These notes were last updated August 18, 2000.

These release notes contain important information about Netscape Console 4.0. Please read these notes before using the product.

Installation Instructions and Release Notes for all  4.0 versions of Netscape servers are available online at this location: http://home.netscape.com/eng/server

Use of this product is subject to the terms detailed in the license agreement accompanying it.

Netscape Console incorporates compression code by the Info-ZIP group. There are no extra charges or costs due to the use of this code, and
the original compression sources are freely available from ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/ on the Internet.
 

• What's New in This Release
• Potential Problems and Solutions
• Changes to the Documentation
• Where to Go for Other Information

What's New in This Release

This version of Netscape Console does all of the following:

• Implements a unified administration interface for intranets, extranets and the Internet.
• Supports LDAP version 3, the latest version of the Internet-standard directory access protocol.
• Simplifies Netscape server deployment through a central installation dashboard.
• Enables the extranet with secure management using Java over SSL.
• Supports JDK 1.1, the latest version of Java.
• Has an extensible architecture for easy drop-in to existing environments.
• Includes tools for rapid application development.

Potential Problems and Solutions

1. To start an SSL-enabled Administration Server without manually entering a password, do the following:
   1. Create a text file that will contain your security device passwords.
   2. Add entries to this file using the following format: <token name>: <password>
      For instance, if you are using the internal software token, you would enter internal (software): <password> where <password> is the password for the token. If you are using additional tokens, add each one's name and password on a new line.
   3. In the <server root>/admin-serv/config directory, create a text file called custom.conf.
   4. Add the following line to custom.conf: pinFile: <pin file> where <pinfile> is the full path to the text file containing passwords.
2. If you are are using SSL, you need to be aware of important information related to root certificate expiration by the end of 1999. At a minimum, you may need to ask your users to upgrade their browsers to Communicator 4.7. Depending on how you are using SSL, you may also need to update the root certificate in your server. For important and urgent information on root certificate expiration, see Digital Certificate Security Alert.
3. If your configuration directory is running on Netscape Directory Server 4.0 or lower, you may receive an "error 14" message when performing Console operations (392925). This is because Console 4.0 requires schema updates to the directory. To fix this problem, install the latest version of iPlanet Directory Server.
4. If you lose a network connection while Netscape Console is running, Netscape Console may become inoperative.  Re-establish your network connection, then restart Netscape Console. (106714)
5. Netscape Console 4.0 does not support SSL server authentication.  (123285)
6. When the default language requires a uid in a  form other than the default (user's first initial followed by last name), you must manually override the nsuserformat attribute in the configuration directory. (117507) To change the nsuseridformat attribute:
1. In the Netscape Console, open the Directory Server that contains the configuration directory you want to modify.
2. In the Directory Server, click Directory.
3. Expand the navigation tree to follow this path:   NetscapeRoot/[administration domain]/Global Preferences.
4. In the navigation tree, select Global Preferences.
5. In the right pane double-click Common.
6. In the Property Editor window, locate the attribute nsuseridformat and enter one of the following values as appropriate:
• firstletter_lastname (this is the default value)
• givenname_firstletter
• lastname_givenname
• givenname_lastname
7. Click OK.
8. Restart Netscape Console.
7. You can grant or deny server access to an individual user, but you cannot grant or deny server access to a group.  If you select a server in the Netscape Console navigation tree, and attempt to use the Set Access Permissions command to specify a group of users, the permissions you set will not work as expected.  (337487)

   This is caused by an incorrectly defined Access Control Instruction (ACI) under o=NetscapeRoot. To work around this problem, use ldapmodify to patch this ACI with the following LDIF content:

   dn: o=NetscapeRoot 
   changetype: modify 
   delete: aci 
   aci: (targetattr="*")(version 3.0; acl "Enable Group Expansion"; allow (read, 
   search, compare)groupdnattr="ldap:///o=NetscapeRoot?uniquemember?sub";) 
   - 
   add: aci 
   aci: (targetattr="*")(version 3.0; acl "Enable Group Expansion"; allow (read, 
   search, compare)groupdnattr="uniquemember";)

   If you are unfamiliar with ldapmodify and LDIF, refer to the Netscape Directory Server Administrator's Guide.

8. When creating a new user or editing a user's personal data, do not use 8-bit characters in the First Name and Last Name fields.  If you use  8-bit characters in the First Name or Last Name fields, the user ID is not automatically generated for you.  Instead, use ASCII characters to enter the user's personal data. (117507)
9. If you create a user without indicating a password, selecting the user and clicking on the Password button will allow you to assign a value for the user's password attribute. If you try to change this value by clicking on the Password button again, the new value will be stored alongside the old value and the user will have two valid passwords. To work around this: select the user, click on Edit, and then enter and confirm the new password in the Edit Entry dialog box. Alternatively, you can choose to assign a password when creating a new user. If you have already created a user with multiple passwords, perform a new search for the user and enter a new password using the Edit or Password button. This will discard any old values and assign a single password for the user.
10. On Windows NT with DHCP, you cannot install Administration Server 4.0 or Directory Server 4.0.  As a workaround, you can install successfully using a static IP address. (106750)
11. On HP-UX, if Netscape Console randomly crashes, make sure you have the patch PHKL_14750 installed on your system.  Contact Hewlett-Packard for detailed information on obtaining this patch.
12. On HP-UX, if you're using a multi-CPU system, you need to install this patch:  PHNE_16645.  This addresses the Administration Server process spinning problem.  Contact Hewlett-Packard for detailed information on obtaining the patch.
13. On HP-UX, when using the Users and Groups Search Directory, the screen may not draw properly. (291656) When this happens, click Search to perform the search again.
14. On AIX with jre 1.1.6, if Netscape Console crashes upon startup, you must disable JIT.  (316827) To disable JIT, invoke startconsole with the -nojit option.
15. On Linux, start Netscape Console using green threads instead of native threads.  At the command line, enter startconsole -g.
16. On Linux, if Netscape Console hangs during log in, it may be due to a problem with NIS (349906).  As a workaround, in /etc/nsswitch.conf, modify the nis and dns lookup ordering in the the hosts entry.  Make sure dns comes before nis.

