Setup

Remote clients establish a connection to a dedicated server via a web browser. When a connection has been established, the server talks to the OSA over GPIB, and retrieves the necessary data to send back to its remote clients.

This document outlines the different software components that you will need to set up this scenario. All the necessary Web Enabled software is installed on the Server PC. No Web Enabled installation is needed on the client PC because this is done transparently through your web browser.

Server PC

PC Requirements

The server PC supported by Agilent Technologies for this product is a personal computer that must meet the following requirements:

Desktop computer running Windows NT 4.0 (or later) with service pack 6 (or later), or
Desktop or laptop computer running Windows 2000 (any version), not Windows NT.

· 180 MHz Pentium II CPU or better.

128 MB of RAM or more
20 MB of free disk space or more

Additional Requirements

The Web Enabled OSA software includes an installation program, “setup.exe”, that installs it properly onto a PC. However, the Web Enabled OSA server is not operational unless that PC also has:

· A working connection to a Local Area Network (LAN), with TCP/IP installed and configured such that it can “ping” all required clients (check with your system administrator if you are unsure if this requirement is met).

· Web Server. Must be any of the following: Apache, Personal Web Server, IIS.

· GPIB I/O hardware and software to allow connection to the spectrum analyzer. Must be either Agilent or National Instruments.

· “wjview.exe”, an application that normally comes with Internet Explorer 5.0 (and later versions) that provides an environment for running Java programs on a PC.

This document provides instructions on how to acquire, install, and configure software that is required to set up a working “server” PC that is available for connection to client browsers for remote control and display of Agilent spectrum analyzer measurements.

Terms, Names of Components

In this document, we will refer to various components that must be installed on your server PC. This section defines the names of these components and terms used in this document. Refer to Figure 1 and Figure 2, block diagrams showing these components and how they are related to each other.

Figure 1:

Local Area Network (LAN): the network connecting the computers and network devices (such as printers or Internet proxy servers) together in your organization. In many larger organizations, a “firewall” protects computers on the LAN from unauthorized access by computers on the Internet.

Server PC: the Windows NT or Windows 2000 computer that connects your spectrum analyzer(s) to your Local Area Network so that browsers can remotely control and view measurements from those spectrum analyzer(s).

Server software: all the components that are installed on a computer to make it a Server PC.

Web server: software (either from Apache or Microsoft) that serves web pages to browsers.

Client computer: a computer on the Local Area Network (LAN) that is able to make a network connection to the Server PC.

Browser: a program that runs on a client computer (either Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator) that is capable of displaying web pages from a web server and running a Java applet.

Client user: the operator or user of a browser on a client computer.

Java applet: a java program that runs in a browser on a client computer. In our case, a special applet, installed with the server software components from Agilent Technologies, runs in a local or remote browser, and provides remote control and viewing of measurements from your Web Enabled spectrum analyzer(s).

GPIB: the General Purpose Interface Bus, an I/O connection from a computer to an instrument that conforms to the IEEE 488.2 interconnection standard.

GPIB card: add-on interface hardware for a computer. Agilent Technologies provides PCI GPIB interface cards for PC’s, as does National Instruments. ComputerBoards provides PCMCIA GPIB interface cards for laptop computers, as does National Instruments.

GPIB card driver: the software that allows a computer to communicate with a GPIB card that has been installed on that computer. The GPIB card driver software is provided with the GPIB card by its vendor.

I/O libraries: the software that allows various computer programs to communicate with GPIB card drivers from various vendors. The I/O libraries provide a uniform interface to programs so that they do not have to be concerned with the proprietary differences between GPIB cards and their drivers. The I/O libraries are provided with the GPIB card by the vendor, and are normally installed at the same time as the GPIB card driver.

Network Interface Card (NIC): the hardware that connects a computer to a Local Area Network (LAN).

NIC driver: the software that allows a computer to communicate with a NIC. This driver is provided with the NIC by its vendor.

TCP/IP: the low-level network protocol used by browsers to connect to web servers and most other systems on a LAN or the Internet. You must have a working NIC and TCP/IP “stack” on your server and all your clients as a prerequisite to setting up a Web Enabled system.

Figure 2:

Remote Method Invocation (RMI): is the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) mechanism used by Java (and by our Java applet) to get or send information to the server over the LAN. The installation of the server components from Agilent Technologies (from this package) installs RMI on your server. On a client computer, RMI is built into Netscape while RMI is dynamically installed on your PC if you use Internet Explorer.

