The following topics prepare you to install Zen by providing an overview of the requirements, the major components included in Zen, the installation options available, a detailed checklist to help you gauge your readiness to proceed with the Zen installation.

You may need to know about the following requirements to complete a Zen installation. This list supplements the software and hardware requirements found in the release notes.

You must have administrator rights to install Zen Enterprise Server, Cloud Server, or Workgroup.

For installation to succeed, the following Windows system requires the following minimum update:

You cannot install an edition of Zen on the same machine with another edition. You must uninstall the other edition first. For example, Zen Workgroup cannot run on the same machine as either Zen server edition.

To upgrade from a previous version of Zen, you must upgrade to the same edition of the new version. For example, if you are using Workgroup, you must upgrade to Workgroup and not to Enterprise Server. To change editions, you must first uninstall the existing edition. The exception is that you may upgrade from Enterprise Server to Cloud Server, or from Cloud Server to Enterprise Server.

In a VM environment that supports live migration, an authorized Zen instance – along with your application – can move from one host to another host with no impact to your end users.

So long as the host name is kept consistent, an authorized instance of Zen can be moved to a different physical machine, or converted into a VM, or migrated to a different VM host. If you must change the host name, then deauthorize the Zen license key before moving, converting, or migrating. Each instance of Zen, including those that are cloned or copied for VMs, requires its own permanent key even if the host name is the same. For more information, see License Models in Zen User’s Guide.

On Windows operating systems, Zen offers complete and custom installation options.

On Linux, each edition has its own separate installation RPM or TAR file, which does not provide custom installation options. Raspbian uses a TAR installation.

On macOS, you can install using TAR, similar to Linux, or you can use a native Apple disk image (DMG) installer.

A complete installation is recommended for most users. It uses default installation settings and installs Zen and all of its features to the standard location for each operating system.

A custom installation is recommended for users that need control over their Zen installation. Custom installation allows you to install Zen, along with only the features you select, in directory locations of your choosing. The customization is available for all Windows platforms except Nano Server and IoT Core.

Zen is available in Enterprise Server, Cloud Server, Workgroup, and Client editions. This topic lists Zen products and the components of each edition.

During a custom installation, Zen features may be excluded with the Zen product you are installing. The features listed here are optional, so if all the features in this section are excluded from the install, the Zen product is still installed by default.

The following lists the optional features available with each Zen installation, unless noted otherwise.

Zen access methods include the Zen Software Development Kit (SDK) and the DOS Requester.

A set of custom controls that enable development environments that support ActiveX to easily access Btrieve data. The interface includes a data source control and eight bound data controls.

ADO.NET is a .NET managed data provider, built with 100% managed code. The data provider is a native wire protocol provider, which means that the data provider will not have to call out to unmanaged code – code outside of the .NET Framework – in the form of a database client.

The DOS VxD (Virtual eXtended Driver) (DOS client requester) is the Btrieve requester used for running DOS based applications via a Windows Command window. (Transactional access only)

Zen Distributed Tuning Objects (DTO) are used from visual development environments.

The Java Class Library (JCL) is used for direct transactional access to data files via Java.

The JDBC driver is used for relational access to data files using the Java programming language.

The OLE DB access method includes runtime binaries used for transactional and relational access to data files.

Zen Direct Access Components (PDAC) include a set of Visual Component Library (VCL) components that allow direct transactional and relational access to Zen database engines from within the Borland Delphi and C++ Builder Environments.

The minimum set of utilities used to manage, configure and maintain the various components of the Zen database engines. The utilities included in this base set are installed as a set for all Zen products and may not be individually excluded from installation.

The Zen Cobol Schema Executor utility is used for providing SQL access to COBOL based applications.

Zen Data Dictionary File Builder is used for creating and modifying Data Dictionary Files (DDFs).

Zen Control Center is used for creating and manipulating database objects and accessing database tables via SQL.

Zen System Analyzer utility is used for testing and troubleshooting network connectivity, viewing loaded modules and performing a component search.

