NetWare 5.1 Advanced Administration

Chapter 4: Building an Internet Infrastructure with NetWare 5.1

 

Objectives:

This chapter discusses installing and configuring the web based components of NetWare 5.1. The objectives important to this chapter are on page 4-1:

  1. Describe and Configure NetWare Enterprise Web Server
  2. Describe and Configure NetWare FTP Server
  3. Describe and Configure NetWare News Server
  4. Describe and Configure NetWare MultiMedia Server
  5. Describe and Configure NetWare Web Search Server
  6. Describe the Benefits of Using WebSphere
Concepts:
Introduction

Novell provides you with six tools for providing intranet and Internet services on your network. Remember: if you provide these services only within your network, that constitutes an intranet. Providing such services to the general public means connecting to the Internet. Providing distinct services to a set of clients or partners outside your company is defined as a extranet.

All the servers in this chapter are programs that run on a physical server.
NetWare Enterprise Web Server

A web server is a server that answers requests from clients for documents provided by Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). These requests are usually made from a web browser, such as Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator, or Opera. Such a server may be intended to service requests from inside a network, from outside a network, or both.

Most documents provided by a web server are written in HyperText Markup Language (HTML). HTML is a structured, tag based language. Files are saved in plain ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange), which means that they can be created and edited in any standard ASCII text editor, such as Windows Notepad.

Although HTML files are the primary medium for web servers, they can also provide access to other file types, such as:

  • Executable (EXE)
  • Video (.MOV, .AVI)
  • Audio (.AU, .WAV)
  • Graphics (.GIF, .JPEG, etc.)
  • Compressed (.ZIP)
  • Files associated with an application available to the client reading it, such as Microsoft Office files and Adobe PDF files

All web server components of NetWare 5.1 may be accessed and managed through NetWare Web Manager. To do so, you need to load some files on the server, then you access NetWare Web Manager through a browser on a workstation.

Two different commands will load the necessary NLMs on the server. You may use either one: NSWEB or ADMSERV. One of these commands is normally placed in the web server's autoexec.ncf file.

To access the NetWare Web Manager service, open a browser on a workstation, then follow the procedure below:

  1. Enter the following protocol and address in the location/address field of the browser: https://hostname:2200
    Note that you use https, not http, as the protocol. HTTPS is a more secure protocol, which this service is configured to use. For hostname, use the name of your server, followed by its domain, such as FS1.ema.com, if that is what you called it. Finally, 2200 is the default value for the port assigned to the NetWare Web Manager service. If you assigned some other number during installation of your server, use that number instead.
  2. You should see a Site Certificate screen, informing you that encryption is used at the site you are contacting. You may also see a note about the site's certificate signer not being recognized. This is normal in the lab. You should accept the certificate "until it expires", if you trust the connection to your server.
  3. You will also be asked for a user name and password. You should have set up this user name and password when you installed NetWare.
  4. After entering the proper ID and password above, you are taken to the main screen (home page) of NetWare Web Manager. Each of the components of the web services can be accessed from this screen. The management tools appear as HTML forms in the main portion of the screen.

You may not need all of the web services available in NetWare 5.1. Each is discussed separately in the chapter. Some of the details are the same in each discussion.

The NetWare Enterprise Web server is simply the service that answers HTTP requests. Its name appears in a list on the NetWare Web Manager home page. To configure the server, click the gray button with the server's name that appears under the title NetWare Enterprise Web Server.

Your text lists four ways to turn it on or off:

  1. From the NetWare Web Manager home page, click the On or Off button that appears under the server's name.
  2. From the NetWare Web Manager home page, enter the Enterprise Web Server Manager by clicking the gray button with the server's name
    1. on the top navigation bar, click Server Preferences
    2. on the side navigation bar, click On/Off
    3. click the Server On or Server Off button, as meets your need
  3. From the actual server console (command line) of the NetWare server that runs the web server program, type NSWEB to start the web server, or type NSWEBDN to stop the web server.
  4. From the Enterprise Web Server Manager
    1. click Available Options
    2. click the Restart Webserver to restart, or click Shutdown Webserver to stop the web server

The changes to the web server noted above are immediate (give or take a few seconds). Normal configuration changes require more than clicking a single button. When you make such changes, you will need to click a Save button, confirm the save, and then return to the main page of the Web Server Manager by clicking the Admin link found in the upper right portion of the screen.

