Chapter 1: Introduction >

1.1 Overview

Welcome to the AcuServer® file server, a client/server technology that provides remote file access services to ACUCOBOL-GT® applications running on UNIX and Windows TCP/IP based networks. AcuServer is part of the extend® family of Acucorp® solutions.

With AcuServer, your applications gain:

the ability to create and store data files on any UNIX, Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows 2003 server equipped with AcuServer
full function remote access from UNIX, and Windows clients to all Vision, relative, sequential and object files stored on an AcuServer server
full record locking support of all Vision and relative files
transparent access of remote and local files

AcuServer does not require any changes to your existing application code. (Some applications that contain hard coded paths to files must be modified to use the FILE_PREFIX or CODE_PREFIX environment variable, or to include the name of the file server in the path. A discussion of name strategies is included in section 7.2, "Accessing Remote Files.")

AcuServer does not require that you recompile your existing programs. Programs compiled with any version of ACUCOBOL-GT can be executed by any later version of the ACUCOBOL-GT. ACUCOBOL-GT runtimes are available for most UNIX and Windows platforms. Contact your Acucorp customer service representative for a current list of supported platforms.

AcuServer can be combined with other Acucorp technologies to provide access to data in networked, client/server, and distributed computing environments. It can be used with the ACUCOBOL-GT Web Runtime to provide access to data over the World Wide Web (with permission). It can be used with ACUCOBOL-GT's CGI technologies to provide Internet access to data through an HTML front end. And it can be combined with AcuConnect® to facilitate file distribution and optimize network performance in a distributed computing setting.

Pictured below is a simple AcuServer network. ACUCOBOL-GT applications running on UNIX and Windows client systems access and store data files on a common UNIX, Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows 2003 file server running AcuServer. More complex networks might incorporate multiple AcuServer file servers supporting dozens of client machines running multiple applications.

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Note: Your AcuServer version number and your ACUCOBOL-GT runtime version number should match. Programs compiled with earlier versions of ACUCOBOL-GT can be executed, provided that the version of ACUCOBOL-GT runtime and AcuServer are the same.

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Unless otherwise indicated, the references to "Windows" in this manual denote the following 32-bit versions of the Windows operating systems: Windows 98, ME, and XP; Windows NT 4.0 or later; Windows 2000 and 2003. In those instances where it is necessary to make a distinction among the individual versions of those operating systems, we refer to them by their specific version numbers ("Windows 2000", "Windows NT 4.0", etc.).