Novell Netware is based on the concept of using software modules, called Netware Loadable Modules (NLMs), to extend the functionality of Netware. The use of these modules helps make installations and upgrades faster and easier with less down time when upgrades are being performed.
Novell's Netware Web Server is a high performance Web server capable of providing superior data through-put while offering the ease of installation and configuration features Novell products are known for.
The Netware Web Server is a set of Netware NLMs that run on a Netware 4.x server and responds to requests for documents from other computers, using HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). A request identifies the document by Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The most commonly requested documents are HyperText Markup Language (HTML) documents, but the server can handle requests for any type of file. These documents, referred to as Web pages, can contain any type of information and usually consist of text and graphics. Web pages can also contain sound and movie files as well as other multimedia elements.
In this chapter, you will learn about the following:
The different modules required for the Web Server vary depending on the release, but for the current release, v2.0, the following basic modules are present:
| pinstall.nlm | This nlm provides the product installation screen during initial installation. |
| pconfig.nlm | This nlm provides the product configuration screen during initial installation. |
| docupd.nlm | This nlm is the installation utility. |
| webinst.nlm | This is the Web server initialization utility used to start, and restart, the Web server. |
| uninstal.nlm | This allows for the product to be removed from the Netware server. |
| pwgen.nlm | This nlm generates the password for the Web server. The password is created in the Web Manager utility. |
| netdb.nlm | This nlm provides access to the network database. |
| http.nlm | This is the actual Web server nlm. By default this server listens for requests on TCP port 8000. The server has an information screen that provides directory information, number of requests made to the server, amount of information sent by the server, as well as errors logged and a description of the past nine errors. |
| basic.nlm | This nlm is the Basic Script Server. By default this server listens for requests on TCP port 8001. |
| perl.nlm | This nlm is the Perl Script Server. By default this server listens for requests on TCP port 8002. |
| perlglob.nlm | This nlm is used in conjunction with the perl.nlm. |
| libgcc.nlm | This allows GCC floating point math glue routines to be performed by the HTTP server. |
Before installing the Netware Web Server there are a few important items to point out that will help you with installing and using the Web Server.
By default, Netware 4.1 sets the maximum number of packet receive buffers to 100. This number is not sufficient for the Netware Web Server to run reliably, and the Netware server is very likely to abend. Abend errors on Netware servers are critical software processing errors, and for the most part prevent the server from processing any requests until the system has been restarted. Before you install the product, increase the maximum number of packet receive buffers to 1000. You should add the following command to the SYS:\SYSTEM\AUTOEXEC.NCF file:
set maximum receive buffers=1000
If you reinstall the Web server, the installation will overwrite the configuration files in the \WEB\CONFIG directory. If you want to keep your existing configuration, you will have to save the configuration files with different file names, and then restore the files after the software installation.
By default the Netware Web Server supports only the English language. When installing the Web server on a Netware server with the Netware server's LANGUAGE set to either German, Spanish, Italian, or French the Web server installation module will load displaying prompts and instructions in English, and not the language the Netware server is set to use. You do not need to change the LANGUAGE parameter value to English.
TCP/IP must be configured and loaded before proceding with the Netware Web Server installation.
| NOTE |
If you are installing the Netware Web Server on a Netware 4.1 SMP Server, the Web Server installation utility will automatically install a SMP version of the WebNLM (HTTPSMP.NLM) to the SYS:SYSTEM directory. If you are using Netware 4.1 SMP, you will need to manually unload the Web server (HTTP.NLM). The HTTP.NLM is for the single-processor version of Netware. You will then need to load HTTPSMP.NLM. To do this, type the following commands at the server console prompt: unload http <enter> You will then need to edit the SYS:\SYSTEM\UNISTART.NCF file to load HTTPSMP.NLM and SYS:\SYSTEM\UNISTOP.NCF file to unload HTTPSMP.NLM. |
Installation of the Netware Web Server is very simple. The experienced Netware administrater should be able to install and configure the software in 10 to 15 minutes.
