README for Win32 users
----------------------

The Big Sister package is fully supported on
NT platforms too. 


Installation
------------

The easiest way for installing is to get one
of the pre-installed packages from 
http://bigsister.graeff.com.

An alternative way to install Big Sister on a Win32
box is to first install it on a Unix box, then to
copy the whole Big Sister directories over to the 
Win32 box.

An InstallShield setup is planned but not done
yet ...

NOTE: do not forget you (probably) still need the
      SNMP perl libraries (see README) and the
      Net::SMTP package provided that you have not
      got the binary release installed.



Installation as an NT service
-----------------------------

Of course you will want to run Big Sister in 
background on NT boxes too. Unfortunately this is
not as simple as on Unix boxes ... You will need
InstSrv/SrvAny (NT Resource Kit), AutoexNT (freeware)
or Invoker. The prefered package is Microsoft's
InstSrv/SrvAny. Place the two binaries - you can find
them in the NT Resource Kit either on CD or directly
from http://www.microsoft.com - somewhere in
a directory in your path. Then run bin/install32 and
Big Sister will install as a service. After running
install32 you will have to reboot (well, if you do
not mind your services names looking strange in the
Control Panel then you do not need a reboot), go to
the Control Panel, choose "Services", find your Big
Sister services and set appropriate start options.
That's all I hope ...

If you would like to use another tool than SrvAny you
will have to setup your services yourself. Note that
Big Sister will not work with Idetix Invoker.

Provided you have installed the binary distribution
>0.34 the path is not (too) hard coded in the binaries
any more: Double clicking install32.exe will make
Big Sister work even if not installed in the default
directory.



Running Big Sister
------------------

NOTE: you do not need to install Perl if you have got
      the binary Big Sister release

NOTE: Please get the latest ActivePerl release for 
      Win32. Some other versions did not implement
      the socketioctl() call Big Sister absolutely
      needs ...

NOTE: The perl command must be in your path or bbd
      won't be able to update your Web-Pages.

Provided that Big Sister is installed in C:\bigsis you
can run Big Sister by invoking (in a command window):

	c:
	cd \bigsis
	perl bin/bb_start32

You are strongly encouraged to register Big Sister as
NT services.

NOTE: On win32 platforms bb_event_generator will need the Net::SMTP
      package to send alarm mails. Implicitly this means you need an
      SMTP server somewhere (use mailhost=hostname in bb_event_generator.cfg).
      MAPI is not supported yet (but will be).



Stopping Big Sister
-------------------

Out of the task manager kill off the running 'Perl'
tasks (okay, I will implement a "bb_start32 stop"
command soon) or - if installed as services - go to
the Control Panel / Services, find the appropriate
service and click on the 'Stop' button.



Checking NT systems
-------------------

Many checks are now reported to work on NT systems too. They
include:

	EventLog:		eventlog
	Performance Monitor:	load diskfree memory diskload
	Network:		about all of them



Limitations and pitfalls
------------------------

1. Due to a poor implementation of both signal handling
   and socket library timeouts often do not work correctly
   on NT. Therefore some things (e.g. the TCP monitor) will
   have longer timeouts than on Unix systems or in a few
   cases no timeouts at all.

2. The Status collector will not answer any requests during
   history log file transfers as done by e.g. "bsadmin archivelogs".
   This is not considered a serious problem since you only 
   archive logs every few days or do not archive them at all.

3. When sending alarms the Alarm Generator will need an SMTP
   mailhost somewhere. Use

	mailhost=mymailhost

   in bb_event_generator.cfg


