Configuring › How to Enable 64-Bit or 32-Bit Mode

How to Enable 64-Bit or 32-Bit Mode

64-bit systems are more powerful than 32-bit systems, mainly because of the large amount of RAM they support (more than 4 GB) and their efficient memory management mechanisms. Thus, running software on 64-bit systems rather than 32-bit systems can increase the performance of your applications. You can optionally install CA Service Catalog on 64-bit operating systems. For details about supported 64-bit operating systems and database software, see the Release Notes.

CA Service Catalog products and components are installed as 32-bit applications and run in that mode by default. To completely exploit the power of 64-bit mode, you can install these components on a 64-bit operating system and configure them to run as 64-bit applications, that is, to run in 64-bit mode. After doing so, you can optionally configure them to run in 32-bit mode again, if required for any reason.

Note: 64-bit mode is supported only when CA Service Catalog is installed on the Apache Jakarta Tomcat web server.

To configure CA Service Catalog products and components to run in 64-bit mode, or to return them to 32-bit mode, do the following:

  1. Verify that CA Service Catalog is installed on a 64-bit operating system.
  2. Verify that a 64-bit Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is installed locally on each computer that has a CA Service Catalog product or component installed.

    If you have not already installed a 64-bit JRE from the CA Service Catalog installation media, do so now. This JRE is located under the Utilities\Java\amd64 folder.

    To completely exploit all of the available RAM (more than 4 GB) on a 64-bit operating system, run a 64-bit JRE. In contrast, a 32-bit JRE can use only 2 GB or less of the available RAM, even on a 64-bit operating system.

  3. Record the path name of this 64-bit JRE for later use.
  4. Open the CA Service Catalog command prompt by clicking Start, Programs, CA, Service Catalog, Service Catalog Command Prompt.
  5. At the CA Service Catalog command prompt, enter one of the following commands:

    To change to 64-bit mode, enter this command: 

    ant switch-to-64-bit

    To change to 32-bit mode (the default mode), enter this command: 

    ant switch-to-32-bit
  6. When prompted, enter the path name of the 64-bit or 32-bit JRE.
  7. Wait for the ant command to complete successfully.
  8. In Windows, using the Data Sources (ODBC) Administrator option on the Control Panel, verify that a system data source name (DSN) exists for the mode you are using, as follows. If necessary, create the system DSN; for instructions, see your Windows documentation.
  9. Use the Windows Services panel to start the CA Service Catalog Windows services.

For each CA Service Catalog product or component installed locally, the ant command uninstalls the existing Windows services and installs new services with the required configuration to run in the new mode you specified (32-bit or 64-bit). Each of the following CA Service Catalog services is affected, if it is installed locally: CA Service View, CA Service Accounting, CA Service Fulfillment, CA Service Repository Agent, and Message Queue 4.1 Broker.

In 64-bit mode, the Windows services for CA Service Catalog are installed using the 64-bit versions of the required Tanuki wrapper, JRE, and license files. Similarly, in 32-bit mode, the Windows services for CA Service Catalog are installed using the 32-bit versions of the required Tanuki wrapper, JRE, and license files.

Note: Regardless of whether the Windows services for CA Service Catalog are running in 32-bit mode or 64-bit mode, CA Service Catalog batch files always use the 32-bit JRE and therefore always run in 32-bit mode.