1.3 Requirements and installation

» System requirements

SmartFoxServer is a multi-platform application written in Java so, it can run on many different operating systems.

The minimum requirements to run the server are:

- A 400Mhz cpu or better
- At least 64Mb of RAM
- 100Mb of hardisk space
- An operating system capable of running the Sun Java Virtual Machine (JVM) like Windows (98/NT/2000/XP), Linux, MacOS X (10.4 +), other Unix based OS(es)

Reccomended basic hardware requirements:

- 1Ghz or higher CPU
- 512Mb RAM

Recommended hardware requirements for high traffic applications and games:

- Dual 2.0Ghz CPU or higher
- 1Gb Ram
- Server version of the Sun JVM (version 1.6.x recommended)

Double click on the installer and follow the simple instructions on screen.
When the process is finished you will find a new SmartFoxServer folder under the Start > Programs menu where you can launch the server and access the other application folders.



Installing SmartFoxServer as a Windows Service:
From the Windows Start Menu open the SmartFoxServer folder and click on the Install Service icon to install SmartFoxServer as a windows service. Once this is done you will find it listed in the windows services under the management console.

You can now start/stop/restart the server following these steps:

1. Right-click My Computer, and choose Manage.
2. Expand the Services & Applications tab, and select Services.
3. Select SmartFoxServer and use the control buttons or right click on it to access the context menu.

In order to uninstall the server as a service just click the Uninstall Service icon from the Start > Programs > SmartFoxServer menu.

NOTES for Windows Vista / Windows 7 users:

Installing SmartFoxServer under the C:\Program Files\ path will not allow you to modify the configuration and example files, as Windows requires administrator privileges to modify any file under that path.

If you intend to open and edit the example files you will have to move them to a directory under your home folder to avoid problems with write privileges.

Our suggestion is to install the whole SmartFoxServer package under your home folder to avoid any of the aforementioned issues.

» Installing on Linux

Since version 1.5 SmartFoxServer comes with its own x86 32-bit Sun Java Runtime.


Follow these steps to get started:

1. open a terminal window and move to the folder where you have downloaded the file.
2. type "gzip -d filename.tar.gz" to extract the .tar file (where "filename" is the name of the downloaded file)
3. type "tar xf filename.tar" to extract the files.
4. move inside the uncompressed folder and type ./install

Follow the simple instructions on screen and once you're done you can safely delete the downloaded folder.
To start the server move to the {installation-directory}/Server folder and type ./sfs start

The complete list of commands is the following:

Installing SmartFoxServer as a Linux daemon:
In order to install SmartFoxServer as a daemon you will need root priviliges.

The simplest method is to move to the /etc/rcX.d folder (where X is your current runlevel)
From there type: ln -s path-to-your-script S99sfs
This will create a symbolic link to the start script in the rcX.d folder. On the next restart the server will be launched as daemon

Example: (root privileges needed)
Suppose your runlevel is 5 (multiuser mode + GUI)

1. Move in the rc5.d folder: cd /etc/rc5.d
2. Create a symbolic link to the start script : ln -s /home/john/SFS_PRO_1.3.0/Server/sfs S99sfs
(assuming your server was installed in /home/john)

The server will be started as a daemon on the next restart

^top

» Installing on MacOS X (10.4 or higher)

In order to install SmartFoxServer under MacOS X follow these steps:

1. Double click the downloaded .dmg file
2. Drag and drop the content of the disk-image in a folder of your choice (e.g. the Applications folder)
3. Open the Server/ folder and double click the SmartFoxServer icon.

You can also drag and drop the SmartFoxServer PRO icon to the dock in order to keep the application launcher at hand.

An output window will appear showing the console output of the Server. You can shut down SmartFoxServer by simply pressing the Cancel button in the output window.

» Starting/Stopping SmartFoxServer from the MacOS X terminal:

In order to launch the server as a background process follow these simple steps:

1. Open a Terminal window (the Terminal is found under /Applications/Utility)
2. Change directory to your SmartFoxServer installation directory and go in the Server/ folder
3. Type: ./sfs followed by any of these commands: start, stop, restart or console

Example: ./sfs start

^top

» Installing on other Unix(es)

SmartFoxServer supports other Unix-based operating systems like Free-BSD, Solaris etc...
You will need to download the Linux version of the server and follow these steps:

1. open a terminal window and move to the folder where you have downloaded the file.
2. type "gunzip filename.tar.gz" to extract the .tar file (where "filename" is the name of the downloaded file)
3. type "tar xf filename.tar" to extract the files.
4. move to the extracted folder and launch the start.sh script inside the Server/ directory by typing ./start.sh

The additional requirement is that you have a Sun Java Runtime 5 or higher installed in your OS .
Optionally you can safely remove the jre/ folder, as it contains a Linux x-86 specific JRE which you may not use.

^top

» Flash API installation

To install the API just open the Flash API/ folder in your SFS main directory and choose the appropriate version.

SmartFoxServer 1.6.x note:
Due to the various bugs and update difficulties found using the Adobe Extension Manager we don't provide the API in mxp format anymore.

The Flash/Flex API are now distributed as source files that you can store in your preferred directory on your local disk. In order to add them to your projects you will simply have to point your application classpath to that directory.

» API documentation

For more info about the Flash Client API, please refer to section 4.1, and section 4.2 of this documentation.

^top

» 64-bit Operating Systems support

SmartFoxServer can be run on most 64-bit OS(es) available today, including 64 bit versions of Windows, Linux and MacOS X

The software comes bundled with the latest 32-bit Sun Java Runtime Edition. If you are running a 64-bit operating system you should download the latest 64-bit version of the JRE from the Sun website and substitute the bundled SmartFoxServer jre/ folder with the new version version.

MacOS X users should already have the right JRE version (32/64 bit) installed in the system.

» Using the native wrapper under a 64bit OS

SmartFoxServer uses a third-party, open source JRE wrapper called Java Service Wrapper by Tanuki Software, to launch the application as server/daemon for Windows, Linux and MacOS. Each distribution of the server comes with its own 32-bit version of the wrapper. If you are under a 64-bit OS the application will probably refuse to work and you will need replace it with the native 64-bit binary.

At the time of writing (October 2008) there exist community versions for Linux(64) and MacOSX(64), while the Windows version is only commercial.

To upgrade your wrapper follow these steps:

1. Download one of the following packages:
   • Linux 64bit wrapper
   • MacOSX (Universal) 64bit wrapper
2. Extract the archive
3. Copy the extracted files to your path-to-smartfox/Server/lib/ folder, with the exception of the wrapper executable file which goes in the path-to-smartfox/Server/ folder

You can learn more at the Tanuki Wrapper website.

^top