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Installing and configuring the Openfire chat server

You cannot use Openfire Chat if your browser does not support Adobe Flash. We recommend using Smart IT Openfire Chat for agent-to-agent communication.


This topic provides instructions for installing and configuring the Openfire chat server.

Prerequisites

Download the latest Openfire installer from http://www.igniterealtime.org/downloads. Ensure that Openfire is installed and functional before proceeding to the following section.

For documentation related to Openfire, see http://www.igniterealtime.org/projects/openfire/documentation.jsp.

Note

Openfire is an independent component of BMC Remedy AR System and is not directly coupled with a specific AR System component such as the AR System server or the mid tier. Therefore, you can install Openfire on any computer. You can either install it on the mid tier computer, AR System server computer, or on an independent computer. However, as the Openfire server can be directly accessed from the user's browser, it is good to install it on the mid tier computer.

If you have a single server or a server group setup, only one instance of Openfire needs to be installed. Openfire service is not fail-safe and hence only a single instance is required and supported.

To configure the Openfire database

The following procedure provides instructions for configuring the Openfire database:

  1. Manually create the database. For more information, see the Openfire Database Installation Guide.

    Best practice
    We recommend that you create a new database with new database users (for example, openfire) instead of creating Openfire database tables in the BMC Remedy AR System database.

  2. (For Oracle database only) When using Oracle database for Openfire, the following error is displayed in the Openfire logs:
    org.jivesoftware.openfire.group.Group - ORA-01400: cannot insert NULL into ("SYSTEM"."OFGROUPPROP"."PROPVALUE")
    java.sql.SQLException: ORA-01400: cannot insert NULL into ("SYSTEM"."OFGROUPPROP"."PROPVALUE")

    This error occurs because the Oracle database treats the empty string as NULL and the default OfGroupProp table PROPVALUE column setting is NOT NULL. To resolve this issue, alter the table to allow NULL values as shown in the following figure:

    NULL values

    chat-oracle-error.gif
  3. After the installation is complete, start the OpenFire server using one of the following options:
    • Navigate to the OpenfireInstallDir/bindirectory and run one of the following files:
      • For Microsoft Windows — openfire.exe
      • For Linux — openfire

        OR
    • Create the Openfire service as per the instructions given in the Openfire Installation Guide and start the service.

To configure the Openfire chat server to work with BMC Remedy AR System server

  1. Open the Openfire Administration Console (default location http://127.0.0.1:9090) and follow the setup steps given below in the Setup wizard:
    1. Choose the language.
       This setting is only for setting the language for web-based administration portal and not for messaging.

    2. Under Server settings, provide the host name where Openfire is installed and enter the appropriate values for the ports.
       Make sure that the Openfire host name is the same as the XMPPServerName property specified during the Configuring-the-BMC-Remedy-AR-System-server-to-work-with-the-chat-server procedure.

      Note

      The Server Name specific to Server Properties in Openfire Server Information page must be either fully qualified server name or  an IP address which is accessible from any client browser.

      To change the Server Name, perform the following steps:

      1. Open the Openfire Server Information page.

      2. Select Server Properties.

      3. Click Edit Properties, to change the server name.

      The Server name should also be changed in Data Visualization Definition form to match the change exactly.

      Ensure that you restart the Openfire Server after you finish editing the Openfire Server Information page.

    3. Under Database Settings, choose Standard Database Connection. Select the database name created in step 3 above from the drop-down menu for the Database Driver Presets field and enter the JDBC connection settings and the database user settings.

      For example, if the server is MS SQL server and it is hosted on ofserver, that is, the same host name as that of the DB name (openfire) and the DB user (ofuser), the values would be:
      • Database Driver Presets: 'Microsoft SQLServer'
      • (Automatically populated once preset is selected) JDBC Driver Class: net.sourceforge.jtds.jdbc.Driver
      • (Provide the hostname:port and the database name) Database URL: jdbc:jtds:sqlserver://DatabaseServer:1433/openfire;appName=jive
      • Username: ofuser

      • Password: <password>

        Note

        The remaining values can be changed according to your requirement.

  2. Under Profile Settings, choose the Default option.
  3. Under Administrator Account, enter a valid password for the user admin.

The Openfire chat server configuration is complete.

 

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