As illustrated in your text, when the web server software is installed, a default directory (primary directory) for web documents is created on the server. It is located at sys:\novonyx\suitespot\docs. You may configure the server to use some other directory as the default.

Whatever directory you specify as the default, your users need not know it exists. Whatever directory you make the default directory, any document you place in that directory will appear to users as being at the root of the server. For example, you might place a document called FAQ.HTML in the default location.

Actual path to file: servername\sys:\novonyx\suitespot\docs\faq.html
Address user types in browser: http://servername/faq.html

Another way of saying this is that the URL for your server points directly to the default directory for that server.

Any subdirectory that you place in the default directory will appear to users as a directory off the root of the server. This saves users from having to remember the actual long pathname, and it gives you an element of security. Another advantage exists: if you move your files to another location, you need only tell the server the name of the new default directory. Users need not be involved.

The default document directory is also called the primary document directory. To change which directory is used for this purpose:

  1. Open Web Server Manager
  2. Select Content Management
  3. Select Primary Document Directory
  4. In the Primary Directory field, enter the full pathname of the directory you want to use as the primary document directory.
  5. Save and apply the changes.

You may also designate other URLs for your web server. You can point these URLs directly at additional other directories, called virtual directories. They are called this because you may tell users to drill down to a specific directory that does not actually exist. To define virtual directories:

  1. In Enterprise Web Server Manager, select Content Management
  2. Select Additional Document Directories
  3. In the URL Prefix field, enter the directory name you want users to use/know/remember. (This can be the name of a directory that does not exist!)
    For example, if you enter secrets and your DNS hostname is www.ema.com, users who access www.ema.com/secrets/ with a web browser will actually retrieve documents from the directory you specify in Step 4.
  4. In the Map to Directory field, enter the absolute path of the directory you want the URL prefix to map to, using the following syntax:
    servername/vol:/directory/subdirectory
    Note that this actual directory may be on another server, another volume, and may have a completely different name from the name you give to your users.
  5. Save and apply the changes.

From the Web Server Manager, click Content Management (in the top bar), and Document Preferences (in the side bar) to set three different types of settings on the server:

  • Index filenames - users are often given the name of directory as a URL pointer, not the name of a file. Most of you reading this page arrived here by browsing to home.att.net/~s.k.vincent. From the discussion above, you should now be suspicious that that is not the actual location you are reading from on AT&T's server. The short explanation is that the URL points to a directory that belongs to me. One more piece of magic is needed: what file to open from that directory. This file is called the index file.

    Every web server can be told one or more filenames to open as the default file in a directory if the browser does not specify which file it is requesting. For the NetWare Web Server, the default names are index.html and home.html. If the first file is present, that is the one that opens. If the first file is not present, the server looks for the second one. The filenames are entered in a field, separated by commas.

  • Directory indexing - So, what happens if you are missing an appropriately named default file? Your users will get a list of the files in the directory IF and ONLY IF you have allowed them to see this list. (Otherwise they get an error message.) You have three choices for this setting: Fancy directory listing (names, sizes, dates, etc.), Simple directory listing (mostly just names), or None (that error message we talked about appears.)

  • Server home page - You can tell the server to use the default index file as the home page of the directory, or you can name a specific file instead.

For the average user to access the files in your web directories (using the browser), the administrator must grant public access to those directories. To do so:

  1. In the Web Server Manager, click Server Preferences (on the top bar)
  2. Click Restrict Access (on the side bar)
  3. Click the Insert Directory button
  4. Enter the path to the directory, starting with the server name
  5. Save your changes and restart the web server

For special users to have access to web directories and files, create a Group object, assign users to that Group, and assign appropriate File System rights to the Group regarding the directories and files. If you only want them to browse the files, they need Read and File Scan rights. When users attempt to access files in these directories, they will be asked for their user ID and password.

