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Software Focus: Page 7 of 7

Wrong. We installed WebSphere on a Windows 2000 machine, so the installation assumed (there's that word again) that Apache was also installed on a Windows OS. Not in our lab it isn't. The changes had to be taken out and hand configuration ensued. No help is better than bad help.

WebSphere is also picky about the types of databases with which it will communicate. DB2? Of course. Sybase? Yes. Oracle? Yup. Informix? Naturally. SQL Server? No way. We had to tweak WebSphere's configuration, the most important of which was upgrading the JDBC drivers from version 1.0 to 2.0.

After the pain, however, comes the payoff: The hardware looks good, the blinking lights are all the right colors, and the applications are coming along nicely. But we're not finished. As we continue to review business applications we'll be testing them against this environment, and some will get to stay and become part of our little family. Unlike out other Real-World Labs®, where we often wipe all our machines and start with a clean slate, we won't be interrupting our business application lab by starting over from scratch. You don't have that option and, in this lab, neither do we.

Welcome to the real world of NWC Inc.

Technology editor Lori MacVittie has been a software developer and a network administrator. Write to her at [email protected].

Oct. 14: We have an application running on the app server. Yes, I did the happy dance. Don't look at me like that--you've done it too.

Oct. 15: Steve upgraded the BIOS on the servers today to get rid of that annoying false alert. I watched and learned.

Nov. 1: Our DSL from Choice One Communications has been installed! 1.5 Mbps up and down. It's sweet.

Nov. 5: Put together a servlet to simulate the manufacturing process. Basically it just increases the inventory of our widgets.

For more blogs and to view the lab in real time, go to inc.networkcomputing.com/.