Instrument server: the software component provided in this product by Agilent Technologies and installed from this package that gets trace data from a particular instrument and sends it to client applets. The Instrument Server also synchronizes requests from clients so that they do not interfere with each other. There is actually one Instrument Server instantiated for each instrument being web-enabled -- this one product you are installing creates these, as needed, as clients connect to different instruments.

Wjview: a Windows program that provides an environment in which a Java program can run (such as our Instrument Server). When you click “Start Server” in the Agilent | Web Enabled OSA program group, you are starting a program (the Client Manager Server) that runs within the wjview environment and listens for clients requesting connections to an Instrument Server through port 1099. When the first client requests to connect to an instrument, this Client Manager Server starts a new Instrument Server that is dedicated to web-enabling that instrument until all clients finish using that instrument and disconnect

Understanding Components’ Roles

You may skip this section, or come back later if you are interested, since understanding the components’ roles are not essential to using the product. However, this understanding is invaluable to troubleshoot problems you may have, so reading this section is highly recommended if you are responsible for administering this system.

See Figure 2 for an overview of how a client and server converse to set up a running applet that provides the Web Enabled instrument functionality.

Server Software Installation and Setup

There are some tasks you should perform before installing the server software components from Agilent Technologies on your server PC. While most of these components can be installed in any order, many build on others so following the order listed here will help you check for proper installation as you go along.

In this section, you will find the steps to successfully install all the components necessary to get your product installed and running on your server.

1. Site your spectrum analyzer and establish its GPIB address. Refer to the section Instrument Siting for more information.

2. Install and configure a GPIB connection between your server PC and the spectrum analyzer. Refer to I/O Hardware for more information.

3. Install and configure the software drivers for the GPIB interface card used in the previous step. Refer to I/O Software for more information.

4. Install and configure a web server. Apache for Windows NT/2000 has been provided with your installation CD for your convenience. Refer to Web Server for more information.

5. Install and configure the Web Enabled Spectrum Analyzer software. Refer to Instrument Server for more information.

Instrument Siting

Procure your spectrum analyzer that you intend to use with this product. It must have a GPIB interface to be used with this product.

If you are using a direct GPIB connection, the spectrum analyzer must be located within 4 meters of your server PC. Connect a GPIB cable to the GPIB interface on the spectrum analyzer, making sure to tighten the screws snugly so that you have a good connection.

If you are using an Agilent E2050A LAN/GPIB portal, the spectrum analyzer must be located within 4 meters of this portal, and the portal must be connected to a Local Area Network (LAN) through which the server PC can connect to it. Connect a GPIB cable to the GPIB interface on the spectrum analyzer, making sure to tighten the screws snugly so that you have a good connection.

Power up your spectrum analyzer. If you do not already know what GPIB address this instrument has (spectrum analyzers are “23” by default), you may check this by pressing the System then Remote Setup buttons on the front panel of the spectrum analyzer, and make a note of the GPIB address on the instrument’s screen.

I/O Hardware

This product requires a GPIB connection to the spectrum analyzer, whether provided by a direct GPIB connection (through a GPIB cable from the server PC to the spectrum analyzer) or provided by a LAN-GPIB connection (through an Agilent E2050A portal).

If you need to physically locate your spectrum analyzer at some distance (greater than 4 meters, the longest supported Agilent GPIB cable), you will need to use an Agilent E2050A portal or a National Instruments ENET box. Note that your system performance is likely to be less than with a direct connection. Follow the installation and operation instructions that come with your E2050A portal to connect the server PC to the spectrum analyzer. Use the “allow” command to allow only your server PC to make a connection to the spectrum analyzer and avoid conflicts from any other PC that might connect to it.

To connect a desktop PC via a direct GPIB connection, you may use either the Agilent 82350A PCI GPIB Interface card, or a National Instruments PCI-GPIB Interface card. Note that “Control Panel” and/or National Instruments’ “GPIB Explorer” will likely label the card as “PCI-GPIB+”.

To connect a laptop (Windows 2000 only) PC via a direct GPIB connection, you may use either the ComputerBoards PCM-GPIB PCMCIA interface card, or National Instruments’ PCMCIA-GPIB for Windows 2000 interface card.

Follow the installation and operation instructions that come with your interface card, and connect the card using a GPIB cable to the spectrum analyzer.

