Deployment and configuration

The following section provide information about deployment and configuration. For a list of files required to deploy the MobiLink Agent, see Deploying SQL Anywhere MobiLink clients and Deploying UltraLite MobiLink clients

Agent deployment considerations

In order to properly administer the remote databases in your MobiLink synchronization system, there are a few technical points to consider:

The MobiLink Agent only runs on Windows and Windows Mobile devices. Remote databases on platforms other than these currently cannot be managed via a MobiLink Agent.
Managing UltraLite remote databases requires using the UltraLite engine. This means that applications that accessing those remote databases must also do so via the UltraLite engine. Attempting to use the in-process version of UltraLite will result in file-in-use errors. See Choosing an UltraLite data management component.
Central administration is only possible when the MobiLink Agent is running on a device. In general, it is assumed that the Agent is always running on a device. You can stop an Agent using mlastop.exe; however, the Agent will need to be re-started in order for central administration to be effective again. See Stopping the MobiLink Agent.

Deploying UltraLite applications and databases with the MobiLink Agent on Windows Mobile

There are various mechanisms to deploy UltraLite with the Agent on a Windows Mobile device.

You can use the SQL Anywhere Deployment Wizard to build a .CAB cabinet file that can be used to deploy SQL Anywhere on a Windows Mobile device. However, the Deployment Wizard does not include support for creating deployments of user applications and databases.

On completion of the Deployment Wizard an .INF file is created. The .INF file consists of a number of sections that describe the target location of the files, shortcuts, and registry settings contained within the .CAB file. This .INF file can be modified to include logic to install user applications and databases with the Agent.

Deploying with the SQL Anywhere for Windows Mobile Deployment Wizard

Configuring the Agent (Windows desktop)

One way to configure the Agent on a Windows machine is to have an install program (the same one that installs your application) install the agent and run the commands to configure, validate and start the Agent. An install program could prompt for the MobiLink identification and/or authentication parameters. Those parameters could then be used to configure the agent using mlagent -cr on the command line.

After the agent is configured, the install program could run mlagent -pi ... to verify that authentication parameters are valid. A connection to the MobiLink server is required when this command is run to properly do authentication validation.

Lastly, the Agent could be launched as the final step of the install process. The Agent will then be ready to receive and execute tasks on the target device. The Agent's process return code can be used to provide information on the Agent's execution. For example, if the mlagent failed to ping the MobiLink server, the return code from mlagent.exe would be the SQLCODE that results from a synchronization of the Agent database with the configured mlagent options.

Configuring the Agent (Windows Mobile)

How you configure the MobiLink Agent on Windows Mobile depends on how the user's application will be installed on the device.

One way to configure and run the MobiLink Agent is to have the user application prompt for MobiLink identification and/or authentication parameters and then configure and/or launch the MobiLink Agent as part of its start up process.

The application can attempt to run the Agent. If it has not been properly configured, the mlagent executable returns an error code.
If you get this code, then run the agent in configuration mode to set it up; then try running the agent in normal mode again. See Configuring and running the MobiLink Agent on the client device.

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