Configure a Remote Answer System

The Answer Server configuration file contains information about the remote Answer Server that you want to connect to in your remote systems.

For any remote system, you must configure the host and port details of the remote Answer Server. You can configure it individually for each system, or define a separate configuration section that contains the details. Using a separate configuration might be useful if you have multiple systems that use the same remote Answer Server.

In the remote answer system, you also configure the name of the answer system on the remote server. When your main Answer Server forwards an Ask action to the remote server, it uses this system in the action to retrieve the correct results.

The following procedure describes how to configure a remote system in Answer Server.

For more details about the configuration parameters for the remote system, refer to the Answer Server Reference.

To configure the Remote Answer System

  1. Open the Answer Server configuration file in a text editor.

  2. Find the [Systems] section, or create one if it does not exist. This section contains a list of systems, which refer to the associated configuration sections for each system.

  3. After any existing systems, add an entry for your new remote system. For example:

    [Systems]
    0=MyAnswerBank
    1=MyFactBank
    2=MyPassageExtractor
    3=MyRemoteSystem
  4. Create a configuration section for your remote system, with the name that you specified. For example, [MyRemoteSystem].

  5. Set Type to Remote.

  6. Configure the details for the remote Answer Server that contains the full configuration for your answer system, by using one of the following methods: 

    • In the remote system configuration, set AnswerServerHost and AnswerServerACIPort to the host name and ACI Port of the remote Answer Server.
    • Define a separate configuration section that contains the Answer Server host and port details. This option might be useful if you have multiple remote answer systems on the same remote server.

      1. In the remote system configuration, set AnswerServer to the name of a configuration section where you define the Answer Server details. For example, MyRemoteAnswerServer.
      2. Create a configuration section for your remote server, with the name that you specified. For example, [MyRemoteAnswerServer].
      3. In this section, set Host and ACIPort to the host name and ACI Port of the remote Answer Server.
  7. Set any other optional parameters for your system and remote Answer Server (such as SSL settings for the remote server). For more information about the available parameters, see Remote Answer Server Configuration Parameters.

  8. Save and close the configuration file.

  9. Restart Answer Server for your changes to take effect.

For example:

[MyRemoteSystem]
Type=Remote
AnswerSystem=AnswerBank
AnswerServerACIPort=7000
AnswerServerHost=server1.example.com

[MyRemoteSystem2]
Type=Remote
AnswerSystem=FactBank1
AnswerServer=RemoteServer2

[MyRemoteSystem3]
Type=Remote
AnswerSystem=FactBank2
AnswerServer=RemoteServer2

[RemoteServer2]
Host=server2.example.com
ACIPort=7000