By default, users do not have the right to execute files in web directories. This means that they cannot use Perl (.pl) documents, Active Server Pages (.asp), or Server-Side JavaScript documents (.web). To enable users to do so:

  1. From NetWare Web Manager, select either the Users and Groups link in the top frame or select your server name under the Novell Directory Services (NDS) label.
  2. Navigate to the folder or file you want executable files to run in and select the Access Control List link.
  3. To the right of File Attributes, select the square button for Execute.
  4. Click Save.

NetWare FTP Server

The next topic in the chapter is NetWare FTP Server. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, the protocol in the TCP/IP suite that is used for copying and moving files.

Most browsers support FTP. One way to use FTP with a browser is to contact the FTP server on a network, using the name of the server, and opening the address request with ftp:// instead of http://.

This section of the chapter is structured the same as the preceding section. Mainly the commands are different.

To configure the FTP server, click the gray button with the server's name that appears under the title NetWare FTP Server.

Your text lists three ways to turn it on or off:

  1. From the NetWare Web Manager home page, click the On or Off button that appears under the FTP server's name.
  2. From the NetWare Web Manager home page, enter the FTP Server Manager by clicking the gray button with the FTP server's name
    1. on the top navigation bar, click Server Preferences
    2. on the side navigation bar, click On/Off
    3. click the Server On or Server Off button, as meets your need
  3. From the actual server console (command line) of the NetWare server that runs the FTP server program, type NWFTPD to start the FTP server, or type unload NWFTPD to stop the FTP server.

The FTP server is configured by settings saved in this file: SYS:/ETC/FTPSERV.CFG. The settings are created and saved by using FTP Server Manager, which is accessed through NetWare Web Manager.

The default file directory for the FTP server is SYS:PUBLIC. To change this:

  1. In FTP Server Manager, select Server Preferences.
  2. Select User Settings.
  3. In the Default Home Directory field, enter the directory path, using the following format: volume:/directory/subdirectory
  4. Click Save.
  5. When notified that your changes are saved, click OK.
  6. Restart the FTP server.

File restrictions for the FTP server are saved in a separate configuration file:
SYS:/ ETC/FTPREST.TXT. To set rights, manually edit this file. There are five rights/restrictions that may be set for users at each of four levels.

Rights may be assigned to containers, users, domains, and hosts. The possible rights are:

  • DENY- No access to the FTP
  • READONLY - Gives read-only access
  • NOREMOTE - Restricts access to remote server navigation
  • GUEST - Gives only Guest access to the user (Novell does not define what this means)
  • ALLOW - Gives full access to the FTP server

Overlapping rights assignments are possible. In the case of multiple assignments, read the lines in sequence to see what rights are actually in effect. For example, the text suggests that the following rights may be granted by three lines in the SYS:/ ETC/FTPREST.TXT file.

*.ema ACCESS=ALLOW
This means anyone in ema or below has full rights. Everyone in the Tree seems to have rights.

*.corp.ema ACCESS=DENY
This means that no one from corp down has any rights. Other containers in ema still have their rights from the line above. So this line limited the rights granted above.

.user1.corp.ema ACCESS=READONLY
This means that one specific user (user1) in corp is granted Read Only rights. This line opened up the restrictions set in the line above for one user. Viewing the three lines from this user's perspective, first he had full rights, then he had none, and now he has Read Only.

If you intend to provide FTP access to users who are not logged in to your system, you will want to enable anonymous user access. This requires that you create a user in your Tree called anonymous, and grant appropriate NDS and NFS rights to that user. It also requires that you configure three settings through FTP Server Manager:

  • Allow anonymous access: YES or NO (default: NO)
  • Anonymous users home directory: volume:/directory/subdirectory (default: SYS:/PUBLIC)
  • Require e-mail address for password: YES or NO (default: YES)

 

NetWare News Server

A news server is a program that provides access to public and private discussion groups. A discussion group is a collection of messages stored on one or more news servers. Each discussion group is supposed to be related to a particular topic, but people often post whatever they please.