To install the Web server insert the Netware Web Server CD-ROM into the server's CD-ROM drive. At the server console prompt type the following commands:
LOAD CDROM <ENTER> CD MOUNT WEB: <ENTER> LOAD INSTALL <ENTER>
In the Installation Options menu make the following selections:
PRODUCT OPTIONS
INSTALL A PRODUCT NOT LISTED
When prompted press the F3 function key to select a source other than drive A:. Type in the following path:
WEB:\DISK1\ <ENTER>
The installation utility will start and the message that there is a README.TXT file to read over will appear. Press the ESC key to continue. You will want to view the README.TXT file before continuing. When you are finished with the README.TXT file you will be brought back to this same screen after pressing the ESC key. Select NO to continue with the installation.
If your server does not have a HOSTS file in the SYS:\ETC directory, you will be prompted to enter a host name. If your server does have a host file and there is a name entered in the file, you can just press <ENTER> to continue.
During the copy process you will be asked if you want to install the online documentation. The Web Server online documentation does not contain any information to assist you with configuring the Web server software, but it does contain useful information to assist you with developing Web pages.
| NOTE |
If you have a HOSTS file, and you do not remember the host name, you will need to get the host name before continuing. The easiest way to get the needed information is from a work station connected to the Netware server. Use a text editor in Windows or OS/2, or from DOS you can use EDIT or the TYPE command. |
You will then be prompted for a password for the Web server. Anytime you make changes in the Netware Web Server Administration Utility you will be prompted for this password before you can successfully save the changes.
| NOTE |
We have noticed that if the incorrect password is entered when trying to save changes to the Server Administration Utility a General Protection Fault will likely occur. If this happens, it is best to exit then restart Windows. |
When the installation is completed you can press the ESC key four times to exit back to the server console prompt.
Now you are ready to configure the Netware Web Server. When prepairing to configure the server you will need to perform the following tasks:
When a browser makes a request to the Web server the request is logged to the ACCESS.LOG file. The ACCESS.LOG file is in the SYS:\WEB\LOGS directory. Normally the server records the entries with IP addresses. If you want the server to record host names, you will need to set up the name resolution for the server.
You can configure your name resolution as follows:
127.0.0.1 loopback lb localhost local
IP_address domain_name
IP_address domain_name_offsite_DNS
IP_address router
IP_address dialin_banks
Before starting the Netware Web Server administration utility you will need to map a drive for the Web server. The mapped drive needs to be on the SYS: volume on the Netware server that contains the Web server software. You can map the drive from either DOS or Windows. The system administrator can setup a permanent mapping in his login script or in Windows if so desired. If the drive was mapped in DOS, start Windows. Once Windows has started you can create a new program item for the Web server administration utility either on your desktop or in the Netware Tools group.
| NOTE |
The Server Administration Utility runs in Windows, and there is not a DOS based version available. |
The command line on your mapped drive is:
\PUBLIC\WEBMGR.EXE
The working directory on your mapped drive is:
\WEB
| NOTE |
If the incorrect password is entered when trying to save changes to the Server Administration Utility, a General Protection Fault will likely occur. If this happens, it is best to exit then restart Windows. |
Start the Web Server Administration Utility (see figure 6.1). Select the \WEB directory on the Netware Web Server's mapped drive, and click OK. The first page that is displayed is the Server tab page.
Figure 6.1 : The Select Web Server Window.
Now that a server is selected you can procede with configuring the Web Server for use. The Administration Utility can also be used to modify the servers settings to add new users, Web page directories, or add access privilages to other network systems.
The Administration Utility is composed of five seperate configuration pages. Each page is assigned to a specific area of the server's configuration. Each of the configuration pages is assigned a heading tab. The headings are as follows:
| NOTE |
The Netware Web Server has a default configuration that allows all users and all systems to access documents published on the server. |
The majority of Web servers on the Internet, and on Intranets, use their host names rather then just their IP addresses, if the Netware server uses a DNS server. Type the fully qualified DNS name for this server in the full server name field. If your site does not have its own DNS server, leave your IP address in this field. You will then need to verify that the HOSTS and RESOLV.CFG files are properly setup. We will get to those later.
By default the Web server will listen for HTTP requests on port 80. This is the standard setting for HTTP servers. If the server should listen for requests on a port other than port 80, type the port number in this field.
