In the simplest Universal Cache evaluation setup, all components are installed on a single computer, except for the backend data server, which you should already have installed and running on a dedicated server machine.
Before you begin
1 Define the data to be cached.
For evaluation purposes, it is assumed that you have an existing (backend) database that contains the data you want to cache. Ensure that the backend database is installed and running on a dedicated server machine. The Universal Cache components will be setup on a single evaluation computer that has a connection to the backend server machine.
Ensure that you have administrator access rights to your database (if one exists) and to all the computers or servers you will be installing components on.
A typical evaluation setup uses a two-node configuration:
▪Evaluation node – Cache
– solidDB® server
– IBM Infosphere CDC for solidDB® replication engine
– IBM Infosphere CDC Access Server
– IBM Infosphere CDC for backend replication engine
– solidDB® ODBC Driver or solidDB® JDBC Driver
– IBM Infosphere CDC Management Console
▪Database node
– Backend data server (prerequisite)
Your evaluation configuration does not need to use the two-node configuration described above. Instead, you can install the components in several different configurations, as described in Installation topologies for Universal Cache.
Setting up caching
Typically you would already have a working installation of the backend data server that contains the data you want to cache into the solidDB® database. Setting up caching then includes defining the connection between the cache database and the backend database, defining which tables to cache, populating the cache database, and finally starting replication between the cache and the backend database.
Preparing applications for use with Universal Cache
You can setup the Universal Cache system for evaluation purposes without an existing application and use, for example, the backend and solidDB® command line tools to issue simple SQL statements.
If you want to use an existing application that you have running against the backend database, the solidDB® server provides various features that enable you to migrate your application to the Universal Cache environment with minimal changes. In the simplest scenario, you only need to modify the connection string to use the solidDB® JDBC Driver or solidDB® ODBC Driver.
Procedure
The installation and configuration of a Universal Cache system for evaluation purposes includes the following high-level steps:
1 Download and extract the installation files to the evaluation node.
2 Install and configure the Universal Cache components using the installation wizards provided with each component.
3 Set up caching of data between your backend data server and solidDB® server using Management Console. During the setup, you can create and populate tables in the solidDB® database with data from the backend tables.
4 Activate Universal Cache by starting replication between the cache and the backend database.