Software called a newsreader (often a browser) connects to a news server to retrieve messages from the discussion groups. The protocol used for this transfer of messages is Network News Transport Protocol (NNTP). This protocol is used to post messages, retrieve and read messages, and to share messages from one server to another.

Public discussion groups on the Internet are grouped together under the title Usenet.

As you should expect by now, some common feature are present for the NetWare News Server.

To configure the NetWare News Server, click the gray button with the server's name that appears under the title NetWare News Server.

Your text lists four ways to turn it on or off:

  1. From the NetWare Web Manager home page, click the On or Off button that appears under the NetWare News Server's name.
  2. From the NetWare Web Manager home page, enter the NetWare News Server Manager by clicking the gray button with the NetWare News Server's name
    1. on the top navigation bar, click Server Preferences
    2. on the side navigation bar, click Start/Stop The Server.
    3. click the Start or Stop button, as meets your need
  3. From the actual server console (command line) of the NetWare server that runs the news server program, type NSNEWS to start the news server, or type NVXNEWDN to stop the news server.
  4. From the NetWare News Server console screen, shut down and restart the news server from the Available Options screen by choosing Restart News Server or Shutdown News Server.

Three major steps in configuring the news server are discussed.

When you install the server, a spool directory is created. A spool directory is where all the messages for the news server are kept. (Note that the book refers to messages as "articles"). The default location of the spool directory is
SYS:/ NOVONYX/SUITESPOT/NEWS-servername/SPOOL. This location is not a good idea if you have a news group that is heavily used, or if you connect to Usenet on the Internet. In either case, you should move the spool directory. (Remember, never do anything that will allow the SYS: volume to become full. The server will stop running.)

To move the spool directory:

  1. From the General Administration page in NetWare Web Manager, stop the news server
  2. Copy the SPOOL folder (and all its subdirectories) to a new location
  3. In NetWare Web Manager, select the News Server servername | Server Preferences | Technical Settings.
  4. Under Spool Directory Location in the Spool Directory field, enter the new location, using the following format: server/volume:/directory/subdirectory
  5. Click OK.

The second configuration task is creating discussion groups. The process to do so follows:

  1. In NetWare Web Manager, select the News Server servername | Discussion Groups | Manage Discussion Groups | OK
  2. Select the parent discussion group or select the root-level discussion group to add a top-level discussion group (a group with no parent group)
  3. Click New
  4. In the Name field, enter the name of the discussion group that users will see. (The name cannot include spaces, most special characters, numbers, or uppercase letters, unless you specifically configure the server to allow for them)
  5. In the optional Description field, enter the discussion group topic. This field can include spaces, lowercase and uppercase letters, and special characters
  6. Click Categorized Discussion Group or Standard Discussion Group
  7. Under Advanced Options, select the options that apply to your configuration
  8. Click Submit.

The third configuration task is setting control access for NDS users. You can turn on Access Control in the Web Manager, which allows you to grant rights to the discussion group files and directories by assigning rights to users, groups, containers, etc. in NetWare Administrator.

A user who is allowed to read a discussion group only needs Read and File Scan rights. A user who is going to post to the groups needs Read, File Scan, Create, and Write rights.

NetWare Multimedia Server

We have already stated that the web server can provide many kinds of files to users. The purpose of the Multimedia server is to provide streaming media services, such as live audio or video NetWare Multimedia Server uses Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) to support streaming audio and video on the network.

The following file formats are supported:

  • WAV - for digital audio (waveform) data
  • MP3 (MPEG-1 layer III) - a data-reduced (compressed) audio format
  • RM - RealVideo file format, a common Internet audio and video format; supports streaming and live Web casts

All three file types listed above are supported by various media players. Novell recommends RealPlayer, from Real Networks Inc.

As usual, to configure the NetWare Multimedia Server, click the gray button with the server's name that appears under the title NetWare Multimedia Server.