Zen engine and SDK documentation is integrated into Zen Control Center (ZenCC). You can access the documentation from the ZenCC interface in the Welcome tab, in the Help menu, or by pressing F1 (Windows) or Shift F1 (Unix). The documentation is also available online at the Actian website.

Zen needs JRE components for the following features:

These features use a JRE installed with Zen. This local, private JRE is installed even if other Java environments exist in the system. In a default installation, its location is C:\Program Files (x86)\Actian\Zen\bin\jre.

This JRE is only for internal use by the features listed above. It has no effect on requirements for developing Java applications using the Zen access methods for Java Class Libraries (JCL) or JDBC. Those requirements, including components obtained from Oracle, are discussed in the Zen SDK documentation. See Java Class Library Guide and JDBC Driver Guide.

If you need to upgrade the Java version used by Zen, we recommend that you simply replace the JRE in this location. You can use any 32-bit JRE version 8 or higher.

The following checklist helps you prepare for installation and includes a set of commonly asked questions to review before installation.

This checklist covers requirements to install Zen. Each should be met before running the installation.

This topic contains some of the most common questions asked prior to installing Zen. These questions represent special case scenarios that could possibly prevent a successful first-time installation. Before you begin installation, consider the situations represented by these questions, along with the Quick Checklist to determine if you have met all the requirements and if there are situations that need special attention.

Zen Enterprise Server and Cloud Server must be installed on the same computer where the database files are located.

Zen Client must be running on each machine expected to access the database, whether or not the client is on the same machine as the server.

Zen Client is installed with every database engine, so any engine can to connect to any other engine as a client.

The Zen Workgroup engine can be installed on the same computer where the database files are located, or it can be installed on other computers to access the data over the network.

Zen Client is installed with every engine. If you access remote files through another Workgroup engine, the Client software is already installed, so you do not need to install Client separately.

If you plan to install Zen in a clustered environment using Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS), first read High Availability Support in Advanced Operations Guide. This topic provides instructions for installing or patching Zen in this environment.

Running virtual machines within an MSCS environment may depend on considerations covered in the documentation for the hypervisor vendor.

If you install the Workgroup engine or Client Cache engine in a Remote Desktop Services or XenApp environment, you must install the engine to run as a service.

Installation of the Zen database engine in an Active Directory environment requires no special steps. Follow the installation steps as described for the product you purchased.

You may install the Zen database engine on a domain controller. Be aware, however, that activity on the domain controller may affect the performance of the database engine.

For web applications, the Client must be installed on the same computer as the web server. Multiple web server platforms require a client on each platform.

We recommend that you use Client installations that are the same version as the database engine. If you choose, you may use a Client version that is older than the database engine with which it interacts. In some situations, depending on the type of SDK access method used by your application, an older version requester will not work with the database engine. Your application will be unable to communicate with the database engine. For those situations, you must use clients that are the same version as the database engine.

Clients that are a newer version than the database engine may or may not function correctly. We cannot guarantee that newer Client versions will function correctly with older versions of the engine. Therefore, we recommend that you avoid the use of newer version Clients with an older engine.

Yes, it does matter. If you are installing a downloaded version of Zen, do not place the installer file in a location listed in the Path environment variables, since this can cause issues with file copying during installation. Place the installer in a location such as the Windows %Temp% directory.

The installation and upgrade should be performed during a period when all users are logged off the system and all data files are closed. As with any significant software installation, be sure to back up any important files on the target hard drive, including data files, before you begin the installation.

If you are performing an upgrade, keep the installation media and instructions from the old installation, in the unlikely event that you need to fall back to the previous version of the product.

Zen clients running within Terminal Services client sessions can perform Zen administrative functions by default. For example, a user with such a client can change configuration settings for Zen, create DSNs, and use the Monitor utility. In prior releases, the ability to perform administrative functions was prohibited from the client.

To restrict this capability, a system administrator should follow these steps:

Yes, some default settings in a Zen configuration need to be adjusted in certain situations, such as any of the following:

For more information, see Configuration for Special Installation Situations, especially if you find unexpected behavior after installation.