Problem

Is it possible to install ACS on a file server?

Solution

The ACS installation procedure is designed to install ACS on a stand-alone host. It is still possible to install ACS on a file server with some tweaking:

  1. Create the "file server image". Unzip and untar the ACS.tar.gz tarball provided by ACS and place this somewhere on a local hard drive shared over the network.
  2. To install on client machines:
    • create a symbolic link which points /alma to /some/NFS/mapped/directory/.../alma
    • since $ACSDATA (normally /alma/ACS-X.Y/acsdata) contains configuration files that are specific for each machine, you will have to do the following:
      1. cp -R $ACSDATA /your/choice/of/local/directory
      2. edit $HOME/.acs/.bash_profile.acs so that $ACSDATA is set to /your/choice/of/local/directory

If the installation on a file server will prove a convenient and frequently used setup, the ACS installation procedure can be modified to support this option directly.