This field is used for the system administrator's e-mail address. This can be used for users to report problems with the Web server to the administrator.
| NOTE |
System administrators can also setup e-mail accounts for problem reports using the Web site's e-mail server. |
This field contains the entry for the default directory name that contains your HTML documents. This field can contain the full or relative path to the Web server's root directory. The default entry is DOCS.
This field contains the entry for the default directory name that contains your log files. This directory contains your access.log, error.log, debug.log, etc. files. This field can contain the full or relative path to the Web server's root directory. The default entry is LOGS.
To allow users of your system to publish their own Web documents from their home directories leave the "x" in the ENABLE USER DOCUMENTS box. If you leave this option enabled, you can leave the user subdirectory set to PUBLIC.WWW or change the name of the directory they publish their documents from. This directory is relative to the user's home directory.
The following tasks can be performed from the Directory tab page, which is shown in figure 6.3:
Figure 6.3 : The Directory tab page.
| NOTE |
You can add a new directory to the document tree by creating a new directory under the document root in DOS or in File Manager. The documents and images stored in the directory will be accessible by Web clients immediately. The new directory inherits the directory options and access control settings from the parent directory. To change the directory options and access control settings start the Web server administrator utility and select the directory on this tab page. |
This field contains the list of directories in the document tree. The document tree is the directory structure of the Web server's file system that has been setup to store documents for the Web. Web browsers can only access documents that are in the document tree, and can't access other directories on the Netware server.
This field displays the path for the directory selected in the Existing Directories Field. It can also display the directory you are adding to or deleting from the document tree.
This field has a drop-down list to select the contents of the selected directory. You must fill in the Contains Field when adding a new directory to the document tree. You can choose from documents, images, or scripts.
Contains check boxes for enabling automatic directory indexing and server-side includes for the selected directory.
Automatic Directory Indexing enables the Web server to generate an index automatically when a browser sends an URL that contains a request on a directory instead of a file. Automatic Directory Indexing can be useful if a directory contains many files or the documents in the directory are changed often and there is not an INDEX.HTM file in the directory.
Server-Side Includes (SSIs) are contained inside the HTML documents. SSIs allow the Web server to modify documents that have a .SSI file extension to enhance capabilities of Web documents. One of the features of using SSIs is to allow a document to request another document inside the calling document.
This field contains check box options for enabling automatic directory indexing options. These options are only available if automatic directory indexing is enabled for the selected directory.
The User Access tab page is used to restrict directory access to only authorized users (see figure 6.4). This feature is useful for allowing access only to qualified users.
Figure 6.4 : The User Access tab page is used to restrict directory access to authorized users.
| NOTE |
Useful for allowing departments to share information on projects that are in a need to know phase. |
This field contains a drop-down list of all the directories that you have access to for authorizing access to.
Describes the type of authentication used to restrict users. A drop-down list is available to choose an authentication method from. You can use Netware Directory Services (NDS) authentication or you can make your own text-based username/password file services.
This is a list of all the users you can allow to access the selected directory using the selected authentication method. The users that are selected for a particular directory will be the only users allowed access to the directory.
Contains all the users who have access to the selected directory. Users can be added to this list by selecting a user entry from the Network Users List and clicking the Add to Authorized Users list button. Users can be removed from this list by selecting the entry you want to remove and clicking the Remove button.
The System Access tab page is used to restrict directory access to authorized systems. This feature is useful for allowing access only to qualified systems.
Figure 6.5 : The System Access tab page.
This field contains a drop-down list of all directories for which you can set up access control.
This field identifies the systems you want to allow directory access to. This field requires either the full or partial IP address or the fully qualified DNS domain name or hostname of the systems you want to be able to access the selected directory.
When access is restricted to authorized systems, the Web server checks the Web client's IP address or DNS domain name before fulfilling a document request. Access can be restricted to authorized systems by the following methods:
Contains the list that lists all IP addresses or domains that currently have access to the selected directory. Entries can be added to this list by typing an IP address or domain name in the appropriate field and then clicking the Add to Authorized systems list button. Entries can be removed by selecting the entry you want to remove and clicking the Remove button.
Restrict directory access to authorized systems with this procedure:
This page is used to manage the logging files.
Figure 6.6 : The Logs tab page.
