQL root user - This is the main administrative user account used to create, modify and perform all functions within the MySQL database. there are ways to create alternate users, but that is not described here.

  • WAMP - WAMP is a free Web Server designed to run on Windows that includes the Apache web server, the PHP Scripting Language, and a MySQL Database.

  • XAMPP - XAMPP is another free Web server package designed to run on Windows, Linux, MAC, that includes the Apache web server, the PHP Scripting Language, the PERL scripting language, and a MySQL Database.


Basic Installation:

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To install dca you must FIRST install a Web Server environment on your computer.

This environment must contain

  • A Web Server process such as Apache, IIS, Tomcat/etc
  • PHP
  • MySQL

For ease of install it is recommended you install one of the provided and qualified web server packages (WAMP or XAMPP). However you may choose your existing web server if your web server meets the above requirements.


STEP I

After extracting the ZIP file for dca you should see the following Directories:

STEP II

Click on the SETUP.EXE and you will see the following screen.

 

Press 0 and you will see the following message indicating the documentation is about to launch in your web browser.


 

Next your default browser will launch and you will be displayed the installation instructions so that you can follow along visually with each screen and option.

 

Should you have chosen option 1 then you would go directly to following setup window.

 

The setup window will now display the following.

For advanced users, ONLY. If you already have a Web Server installed on this system that you intend to run dca on, and you have verified that PHP and MySQL are functioning then press option 1.

 

For everyone else, press 0 if this is a NEW installation.

You will then see the following.

 

Here you have the option to select a web server on your computer. If you are unsure then select 0.

They are both equally good web server packages. The FAQ has an explanation of the differences between the two.

 

After selecting an option, The installer for the selected web server will now launch. Click one of the following Links.

Click HERE for visual walk thru instructions for setting up WAMP
Click HERE for visual walk thru instructions for setting up XAMPP

 


 

If you choose to install WAMP and selected 0 you will see the following

 

After pressing y the root password will now be set.

IT IS IMPERATIVE that you NOT TYPE ANYTHING and ONLY PRESS ENTER!!!

Click here to see the next screen

 

 

If you choose to install XAMP and selected select 1 you will see the following.

Press ENTER or y will display the following screen that will display for 2 seconds

 

Next you will see the following which confirms that you have taken a moment to verify that your web server with PHP, is functioning.

 

Press 0 if you have verified your local web server is now working!!.

 

Next you will see the following:

 

Pressing 0 will then display

Now that you have successfully provided an environment for dca to operate,

you will begin the installation of dca.

 

 

 

Click here to view the instructions for installing Data Center Audit