I/O Software

Depending on whether you have installed I/O hardware from Agilent or some other vendor, choose the appropriate next step. During this process, you should have assigned virtual I/O “handles”, like GPIB0, to your GPIB card(s) and/or portals. GPIB0 is normally the first GPIB interface configured, additional ones would be GPIB1, GPIB2, and so on. Remember which GPIB is which; you’ll need this information to configure the server later on.

· If you have installed an Agilent GPIB interface or E2050A portal, you should now have a blue “IO” icon in the lower-right corner of your screen, near the clock display, signifying that you have installed the Agilent I/O Libraries. If you do not have the Agilent I/O libraries, you may download and install them from http://www.agilent.com/find/iolib_support. Alternately, you can install the Agilent I/O Libraries from the installation CD in the Files/IO Libs folder. To open the CD right click on the CD drive containing the installation CD and select “open” from the context menu.

When you see that you have the blue “IO” icon, click it then click “About Agilent IO Libraries Control” and verify that the version is J.00.00 or newer. Click “OK” to close the version dialog, then click the blue “IO” again and click “Run Visa Assistant” to test your connection to your spectrum analyzer.

After searching for all connected instruments, it will show you which instruments are connected to GPIB0, GPIB1, and so on. The “::18” (or some other numbers preceded by “::”) part refers to the GPIB address of the instrument on that GPIB interface.

Click on the one you want to test, and then click the Formatted I/O tab and the IEEE 488.2 radio button in that tab. You may enter any queries you wish into the “Enter String to Print or Query” box, then clicking “viQueryf”. In this case, simply click on the *IDN? button to query the instrument’s ID string. When it returns with a string that resembles the instrument you expect, you can be assured that you have configured your instrument to be properly connected to a GPIB handle.

· If you have installed an NI GPIB card in your desktop server PC, or a ComputerBoards GPIB PCM card in your laptop, use the software that was installed with that GPIB card to verify that you have a connection to your desired instrument.

Web Server

You must have a running web server to run this product. You must install a web server BEFORE you install your server software from Agilent Technologies.

The web servers that are supported are:

· Apache for Windows NT/2000. This free web server is preferred because it has no (known) limits on the number of simultaneous client connections that it will allow. You can download it from the Apache web site at: http://httpd.apache.org/, or install the version provided on the installation CD in the Files/Apache folder. To open the CD right click on the CD drive containing the installation CD and select “open” from the context menu. Once it is installed, click “Start Apache” then “Install service” in the Apache Web Server program group (Start menu -> Programs -> Apache Web Server). By selecting “Install service”, Apache will start up automatically each time you reboot your computer.

· Microsoft’s Personal Web Server (PWS) for Windows NT or Internet Information Services (IIS) on Windows 2000. Both limit the number of clients to about 4 or 5 (it’s not necessarily always the same).

The PWS is part of the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack for Windows NT 4.0. The installation of the Option Pack includes an installation of the PWS.

The web server included in Windows 2000 is called the IIS, but it has the same client limitation. To ensure that it is installed, click “Add/Remove Programs” in the Control Panel, select the Windows Setup tab, scroll down to Internet Information Services, and verify that the checkbox next to this item has a check mark in it. If it is blank, click it then click Next to begin the installation process.

The control GUI for the PWS or IIS is the Personal Web Manager, which shows up under the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack/Personal Web Server program group on NT. The Personal Web Manager on Windows 2000 is found under Start | Control Panel | Administrative Tools.

Test your web server by starting a browser and go to the URL

“http://<your fully qualified server computer’s network name or IP address>”.

For example, if your computer is named “myserver.mycompany.com”, go to “http://myserver.mycompany.com”. You should see some default web page from your web server; if you get error 404 or any other indication that the page is not found, make sure that the web server is running and started as a service by looking at “Services” under “Control Panel” (Windows NT) or under “Control Panel” | “Administrative Tools”. If it is not “Started”, right-click the item (Apache or IIS Admin Service), click “Properties”, and set “Startup type” to “Automatic”. Reboot and retest to make sure your web server is running. Since it is now configured as a service that automatically starts up, it should always be running even after a reboot.

Instrument Server

Run “setup.exe” from your product CD, or run the self-extracting installation package from the Agilent download site. Follow the instructions to install the product. If you have any deficits in previously installed software that the instrument server depends upon, the installation will stop and notify you what component(s) you need. You may choose a location in which to install the program files (or accept the default). The installation needs to know the path to the directory on your system under which any web files (html files, images, etc.) will be shared. This is referred to as your “web root” directory. If PWS or IIS is found on your system, this web root location will be defaulted to “C:\inetpub\wwwroot”. If Apache is found to be your web server, this web root location will be defaulted to “C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\htdocs”. You should NOT change this unless you need to configure an additional “virtual” or served directory in your web server.