This field contains option buttons that specify whether or not the Web server starts a new log file when a log file reaches a set maximum size.
When the ACCESS.LOG file reaches its maximum size, the server saves the file to ACCESS.1. Then a new ACCESS.LOG file is opened. If the option not to roll the log files is selected, the server keeps adding to the log files until the logs are manually cleared.
This field contains option buttons that specify whether or not the Web server generates a Debug Log. If the option to generate a Debug Log is selected, a log file will be created to assist in troubleshooting if any problems occur while using the Web server. To view the Debug Log in the Netware Web server administration utility select the LOG menu and click on Open Debug.
This field specifies the maximum size of the log files in kilobytes. The values of this field can be set if the Log File Handling field is set up to roll the log files. The server will close the log file when it reaches the maximum size specified, and then continue logging with a new file.
This field specifies the number of old log files the server will save. The value of this field can be set if the Log File Handling field is set up to roll logs. When the /LOGS directory contains the maximum number of old log files specified the server will delete the oldest log file, and then open a new file.
When the Web server is installed the Netware Configuration Files (NCF), unistart.ncf and unistop.ncf, are automatically updated or created.
The following is an example unistart.ncf file.
load netdir load rpcbstub load tcp_nd load local_nd load tirpc load netdb load dispatch load nisbind load nisserv load unixlib load hostg load nisswdd load http.nlm -d sys:Web load basic.nlm -d sys:Web load perl.nlm
The following is an example unistop.ncf file.
unload netdir unload rpcbstub unload tcp_nd unload local_nd unload tirpc unload netdb unload dispatch unload nisbind unload nisserv unload unixlib unload hostg unload nisswdd unload http.nlm -d sys:Web unload basic.nlm -d sys:Web unload perl.nlm
The unistart.ncf file is automatically added to the Autoexec.ncf file. This allows the necessary files needed to start the Web server to be loaded during system startup.
If your server has a SYS:ETC\RESOLV.CFG file you should make sure that:
The following is an example RESOLV.CFG file.
domain company_name.com nameserver 167.95.7.2 nameserver 167.95.2.3 nameserver 127.0.0.1
Set the rights to the \CONFIG directory (SYS:WEB\CONFIG by default) so that the people responsible for administering the Web server are the only people with rights to this directory.
Set the rights to the scripts directories (SYS:WEB\SCRIPTS, SYS:WEB\ SCRIPTS\PERL and any other script directories you create) so that only people responsible for writing, managing, or editing the scripts have rights to these directories.
Once the Web server has started you can test the connection to the server by logging in on a workstation and running an internet Web browser. With the browser running enter the location of your Web server, http://company_name.com/. If this does not work, then try entering the ip address of your server, http://ip_address/.
| NOTE |
If your Netware server is not using extended file names, you can save all your HTML documents with the extension .HTM. If your server is using the extended file names, then you can save your files with the .HTML extension. |
The Netware Web Server comes with sample .htm files, and has a prewritten INDEX.HTM file so you can easily test the server. There are also sample Pearl and script files included with the server. They are kept in the PEARL and SCRIPT directories. A few images are also included, but they are very basic images.
| NOTE |
If you update the Web Server software, run UNISTOP to unload the Web server and its supporting modules. Install the updated software, and then restart the Netware server. To verify the update is running correctly it is recommended to use CONLOG or a DEBUG log file. |
Occasionally the Netware Web Server will have problems running. If the Web server itself has an error, it will halt the Netware Server with an abend error, which means the server will need to be downed and restarted.
If errors continue, verify the error you are receiving when the abend occurs. You can also use the DEBUG log file feature in the Administration Utility application to see if errors are being logged by the Web server. If the debug log file does not show any problems, you can use the CONLOG. A conlog file will keep track of the all the messages the Netware server reports. This is very usefull for verifing the server's startup procedure since many modules are loaded, and rarely will you have time to properly note the error condition before it scrolls off the screen. A conlog is started by adding the following line to the start of the Autoexec.ncf file:
LOAD CONLOG
The conlog file can be read from the server or from a workstation that has administrative access.
Additional information about the Netware Web Server can be accessed on the Internet at Novell's site. The address to Novell's Home Page is http://www.novell.com.