GUI Overview

The GUI allows users working on any machine to administer, operate or monitor servers and resources in any cluster as long as they have the required group memberships on the cluster machines. (For details, see Configuring GUI Users.) The GUI Server and Client components are described below.

GUI Server

The GUI server is initialized on each SIOS Protection Suite server at system startup. It communicates with GUI clients using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Remote Method Invocation (RMI).

GUI Client

The GUI client can be run either as a web client on any Java-enabled system or as an application on a SIOS Protection Suite server.

The client includes the following components:

• The status table on the upper left displays the high level status of connected servers and their resources.

• The properties panel on the upper right displays detailed information about the most recently selected status table object.

• The output panel on the bottom displays command output.

• The message bar at the very bottom of the window displays processing status messages.

• The context (in the properties panel) and global toolbars provide fast access to frequently-used tasks.

• The context (popup) and global menus provide access to all tasks.

Starting GUI Clients

Starting the Web Client

To run the web client on a SIOS Protection Suite server, click Start then point to All Programs, then point to SIOS->LifeKeeper->LifeKeeper. This will invoke a web browser and connect to the local GUI server using http://localhost:81.

On systems outside the SIOS Protection Suite cluster, open a web browser and go to the URL http://<server name>:81 where <server name> is the name of a SIOS Protection Suite server. This will load the web client from the GUI server on that machine.

After the web client has finished loading, you should see the Cluster Connect Dialog which allows you to connect the web client to any GUI server.

Note: When you run the web client, if your system does not have the required Java Plug-in, you will be automatically taken to the web site for downloading the plug-in. See the Java Upgrade topic for steps to upgrade. You must also set your browser security parameters to enable Java.

If you have done this and the client still is not loading, see Web Client Troubleshooting.

Starting the Application Client

Users with administrator privileges on a SIOS Protection Suite server can run the application client from that server. Click Start, then point to All Programs, then SIOS->LifeKeeper->LifeKeeper (Admin Only).

If you have done this and the client still is not loading, see Network-Related Troubleshooting.

Exiting GUI Clients

Select Exit from the File Menu to disconnect from all servers and close the client.