Your text lists three ways to turn it on or off:

  1. From the NetWare Web Manager home page, click the On or Off button that appears under the NetWare Multimedia Server's name.
  2. From the NetWare Web Manager home page, enter the NetWare Multimedia Server Manager by clicking the gray button with the NetWare Multimedia Server's name
    1. on the top navigation bar, click Server Preferences
    2. on the side navigation bar, click On/Off.
    3. Click the Server On or Server Off button, as meets your need
  3. From the actual server console (command line) of the NetWare server that runs the Multimedia server program, type UMEDIA to restart the Multimedia server, or type MEDIA to stop the Multimedia server.

Two major steps in configuring the Multimedia server are discussed.

By default, the path to the multimedia files is SYS:/PUBLIC/MEDIACONTENT. You can change this assignment.

  1. Open the NetWare Multimedia Server Manager and select Server Settings
  2. Enter the desired path for multimedia files, including volume and directories, such as
    WEB:\ MULTIMEDIAFILES
  3. Click Save
  4. Stop and restart the multimedia server.

The second configuration problem involves the use of bandwidth on your network. NetWare Multimedia Server can be set to use an adaptive quality of service (Adaptive QoS). (Is that Klingon?) The service can be assigned a value from 0 to 100. 0 (zero) means that the adaptive service is disabled. 100 means that the stream of data from the server to the client will adapt as much as possible based on present conditions. This value is set under Server Settings.

 

NetWare Web Search Server

The last NetWare product discussed in the chapter is the NetWare Web Search Server, which provides searching and printing services. It is possible to search multiple servers on your net simultaneously, and to print from multiple documents.

The Web Search Server has some built in features that work best if you use default settings. For example, your web documents need to be indexed in order to be searched. Indexing will take place automatically if you use the default web document directory, SYS:/NOVONYX/SUITESPOT/DOCS. If you store your web documents elsewhere, you will have to index them yourself.

The Web Search Server uses a search template. This enables users to specify what they are searching for. The method to access the template is to browse to your web server, following the server's URL with a a slash and the word NOVELLSEARCH. For example, we might use the address 

fs1.ema.com/NOVELLSEARCH

As you should expect by now, to configure the NetWare Web Search Server, click the gray button with the server's name that appears under the title NetWare Web Search Server.

Your text lists two ways to turn it on or off:

  1. From the NetWare Web Manager home page, click the On or Off button that appears under the NetWare Web Search Server's name.
  2. From the NetWare Web Manager home page, enter the NetWare Web Search Server Manager by clicking the gray button with the NetWare Web Search Server's name
    1. on the top navigation bar, click Server Preferences
    2. on the side navigation bar, click On/Off.
    3. Click the Server On or Server Off button, as meets your need

Three major steps in configuring the Web Search server are discussed.

Building a Collection is actually defining the path to files that should be searched. By doing this, you are providing a Collection Name to users that will stand for the actual path to the files. The Collection Name should be meaningful to the users of the search engine. Multiple collections may be created.

To define a Collection:

  1. Open the web search server administration page and select
    Configuration.
  2. Select Define new file system collection; then click Define
  3. Enter the collection name and path to files that will be searched
  4. Click OK

As stated above, the files to be searched need to be indexed. Your book refers to the indexing process as crawling. You tell the Search server the name of a collection to start in, and it crawls through files in it, looking for hyperlinks to other files.

To index a Collection:

  1. Under the Collections label of NetWare Web Search Manager, click the Maintenance link
  2. Select Update
  3. Select the name of your collection
  4. Click Submit.

The last customization topic for the Web Search Server is customizing Search Templates. Search Templates are used by users to request searches, and they can be customized for look and feel, as well as for what results they return. Eight templates are listed in the text. These templates are preconfigured for specific purposes, but you may change any of them. Note that only the first template is for requests, the other seven are for results.

Template Name Features
SearchTemplate.html Default form for requesting a search
ResultListTemplate.html Produces lists, offers
additional sorting functions to the user
ResultListNoHitsTemplate.html Returns when no hits are found, offers users a chance to refine the search
ResultListTerseTemplate.html Similar to ResultListTemplate, returns less information, such as headings only instead of headings and text.
ResultListVerboseTemplate.html Allows users to sort search results
ErrorMessageTemplate.html Returns error messages
ResponseMessageTemplate.html Returns a specific message, such as “Print job exceeds recommended size limits,” to the user.
PrintResultTemplate.html Formats and organizes search results, optimized for printing. Includes a complete table of contents.

