ColdFusion MX 7

ColdFusion MX 7 is supported on Windows, Linux, and Unix systems.

The supported Windows platforms are:

• Windows 2000 (with SP3 or later)

• Windows XP (Home and Professional)

• Windows 2003

The supported Linux platforms are:

• Red Hat Linux AS and ES 2.1 and 3

• SuSE Linux Enterprise 8

• Turbo Linux 8

The supported Unix platforms are:

• Solaris 8 and 9

• IBM AIX 5L 5.1 and 5.2

• Mac OSX 10.3 (ColdFusion Developer Edition only)

The Different Flavors of ColdFusion MX 7

ColdFusion MX 7 comes in three editions:

• ColdFusion Developer Edition

• ColdFusion Standard

• ColdFusion Enterprise

There is a single ColdFusion installation program, and a single ColdFusion application. The different editions are activated based on the serial number specified.

NOTE

ColdFusion Developer Edition is functionally equivalent to ColdFusion Enterprise, but has IP address restrictions.

Pre-Installation Checklist

To be sure ColdFusion will work at peak performance on your hardware platform, make sure you follow the steps listed here:

• Check the system requirements in the installation documentation.
  
  
• Check your hardware's specs. If your RAM or disk space is inadequate, or your processor can't handle the load, an upgrade will be necessary.
  
  

Checking Your Hardware

At present, Macromedia supports three hardware platforms for ColdFusion: Intel-based systems running Windows NT 4.0; Windows 2000/XP; or Linux, Sun SPARC processor systems running Solaris, and Hewlett Packard PA-RISC systems running HP-UX.

Intel-Based Systems

ColdFusion can be installed on Intel-based systems under Windows and Linux distributions. The minimum recommended hardware is a Pentium II-class machine, with 512 MB RAM (256 MB for Developer Edition), and 500 MB free disk space.

NOTE

For all platforms, keep in mind that installing additional RAM usually improves system performance somewhat. Also, the applications you create with ColdFusion will take up additional hard disk space.

Solaris Systems

To use ColdFusion on Solaris systems, the system must be running Solaris with a SPARC processor. When installing ColdFusion on a Solaris system, your system must have 512 MB of RAM and 500 MB of free disk space.

Choosing Your Hardware

You probably already know which hardware platform you will use for ColdFusion: the hardware you already own. But if you're still deciding, keep the following points in mind:

• Virtually all ColdFusion code will execute perfectly across all supported platforms. So if you jump ship to another platform during or after development, your applications will require little, if any, porting.

• From a ColdFusion perspective, there is no real difference between hardware platforms. The decision as to which platform to use should be driven by cost, experience, support, and other factors.

Checking Your Web Server

As explained in Chapter 1, "Introducing ColdFusion," Web servers are separate software programs that enable two-way communication between your system and other Web servers. A great number of Web servers are available for a great number of operating systems. You must choose the Web server that is compatible with your operating system and ColdFusion.

ColdFusion is primarily used with Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Server) and Apache. In addition, an embedded Web server is also available, allowing you to do development without needing to install and configure a Web server.

• Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) is free and comes bundled with Windows. One of IIS's principal advantages is its capability to use Windows' user lists and security options. This eliminates the complexity of maintaining multiple lists of passwords and security privileges. On the other hand, IIS users must have a network login to have a Web server login.

• Apache is one of the oldest and still the most popular Web server on the Net. The Apache Web server is a free, open-source software project available for most operating systems, including Windows Linux, and Solaris. Despite its popularity, Apache is harder to install and manage than IIS.

Because the applications you develop with ColdFusion are portable among all supported Web servers, your production Web server can differ from the Web server used for development with minimal changes in your ColdFusion code.

After you have installed a Web server, you must verify that it is working properly. To do this, start a Web browser and go to the URL http://localhost/ If everything is working, your Web server's default home page should appear.

If the home page doesn't display, you must do a little troubleshooting. First, type ping 127.0.0.1 at a command prompt. If the ping is successful, TCP/IP is working. More than likely, the problem lies with the Web server. For more information, consult the Web server's documentation.

Installing ColdFusion On Windows

ColdFusion is installed on Windows systems using an interactive installation program. You must be logged on as an administrator to install ColdFusion.

During the installation you will be prompted for information:

• Product serial number (which will activate ColdFusion as either ColdFusion Standard or ColdFusion Enterprise). You can omit the serial number if installing ColdFusion as a Developer Edition or installing the 30-day free trial. (The trial edition will revert to a Developer Edition after 30 days unless a serial number is provided).

• If installing ColdFusion Enterprise or ColdFusion Developer Edition, you will be prompted for the installation type. You may install a stand-alone installation (integrated J2EE server, single instance only), JRun+ColdFusion, or additional instances of top of an existing J2EE server. ColdFusion Standard edition always installs using the stand-alone configuration.

• The Web server to be used. ColdFusion will display a list of detected Web servers, as well as offering you the option of using the internal HTTP server (to be used on development systems only).

• Passwords to be used to secure the ColdFusion Administrator and RDS access (used by Dreamweaver to provide access to databases and more).

TIP

Stand-alone mode is the simplest to use for development, as no Web server is needed. Most of the examples in this book assume that stand-alone mode is being used.

With this information complete and verified, the installer will install and configure ColdFusion, and will Start menu icons to access ColdFusion documentation and the ColdFusion Administrator.

Installing ColdFusion On Linux and Unix

To install ColdFusion on Linux and Unix machines, make sure that the appropriate attributes have been assigned to the install file. The install file must be made executable using the chmod command as follows:

 chmod 755 filename 

You must be logged on as an administrator to install ColdFusion.

During the installation you will be prompted for information:

• Product serial number (which will activate ColdFusion as either ColdFusion Standard or ColdFusion Enterprise). You may omit the serial number if installing ColdFusion as a Developer Edition or installing the 30-day free trial. (The trial edition will revert to a Developer Edition after 30 days unless a serial number is provided).

• If installing ColdFusion Enterprise or ColdFusion Developer Edition, you will be prompted for the installation type. You may install a stand-alone installation (integrated J2EE server, single instance only), JRun+ColdFusion, or additional instances of top of an existing J2EE server. ColdFusion Standard edition always installs using the stand-alone configuration.

• The location and account information for Apache (if not using the integrated HTTP server).

• Passwords to be used to secure the ColdFusion Administrator and RDS access (used by Dreamweaver to provide access to databases and more).

TIP

Stand-alone mode is the simplest to use for development, as no Web server is needed. Most of the examples in this book assume that stand-alone mode is being used.