Meeting Installation Prerequisites

Some preparation is required before you install the Async Gateway:


Ensuring ConsoleOne Readiness

Novell ConsoleOne 1.3.6 or later must be installed on your system. In addition, the GroupWise Administrator snap-ins for your version of GroupWise must be installed in ConsoleOne.


Ensuring Domain/MTA Availability

Make sure that the domain exists where you want to install the Async Gateway and that you are familiar with the domain location and configuration.

Make sure a GroupWise Message Transfer Agent (MTA) is running for the domain where you plan to install the Async Gateway. If the MTA is not running, required directory structure for the Async Gateway cannot be built during installation.


Ensuring File System Access

You must have an account that has rights to the domain directory where you want to install the gateway files. You need rights to create, erase, modify, scan files, and write in the domain directory and subdirectories.


Preparing Ports for the NetWare Async Gateway

Some setup is required on the NetWare server before you install the NetWare Async Gateway.


Setting Up the Existing Serial Ports on the NetWare Server

If you want to use the existing serial ports on the NetWare server, you must load both the aio.nlm and aiocomx.nlm port drivers. These NLM files are included with NetWare.

To load the port drivers:

  1. At the NetWare server console, enter:

    load aio

    The full path to the NLM file is required unless you include it in the server's search path or it resides in the sys:\system directory.

  2. At the server console, enter:

    load sys:\system\aiocomx load_parameters

    This command initializes the port address 3f8 (COM1) and displays the board and port number. For example, the first time you load AIOCOMX, the following message is displayed:

    board 0 port 0


Setting Up Two Modems

To run two modems from the NetWare Async Gateway:

  1. At the NetWare server console, enter:

    load sys:\system\aiocomx load_parameters

    The driver initializes the second port with an address of 2f8 (COM2).

  2. Repeat Step 1 to add more ports.

To automatically load a communication port device driver, modify the server's autoexec.ncf file to include the load command.


Setting Up a Multiport Expansion Board on the NetWare Server

Any multiport expansion board you use with the NetWare Async Gateway must have a Novell AIO-compatible port communication driver in NLM format in order to function properly. For information about these drivers, see Asynchronous Input/Output Drivers.

Before you load the device driver for the expansion board, you must load the NetWare aio.nlm port driver.

Load both the NetWare driver and the board driver at the server console prompt.

To load the expansion port drivers:

  1. At the NetWare server console, enter:

    load aio

    The full path to the NLM file is required unless you include it in the server's search path or it resides in the sys:\system directory.

  2. Load your expansion board driver.

To automatically load a communication port device driver, modify the server's autoexec.ncf file to include the load command.


Preparing Ports for the Windows Async Gateway

Some setup is required on the Windows server before you install the Windows Async Gateway.


Setting Up the Existing Serial Ports on the Windows Server

If you choose to use the existing serial ports on the Windows server, you need to use the default Windows port device driver, com.sys. Refer to your Windows documentation for information about loading this driver.


Setting Up a Multiport Expansion Board on the Windows Server

If you choose to use a multiport expansion board on the Windows server, the board must have a Windows-compatible device driver. Make sure to find out the individual names of the serial ports on the board as exported by the driver provided. Refer to the driver vendor's documentation for this information. You need to create port entries of the same names while configuring the Windows Async Gateway. The gateway always refers to each hardware port by the name exported by the driver.