Real-Life .NET: Setting Up UDDI on a Windows 2003 Computer

Now that Microsoft has released Windows Server 2003 to manufacturing, let's talk about Enterprise Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) Services, which comes with the OS, and the decisions you need to make when setting up the service. Enterprise UDDI Services is a component of Windows 2003 that you can use to host an internal catalog of Web services for developers and for applications to use at runtime.

You can install the service on Windows 2003, Standard Edition or Windows 2003, Enterprise Edition (Enterprise UDDI Services is not part of Windows XP). Windows 2003, Enterprise Edition has a couple of options that Windows 2003, Standard Edition doesn't, as I explain later. Enterprise UDDI Services is not installed by default, and it depends on Microsoft IIS to run. If you install Enterprise UDDI Services, some pieces of IIS will be installed to support it: Common Files, IIS Manager, and the World Wide Web Service component, which has a subcomponent that's also called World Wide Web Service.

Installing Enterprise UDDI Services is fairly simple for anyone who's installed a Windows component before--you install it from the Control Panel Add/Remove Programs applet just as you would Microsoft Remote Installation Services (RIS), IIS, or any other optional component. The service has three components: the administration console, the database components (if you're installing the database that backs Enterprise UDDI services locally and don't already have Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine--MSDE--installed), and the Web server components.

During installation, you need to choose a database type; the supported options are MSDE or SQL Server. You don't need to add any extra software if you choose MSDE, and you don't need additional licensing to connect to an MSDE database. Connecting to a SQL Server database is only an option if a client for a SQL Server database is already installed on that computer. You can change the database location after installing Enterprise UDDI Services by editing the server's properties from the UDDI administrative console.

You also need to decide whether to implement the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security protocol. Using SSL tightens your application's security but adds pain and expense because you must purchase and set up a certificate from a provider such as Thawte (http://www.thawte.com). However, if you've already got a certificate set up for secure Web access on the local computer, you don't need another one specifically for UDDI.

If you're installing Enterprise UDDI Services on a server running Windows 2003, Enterprise Edition, the next step is choosing the location of the database and its components: the system data files, the core data files, the journal, the staging data file, and the transaction log. By default, these files go into the uddi subdirectory to inetpub on the local server. Only Windows 2003, Enterprise Edition supports distributed mode--all Windows 2003, Standard Edition servers must maintain separate databases.

Next, you need to decide whether Enterprise UDDI Services should run as a network service (the default option) or use a specific domain account. Then, you choose the name of the site (e.g., UDDISite). More than one server can be in the site, so use a name that's different from your server names.

Finally, choose whether you want components in the UDDI registry to self-register or you want to manually register components. If you have only one server, then leave this box checked. Do not check it on more than one server, however, or you'll have servers overwriting information.

At this point, you've set up Enterprise UDDI Services on the server. You're now ready to add Web services and components to the UDDI registry.