  For example, change this entry:
  hosts:      files nisplus nis dns
  to this entry:
  hosts:      files dns nisplus nis
 

Changes to IP address

If, for any reason, your computer system's IP address changes, the Administration Server will not start (332357, 354994).  The IP address must be changed in both the Administration Server configuration and the Configuration Directory. As a workaround, follow these steps:
 
1. Copy the Perl script provided below, and save it as a file in the <Server_Root>/shared/bin directory.  In this example, the file is named admin_ip.pl

 
2. In the <Server_Root>/shared/bin directory,
• On Windows NT,  enter
          ..\..\install\perl admin_ip.pl <Directory_Manager_DN> <Directory_Manager_password> <old_IP> <new_IP> [port #]
• On Unix, enter
          admin_ip.pl <Directory_Manager_DN> <Directory_Manager_password> <old_IP> <new_IP> [port #]
#!../../install/perl -w

# This script automatically changes the Administration Server IP address in both the local.conf file and in the
Configuration Directory.  The old IP address is stored in the file local.conf.old.

die "Usage: admin_ip.pl <Directory_Manager_DN> <Directory_Manager_password>
<old_IP> <new_IP> [port #]\n" unless (($#ARGV >= 2) && ($#ARGV <= 4));

$dirmgr = $ARGV[0];
$passwd = $ARGV[1];
$oldIPaddr = $ARGV[2];
$newaddr = $ARGV[3];
$port = 389;
$port = $ARGV[4] if ($ARGV[4]);

$adminconfig = "../../admin-serv/config/";
$ldapsearch = "./ldapsearch";
$ldapmodify = "./ldapmodify";
$baseobject = "o=NetscapeRoot";
$query = "(&(&(cn=configuration)(objectclass=nsConfig))(nsserveraddress=\"$oldIPaddr\"))";
$dn = "";
$oldaddr = "";

$/ = ""; # enable paragraph mode

# Find the old IP address in the directory
open (LDAP, "$ldapsearch -p $port -b $baseobject -D \"$dirmgr\" -w $passwd \"$query\" |");
while (<LDAP>) {
  s/\n //g;
  if (/\nnsserveraddress: (.*)\n/) {
    $oldaddr = $1;
    print "Old IP in directory: $oldaddr\n";
  }
  if (/^dn: (.*)\n/) {
    $dn = $1;
    print "DN: $dn\n";

# Update the IP address stored in the configuration directory
    open (LDAP2, "| $ldapmodify -p $port -D \"$dirmgr\" -w $passwd");
    print LDAP2 "dn: $dn\n";
    print LDAP2 "changetype: modify\n";
    print LDAP2 "replace: nsserveraddress\n";
    print LDAP2 "nsserveraddress: $newaddr\n";
    close (LDAP2);
  }
}
close (LDAP);

# Update the admin config file
$newconfig=$adminconfig . "local.conf";
$oldconfig = $adminconfig . "local.conf.old";
rename $newconfig, $oldconfig;
open (OLD, "<" . $oldconfig);
open (NEW, ">" . $newconfig);
print "oldaddr: $oldaddr\n";
print "newaddr: $newaddr\n";
while (<OLD>) {
  s/$oldaddr/$newaddr/g;
  print NEW;
}
close(OLD);
close(NEW);
 

Using Netscape Console with Netscape Certificate Server 1.x

17.  If you use a Netscape 4.x server to request a server certificate from a Netscape Certificate Server 1.x, do not use wildcards, punctuation marks, or other special characters when specifying the server host name.  If you do, Certificate Server will display the following message "Invalid DER encoding" when the certificate is submitted.  Instead, use a simple expression to specify the server host name.  Example:  www.netscape.com.

Using Netscape Console with Netscape Messaging Server

18. When using Messaging Server 4.0, if  you try to access the end-user page at http://<hostname:portnumber>, and  you don't have a default language selected for your browser, an internal error will occur. (329519)  If you're using Communicator 4.x, you can set its default language by following these steps:
1. From the Edit Menu, choose Preferences.
2. In the Categories tree, expand the Navigator section, and then click Languages.
3. If no language is listed, click Add, and then follow the onscreen instructions to add a language to the default language list.
19. When using Messaging Server 4.0 or 4.1, if you set a greeting which is longer than 2048 characters in the User and Group tab, Netscape Console displays a  "stack overflow" error message (345046). This problem may also affect other attributes in versions of Messaging Server released before October 25, 1999. It is caused by a bug in the Admin SDK and is fixed in version 4.1 of Console.

Changes to the Documentation

Where to Go for Other Information

If you can't find the information you need, contact technical support.