Micro Focus Visual COBOL 2.3 for Eclipse (Windows) > Welcome > Product Information > Installing Visual COBOL on Windows > Installing Visual COBOL for Eclipse (Windows) > Installing on Microsoft Terminal Server and Citrix

Installing on Microsoft Terminal Server and Citrix

Note: This document is a work-in-progress. Check the documentation for Visual COBOL in the Product Documentation section of the Visual COBOL SupportLine Web site for its most recent version.

Microsoft Terminal Server and Citrix (TS/Citrix) are environments for running multiple instances of a single user product. They are not platforms where a single-user product can be made to perform as a multi-user product.

When running Visual COBOL on TS/Citrix machine, there might be some implications to components of Visual COBOL which could cause potential conflicts between a ‘per-user session’ compared to the standard ‘per machine’ setup. The following components of Visual COBOL require special configuration:

Eclipse workspaces and projects
The Enterprise Server component - the Run-Time System product for JCL, CICS and IMS operations
The database management service

You can use Visual COBOL with TS or with any Citrix version certified for use with Eclipse; however, a separate end-user license is required for each user who accesses Visual COBOL, even if it is running on a single machine. See your End User License Agreement for clarification.

Note: Micro Focus Visual COBOL does not officially support TS/Citrix. However, it will run on any prerequisite Operating System that is supported under TS/Citrix.

Capacity planning

Multi-user capacity planning for TS/Citrix does not scale linearly, and the calculations required for this planning are not directly related or specific) to any Micro Focus technology. Micro Focus recommends that you consult with Microsoft or Citrix Systems, respectively, about the server sizing and capacity planning, based on hosting the required number of “rich” Windows 7 or Windows 8 desktops (e.g. using a singleton desktop build as a baseline).

Installing Visual COBOL

To install Visual COBOL for use with TS/Citrix:

Log on to the physical terminal or Citrix server with a user ID that has administrator privileges.
Use the download links in your Electronic Product Delivery email.
Follow the links for the installation instructions and the End User License Agreement.

Configuring Visual COBOL components

Further configuration is required for the following Visual COBOL components:

Using Eclipse IDE under TS/Citrix

For considerations about how to use Eclipse under TS/Citrix refer to the Eclipse product help.

Micro Focus recommends you set up Visual COBOL for Eclipse so that each user has their own configuration area and you make the configuration folder within the Eclipse installation read-only. (Visual COBOL for Eclipse is installed on the TS/Citrix machine into C:\Program Files (x86)\Micro Focus\Enterprise Developer with the Eclipse installation stored in C:\Users\Public\Micro Focus\Enterprise Developer\eclipse.)

To ensure that each user will have their own configuration area, you need to set up Eclipse as follows:

On the TS/Citrix machine, start Visual COBOL once, make any required customizations to the IDE and then close it.
Using Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Users\Public\Micro Focus\Enterprise Developer\eclipse and open the eclipse.ini file with an editor.
Add the following code before the -vmargs entry:
```
-configuration
@user.home\EclipseConfig
```
Using Windows Explorer, navigate to the Eclipse installation folder and from the folder properties make the configuration folder Read Only for the group that will work with Visual COBOL for Eclipse.

This ensures that each user that starts Visual COBOL for Eclipse under TS/Citrix can only see their own workspaces and that they have their own EclipseConfig folder specified by the eclipse.ini file.

Eclipse workspaces

An Eclipse workspace is a folder on the disk where the project and application files are stored. The default location for an Eclipse workspace is in the user's area (for example, c:\users\username\). It is not possible to share workspaces so each user must have their own.

We suggest that you create Eclipse workspaces in an area on a shared network drive, naming each workspace folder with an individual user ID.

Also provide a startup script that maps the drive dynamically using share names derived from the user ID.

Tip: Use the net use command to connect to, remove and configure the connections to the mapped drives.

Projects

Create and configure template projects to distribute among your users. Templates must not include fully qualified paths. You can store the projects in a source control system and make them available so that individual users can import them into their own workspace.

Enterprise Server Installation Options

When you install Visual COBOL, the setup file also installs the Enterprise Server component on the same machine. There are different ways in which you can configure and use Enterprise Server regions in TS/Citrix environments. This topic outlines two of the methods and explains what the implications of choosing them are:

Use the Enterprise Server component as part of Visual COBOL installed on the TS/Citrix machine
On the client machines, the developers each use a clone of Visual COBOL. They also use a clone of Enterprise Server to create and manage multiple server instances as required.

While this option provides the greatest flexibility, it also consumes the largest footprint per user.

Install Enterprise Server or Enterprise Test Server on a separate server
You can install Enterprise Server¹ or Enterprise Test Server² on a separate server that does not have TS/Citrix installed. By default, Enterprise Server installs and runs as a single-instance product and, within an Enterprise Server, you can operate a number of server instances. Each server provides session and state management for COBOL applications, as well as optionally interfacing with external resource managers to coordinate resource updates.

There are two ways to provide server instances to the developers using Visual COBOL on the TS/Citrix machine:
- Configure and configure one server instance per developer by specifying different ports. We recommend defining five-digit port numbers where digits one through three identify the developer and four through five identify a unique port. For example: port number 10123 defines a TN3270 listener for developer 1, and port number 10223 defines a TN3270 listener for developer 2.
  This option provides a dedicated enterprise server for testing purposes for each developer, but restricts each developer to that one enterprise serve instance.
  
  This scenario creates the largest footprint per developer.
  
  Or:
- Create and configure one server instance per application for use by a single development team. Use a different port number for each instance as explained above, using the first three digits to differentiate between applications.

Micro Focus Rumba

To use Micro Focus Rumba on a TS/Citrix machine, ensure you install a license for this type of environment. Contact Micro Focus Sales for more information.

ViewNow Installation

To use ViewNow on a TS/Citrix machine, ensure you install a license for this type of environment. Contact Micro Focus Sales for more information.

¹ Micro Focus Enterprise Server provides full application server support for COBOL applications that require high-performance and mainframe subsystem emulation. Enterprise Server is designed as a multi-user environment.

² Micro Focus Enterprise Test Server is an IBM mainframe application test execution environment on Windows. Enterprise Test Server enables mainframe IT organizations to perform a variety of pre-production testing on low cost commodity hardware, avoiding unnecessary cost and delay. Built on proven technology, Enterprise Test Server exponentially expands the test capacity and enables testing to scale up easily to meet delivery timelines and quality standards driven by today's business requirements.