The default request template is located at SYS:/NSEARCH/TEMPLATES/SEARCHTEMPLATE.HTML

To customize the behavior of these forms, use the search variables you will find in them. The search variables may be identified by the fact that their names are preceded by two dollar signs ($$). For example $$TotalHits is a search variable that holds the number of total hits encountered in a search.

 

Using WebSphere

The last objective of the chapter is understanding IBM WebSphere. WebSphere falls into the category of Web Application Server. Novell's point here is that WebSphere will enable you to provide application service to users with applications built to run on the web. The applications they are talking about use Java components, scripts, and other features not found in traditional (Windows) applications.

WebSphere can be used to create web sites and web applications. A list of features it supports is given:

  • Java Servlets
  • Java Server Pages
  • XML
  • Enterprise Java Beans
  • Transactional Processing
  • Robust Database Connectivity

Two development tools that come with WebSphere are listed:

  • WebSphere Studio - for development of web-based content, it provides wizards, content management, content authoring, and component development
  • VisualAge for Java Enterprise Edition - a Java environment for application programming.

A short list of minimum hardware requirements for running WebSphere on a NetWare server:

  • 200 MHz Pentium processor or faster (400 MHz recommended)
  • 40 MB free disk space
  • 256 MB RAM (512 MB recommended. The installation package will allow you to install with insufficient memory. You are warned not to run the product until you upgrade the server.)
  • a video system capable of at least 800 by 600 pixel display

A short list of minimum software requirements for running WebSphere on a NetWare server:

  • NetWare 5.1
  • NetWare Enterprise Web Server version 3.51 or 3.6.

A software requirement for workstations:

  • web browser that supports HTML 4 and cascading style sheets (e.g. Navigator 4.07 or Internet Explorer 4.01 or later) to access Administration Console help

WebSphere can be installed on a server while you install NetWare or afterward. To install during a NetWare installation, just select WebSphere in the list of products to install. To install afterward:

  1. Insert the NetWare 5.1 CD into the server's CD drive. (Load the CD drivers, if not already loaded.)
  2. Use either NWCONFIG or the NetWare GUI Install option to install
    a new product
  3. When prompted, enter the CD path. A series of screens and prompts follow, which allow you to select the product to install (WebSphere Application Server).

After installing the product, adjust the display settings of your server, if necessary, to 800 by 600 or greater. You can do this in the Server GUI by selecting Novell | Settings | GUI Configuration. You can also do it by editing SYS:\SYSTEM\XSETUP.NCF.

To finish configuration and to test the installation, you will need to launch the WebSphere Administrator Console from either the NetWare GUI or from the command line.

  • To launch from the GUI, select Novell | WebSphere | Administrator's Console.
  • To launch from the NetWare command line (server console), enter ADMINCLIENT.

To finish and confirm installation from WebSphere Administrator Console:

  1. Select the Topology tab and double-click the WebSphere Admin Domain
  2. Select Start (Three ways, choose one: right-click, start, or select and click the green button at the top).
  3. To verify that the servlet engine is running, from the server console enter 
    RUN JAVA-SHO

    It should display a message stating that com.ibm.ejs.sm.server.ManagedServer is running.
  4. Verify that the WebSphere Application Server servlet engine is running correctly from the client by loading the snoop servlet using one of the following URLs:
    http://serverURL/servlet/SnoopServlet or
    http://serverURL/servlet/SimpleServlet
  5. Verify that the WebSphere Application Server static content was installed correctly by loading the following URL at your browser:
    http://serverURL/WebSphereSamples

The book contains a warning note that the samples on the page above require you to have already installed and configured Oracle 8i on your server. (Nice time to mention it.)

Finally, to stop and restart the WebSphere Application Server, do the following:

  1. From the WebSphere Administrator Console, select Topology; then
    select the default_server entry.
  2. To stop the server, click the red button in the toolbar at the top of the
    page.
  3. To start the server, click the green button. (Also, right-clicking the
    default server provides a popup menu with start and stop options.)