System Requirements

1. You can install SPIN on most common operating systems including Microsoft Windows, and UNIX-like operating systems, such as Linux, Solaris, and Mac OSX.
2. Java Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (JRE)      
3. Apache Tomcat, version 5.0 or 6.0

Note: This document uses Unix-like conventions for paths and environment variables that you can map to Windows equivalents.

Obtaining SPIN

You can obtain the SPIN WAR from the open.med Maven repository.

http://repo.open.med.harvard.edu/nexus/

In general, the SPIN WAR is available at the following location:

http://repo.open.med.harvard.edu/nexus/content/groups/public/org/spin/node-server/<version>/node-server-<version>.war

The location and filename corresponds to the latest released SPIN version.  For example, the latest released SPIN version is 1.16. The SPIN WAR would be located at the following URL:

http://repo.open.med.harvard.edu/nexus/content/groups/public/org/spin/node-server/1.16/node-server-1.16.war

Installation and Configuration

Layout

SPIN is installed in two distinct places on the host operating system:

•         SPIN web application (webapp) is installed within the servlet container, Tomcat.

•         SPIN home directory is a place on the file system that contains folders for storing configuration files, log files and plugins.

Process Overview

The SPIN installation and configuration consists of the following processes performed in this order:

1. Configure the SPIN home directory

Note: The SPIN WAR (webapp) and the SPIN home directory are installed in two places primarily because when a new version is deployed the servlet container unpacks a new WAR file and replaces the entire "old" web app. Any stored data files are lost. Since the configuration and data must persist through many incarnations of the webapp, it is safest to keep them in separate locations in the file system, outside of the entire servlet container hierarchy. Also, when the webapp is separate, it does not require modification after installation; thus simplifying the procedure for the system administrator.

1. Install
2. Configure node.xml
3. Configure the routingtable.xml
4. Configure the keystore.xml
5. Restart the web servlet container

Step 1: Configure the SPIN Home Directory

SPIN requires a dedicated "home directory", $SPIN_HOME, which is the root of a hierarchy of folders that contain configuration files, query log files, and plugins.

The SPIN home directory consists of the following folders:

        conf/--- configuration files

        db/- query log files

        plugins/- JARs containing plugins (queries to be run by the Node)

It is recommended that you configure the home directory outside of the Java Servlet container, specifically outside of the webapp structure, which is not the default location. The default is under the process-owner's home directory.

By default, the directory is ~/.spin, where tilde (~) is the home directory of the process-owner's home directory.

On Microsoft Windows systems, the default directory is ~/spin. The directory must be writeable by the process owner.

You can override the default location by setting:

1. The environment variable, SPIN_HOME to the absolute path of the desired SPIN home directory
2. The JVM system property, SPIN_HOME to the absolute path of the desired SPIN home directory