After the instrument server is successfully installed, a new program group is created from which you can start it.

Java Virtual Machine

In some cases, the setup may detect an insufficient JVM. This is because to run the Web Enabled software, you must have a working version of the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

Windows 2000 comes with the JVM, so if you are using Windows 2000, JVM came installed on your PC when you purchased it therefore you can skip the rest of this section. However, if you are using Windows NT or have upgraded to Windows 2000 from Windows NT, you must insure that the JVM is properly installed. To do this, search your hard drive for the file “wjview.exe” (it is usually in the “c:\winnt\system32” folder). If this file is not present on your hard drive, then you must install the JVM. If you do find the file “wjview.exe”, you must make sure it meets the version number requirement. To do this, right click on the file, and select “Properties” from the context menu. Click on the “Version” tab and look at the number to the right of “File Version:”. This number should be 5.0.3229.0 or higher. If the version number is not high enough, you should upgrade the JVM to a more recent version.

The JVM can be downloaded from Microsoft’s web site (http://www.microsoft.com) or can be installed from the installation CD in the Files/MS JVM folder. To open the CD right click on the CD drive containing the installation CD and select “open” from the context menu.

Running the Server

To run the server, navigate to the appropriate program group; go to the start menu:

(Programs | Agilent | Web Enabled OSA), and select “start server”

This will launch a server console, and a dialog will pop up with a GPIB address. Enter the GPIB address of the instrument in the specified field. If you do not know the instruments GPIB address, go here for instructions.

Your server is ready to go. You are now ready to test your server (see next section)

Test Using the Applet

Run a browser on your server PC. Enter http://<server PC name>[/<instrument webpage directory>]/default.htm into the Address line (on Internet Explorer) or Location line (on Netscape Navigator), where <server PC name> is the name or IP address of your server PC, as configured by your network administrator, and where [/<instrument web page directory>] is the name of the subdirectory you chose during the Instrument server installation. The default subdirectory is “WebOSA”. For example, if your server PC’s network name is “mycomputer.mycompany.com” and you use the default subdirectory for the instrument’s web page, enter: “http://mycomputer.mycompany.com/WebOSA/default.htm”.

Note: if you are using an Apache web server, or configured your PWS/IIS web server to use “default.htm” as the default web page (as described in the previous Web server installation section), you may leave off the “/default.htm” from the end of the address or location.

The browser should return a web page much like this:

Click on the “Remote Control” button to start your connection.

In order for a browser to run a java application, it needs Sun’s java plugin. If you do not have this plugin, the browser will route you to a location where you can download it. If you are using Internet Explorer, it will automatically run the setup. Otherwise, you need to download and install the plugin manually.

Once your plugin is installed, and you attempt to connect again, you will see the following dialog:

Click “Grant always” (recommended) or “Grant this session” if you trust that the applet supplied by Agilent Technologies is safe (you must accept this certificate to run the applet). If you click “Grant this session”, this dialog will appear each time you access this page. If you click “Grant always”, you will not see this dialog again.

After a somewhat longer period of loading the applet, you should see a display similar to the following picture, which strongly resembles the display on the screen of a spectrum analyzer.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed your Web Enabled spectrum analyzer product!

Client PC

Client PC Minimum Requirements

The client PC supported by Agilent Technologies for this product is a personal computer that must meet the following requirements:

Windows 95/98/Me/2000/NT 4.0 or better.
Pentium II CPU( or equivalent ) or better.
has a working connection to a Local Area Network (LAN), with TCP/IP installed and configured such that it can “ping” all required servers (check with your system administrator if you are unsure if this requirement is met). Note that neither “ping” nor a browser can connect to a server that is inside an organization’s “firewall” if that client PC is not also inside the same “firewall”.
has at least a 15” monitor capable of greater than 256 colors, and display resolution of at least 1024 x 768 pixels.
has either Internet Explorer 4.0 with Service Pack 2 (or better) or Netscape Navigator 4.76 (or better) installed and working. Netscape 6.0 and greater is also supported.

Note: if you are installing Netscape Navigator 6.X, and have difficulty installing the Java plug-in, try these hints provided by Netscape:

Keep in mind that the Java plug-in is 7.6Mb and it will take you approximately 37 minutes to download on a 28.8 modem.

