Introduction > Upgrading from Release 7.1 and earlier

CopiaFacts 7.2 - Configuration Changes

From release 7.2 new installs of CopiaFacts will no longer require the use of a common drive letter (typically Q:) to access the Copia data and queue folders (typically in Q:\FAXFACTS). This change makes for much simpler configuration in Windows XP and beyond, and makes easier and more reliable the use of print drivers and services which may not have access to drive-letter mappings.

Instead the install will require a common Universal Naming Convention (UNC) pathname (such as \\servername\copia\faxfacts) to access the same folder, now referred to as the 'Copia Application Data folder'. New installers, and the new utility programs COPIALOCATE and COPIACONNECT, are used to set up this configuration.

This document describes the implications of these changes for existing FaxFacts and CopiaFacts users. There are three basic options:

•	Ignore the changes by setting an environment variable on each machine on which you wish to run Copia software with versions 7.200 and later.

•	Allow new Copia programs automatically to migrate to the new method of configuration. This will only be possible if you have a reasonably 'standard' install of CopiaFacts, and it means you will lack the COPIACONNECT utility which makes for easier modification of the configuration.

•	Run (once only) the COPIALOCATE utility, which establishes and prepares the COPIA share for connection from other machines, and which installs the COPIACONNECT utility, which can be used from other machines to complete the configuration.

These options are described in more detail below.

Disabling the new features

To suppress the automatic migration, you can set a Windows system environment variable named CFCONNECT to a value of Disable, on each machine which will be running 7.200+ program versions. The utility program CfNoUNC is provided (on the CD in the Program Files\Copia folder) to make this setting and can be run from an account with Administrator privilege. There are no parameters. The environment variable has no effect on 7.1xx or earlier CopiaFacts programs. When it is defined, the 7.200+ program versions will use the original 7.1xx configuration methods and no other changes are needed.

Using this variable allows you to use Copia 7.200+ versions immediately, with no other changes; however the disadvantages of disabling the new features are:

•	You will not be able to use 7.200 and later versions of CDAUTO and CopiaFacts installers to install new releases and new enhancements. You will still be able to install intermediate upgrades which are made available in ZIP files.

•	All current programs and currently planned enhancements will respect the environment variable setting, but it is possible that future developments will require features of the new configuration methods and will therefore not be installable in the presence of this environment variable.

Automatic Migration

When you run a version 7.200+ installer for the first time on an existing system, it will attempt to install using your 'old' COPIAFACTS.INI location for the fax server folder.

If you already have network share named COPIA which is mapped (or assigned with SUBST) to a common drive letter (such as Q:) then the migration to use the new configuration methods will be done automatically as you run the first 7.200+ program version. If the automatic migration fails, you will see an error message directing you to this document.

Each machine which is automatically migrated to use the new configuration will have a COPIACONNECT.INI installed locally in the Windows 'All Users' data area, and the FFCFG.INI in the Copia Application Data folder will be updated to check the configuration as each machine is configured. However the COPIACONNECT utility will not have been installed during automatic migration. COPIACONNECT is used to add new machines and manage switching to backup fileservers.

Manual Configuration

To migrate your system fully to use the 7.200+ configuration methods, first run the COPIALOCATE installer to create or select a share, usually named COPIA, and prepare the Copia Application Data folder (FAXFACTS) which resides in the COPIA share. This program is run (once only) from a machine/account that has write access to the Copia Application Data area (formerly the default folder Q:\FAXFACTS). You can retain the Q: drive mapping but it is recommended that you should eventually ensure that references to Q:\FAXFACTS in your command files are changed to @FFBASE. The COPIALOCATE process will install a COPIACONNECT program in the root folder of the (newly created or existing) COPIA share which now contains the same FAXFACTS folder.

For many years, our recommendation has been to set up a COPIA share and map this to a common drive letter, typically Q. However some early installations of FaxFacts may map a common drive letter to a FAXFACTS folder in the root of a physical drive. If this is the case on your system, you should consider moving the contents of your FAXFACTS folder to the new FAXFACTS folder which will have been created by COPIALOCATE in the COPIA share.

To obtain COPIALOCATE.EXE, download it from ftp://ftp.copia.com/cdrom73/install/COPIALOCATE.EXE. If you have CDAUTO, however, you can run step 1 to perform the same processing as COPIALOCATE. There is no need to run either program if you already have a full 7.2xx CopiaFacts install which does not use the CFCONNECT=Disable environment variable.

After COPIALOCATE has been run, you will need to visit each machine running Copia 7.200+ programs and run COPIACONNECT directly from the network UNC name (such as \\faxserver\COPIA\COPIACONNECT.EXE) to complete the configuration.

Backup Fileservers

CopiaFacts installations at which a 'hot backup' fileserver is maintained can run COPIALOCATE also for this copy of the CopiaFacts Application Data folder. After this, a node can be switched to use a different fileserver simply by running COPIACONNECT from the COPIA share on that fileserver.

Existing Mapped Drive Letters

Many existing sites will have hard-coded drive letters (as for example Q:\FAXFACTS) in files such as user profiles (USR, UJP), mailboxes (MBX) and others. Such files can co-exist with the new configuration methods, but it is recommended that they should over time be converted to use variables such as @FFBASE and @FFUSER to provide flexibility.

As long as you retain drive letters in CopiaFacts control files, you will of course still have to re-map drives if you switch to a different fileserver, in addition to running COPIACONNECT from its COPIA share. And drive letters in your main configuration file cannot be replaced by @FFBASE, @FFUSER and similar variables, because the configuration file is where these variables are actually defined.

Fixed drive letters in your FAXFACTS.CFG file and USR files are not changed by the automatic migration process, nor currently by COPIALOCATE. You should delete the entries that match the default values and change the remainder to use the UNC pathname.

If your common drive letter is a SUBST letter rather than a mapped drive letter, it is strongly recommended that you change to use the new configuration method (or at least change to use a mapped drive letter) on systems which are running on Windows XP or Windows 2003 or later.

Non-Standard Configurations

A number of features are built in to the new configuration system which allow folders to be set up in a non-standard way. Please contact Copia support if you believe that this may be necessary to accommodate your existing configuration.

It is also possible to relocate the COPIACONNECT.INI file on machines running Copia 7.200+ programs if your site restricts access to the Windows 'All Users' Documents and Settings areas.

Further technical details of the new configuration methods are available in Appendix F (Standard Directories).

Topic url: http://www.copia.com/support/refmanual/index.html?upgradingtorelease7_2.htm