In the course of our on-going examinations for our Rational ClearCase add-ons, we decided to test them on Windows 7, even though it is not yet officially supported to work with Rational ClearCase.
Today I installed Windows 7 as an additional virtual machine on my laptop (with VMware server). We’ve been gaining experience using VMware for a while now. We find it works fantastically with ClearCase, Windows, Solaris and Linux).
Windows 7
Ostensibly, Windows 7 looks and feels like Windows Vista and Windows server 2008, however, it seems to run smoother. The installation process was shorter (40 min. approx.) than that of Vista and 2008, as I recall it. I encountered some problems configuring the network properties (as I recall happened with Vista as well), but ultimately the problems were solved.
After successfully installing Windows, I started to install ClearCase. I was debating whether to install ClearCase 7.1 or ClearCase 7.0.1.2, because version 7.1 has a new installation manager with a few remaining bugs, but finally chose the later version. If I’ve installed the latest version of Windows, I might as well use the latest version of ClearCase – in for a penny, in for a pound…
I managed to get through the initial ClearCase installation manager uneventfully, and therefore decided to try and install everything: dynamic views, local views and VOBs, VOB server, view server, CM server for remote client, MultiSite, MultiSite global monitoring and CCFS.
Within a few minutes the installation failed. The reason for failure was explained quite unclearly in the log file (this is a major bug in the installation manager – I encountered this problem more than twice!), so I then tried to install only dynamic views, local views and VOBs. To my surprise, this process was completed successfully! Of course, a reboot was required (you know, its windows – not UNIX or Linux…)
Finally, I could create VOBs and views – but snapshot only: The MVFS did not work even though I installed it and received an “installation was completed successfully” message. I suspect I could have solved that problem by changing some parameters in the configuration, but at this point I gave up. Do not try it at home…Alas, I settled for snapshot views only.
Then, of course, I tested our ClearCase add-ons, and am proud to announce that all of them; ClearCheck, Visual Annotate, R&D Reporterand ClearEnv , work very well on Windows 7!
The bottom line is:
- Windows 7 and ClearCase are compatible.
- Do not use ClearCase on Windows 7 if you need dynamic views (MVFS). It is not yet compatible. I was informed by the Rational support team that they intend to have ClearCase, ClearQuest and other Rational suits officially supporting Windows 7 by the beginning of 2010.
- Our products are supported by the environment of Windows 7, ClearCase 7.1 on Windows as client and server, Solaris operating system as a VOBs server, and together, they all run with VMware virtual machines!