If you are encountering problems downloading, try these other download sites to download the Java plug-in:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3.0_01/jre/index.html

For Windows:

ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/netscape6/english/6.0/windows/win32/smartupdate/jre13i.exe

For Linux:

ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/netscape6/english/6.0/unix/linux22/xpi/jre.xpi

Please direct further requests for assistance to the following URL:

http://help.netscape.com/

Agilent Technologies has qualified how well the applet runs on non-PC computers, such as HP-UX, Solaris, Linux, or Macintosh. While Agilent Technologies CANNOT provide technical support for problems you may have running the applet on these computers, you may find that the applet runs acceptably well in Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer on these computers.

Follow the steps shown in the “Test Using the Applet” section to connect your client(s) to the Web Enabled spectrum analyzer server.

Using the Server as a Client

As you may have noticed, a browser running on your server PC can use the server in the same way as any remote client. This may be useful to troubleshoot your system, or to simply operate your Web Enabled spectrum analyzer while you collaborate with another client who is connecting remotely. For optimum performance, do not leave the local browser running as a client of your Web Enabled spectrum analyzer unless you are using it, as it consumes CPU bandwidth and other system resources on your server PC and could slow down your instrument server a modest amount.

Troubleshooting and Installation FAQ

At the end of the setup, a window should come up with a checklist of things to do. It is important to read and follow the checklist in order to get you Web Enabled server running properly. The Web Enabled Server software relies on the following:

1) GPIB hardware and software

2) Web server( Apache, IIS, or PWS )

It is important to get those pieces working independently before you start the Web Enabled software. The following section describes some common pitfalls that may encounter you.

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I can’t connect to the initial web page.

This usually means there is something wrong with your web server setup. It could be any of the following problems.

· Your web server has not started. You may have to manually start the web server through the appropriate program group in the start menu. Consult you web server documentation for more details. It is a good idea to configure your web server to start up automatically when your computer starts. For more details, see the web server portion of this document.

· Incorrect URL. It is possible that the URL was incorrectly reported by the setup package. You may have to qualify your machine name with the specific domain. You can also try to replace the hostname with the IP address. You can find out your IP address by opening a dos command prompt, and entering “ipconfig”. The web server section and the Test using applet section of this document discusses this issue further.

· The Web Enabled web files are not in a subdirectory of your web server’s root directory. Every web server has a root directory, and every subdirectory can be accessed through a browser. If the Web Enabled web files were inadvertently moved outside of the root directory path, than they will no longer be accessible. For more details, see the web server portion of this document.

My Web Enabled OSA server cannot connect to the instrument.

One of the following could be the problem:

· Check GPIB address. When you start the Web Enabled server, it should prompt you for the GPIB address of the instrument. Be sure that you correctly specified the GPIB address of the instrument.

· Problem with underlying GPIB software or hardware. Make sure that all your GPIB cables are connected properly. Also verify that your GPIB software is working correctly. Both National Instruments and Agilent Technologies should provide a mechanism for testing communication with an instrument.

I want to use a different web server besides Apache or IIS.

If you want to use an unsupported web server, everything should still work properly. Unfortunately, the setup program will not let you install unless you have Apache, IIS, or PWS installed. It is best to install one of these web servers in order to proceed with the Web Enabled software installation. Then after installation is complete, copy the web files( specified during installation ) into a subdirectory of the your unsupported web server’s root path.

Maintenance

You should have no difficulty running your server software if you choose to upgrade your server PC from Windows NT to Windows 2000, or install newer service packs. However, Agilent Technologies has not been able to test configurations with service packs newer than were available when this product was released (Service Pack 6a for Windows NT or Service Pack 1 for Windows 2000), so your ability to run this software on newer configurations is not guaranteed. When you upgrade from Windows NT to Windows 2000, you should first uninstall the server software then reinstall it after you have Windows 2000 installed and have met the minimum server PC requirements.

Upgrades

In the future, Agilent Technologies may release a newer version of this product. It is recommended that you uninstall this version of the software from your server PC before you install the newer version. Follow the installation instructions for the new release carefully.

Uninstallation

Before uninstalling this product make sure that you are not running the server, and that there are no clients connected to the applet or web pages. To uninstall this product from your server PC, run the “Uninstall” program from the “Agilent” | “Web Enabled OSA” program group (this is the same program group where you find “Start Server”). No uninstallation is necessary or available for the clients.