2

Installing mod_PL/SQL

2.1 System Requirements

The following are the recommended and minimum requirements for installing and running mod_PL/SQL:

Operating Systems

• Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 3 or above

• Solaris 2.6 and above

Oracle Database

• Oracle8i (Release 8.1.6)

Web Listener

• Oracle HTTP Server (powered by Apache) 1.3.9 for iAS version 1.0

Web Browsers

• Netscape 4.0.8 and above

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0.1 with Service Pack 1 and above

2.2 Before you begin

Before you install mod_PL/SQL using the Internet Application Server (IAS) v1.0 Oracle Universal Installer, you must satisfy the following prerequisite requirements:

• You must have a SYS user password on the database where you plan to load Oracle Web Agent (OWA) packages required by mod_PL/SQL.

• The database to which you plan to connect mod_PL/SQL must be up and running.

• You must have enough disk space on the machine where you plan to run the Oracle Universal Installer.

• You must have write permissions to the directory where the Oracle Universal Installer is writing its oraInventory data.

2.3 Installation

To begin the Oracle Universal Installer, execute the runInstaller application located on your product CD or stage area. Follow the instructions in each step of the installation application, including choosing a directory where you want to install IASv1.0. This install directory will be referred to as <IAS_ROOT> after you choose.

2.4 Installing required packages

After installation, you must install additional required packages using the owaload script.

1. Navigate to the directory where the owaload.sql and docload.sql files are located. This directory should be <IAS_ROOT>/Apache/modplsql/owa.

2. Log into the Oracle 8.1.6 database as the SYS user.

3. At a SQL prompt, run the following command:

   @owaload.sql sys_password owa_user owa_password default_tablespace 
   temporary_tablespace connect_string log_file  
   
   
   

   where

   sys_password is the SYS database password.

   owa_user is the OWA user name. This is the schema in which the packages will be installed. OWA_PUBLIC is recommended.

   owa_password is the password for the OWA user.

   default_tablespace is the default tablespace in which the OWA packages will be installed.

   temporary_tablespace is the temporary tablespace for the packages to use for temporary operations.

   connect_string is the TNS names alias if you are installing in a remote database.

   log_file is the installation log file.

   For example:

   @owaload.sql change_on_install OWA_PUBLIC OWA_PASSWORD users temp mydb_alias 
   owaload.log 
   
   

   owaload.sql creates a schema for the owa_user and installs the OWA packages and PL/SQL Web Toolkit in the schema. It also creates public synonyms and makes the packages public so that all users in the database have access to them. Therefore, only one installation per database is needed.

2.5 Configuring the Oracle HTTP Server Listener

The iAS installation creates configuration files that you can edit, including the following which affect mod_PL/SQL:

<IAS_ROOT>/Apache/Apache/bin/httpdsctl

This script is used to start and stop Oracle HTTP Server. Inside this file, there are three parameters that affect mod_PL/SQL:

• ORACLE_HOME - the Oracle Home in which mod_PL/SQL runs. Default: <IAS_ROOT>

• LD_LIBRARY_PATH - the Oracle libraries needed by mod_PL/SQL. This should point to an Oracle 8.1.6 installation.
  Default: <IAS_ROOT>/lib

• WV_GATEWAY_CFG - mod_PL/SQL configuration file.
  Default: <IAS_ROOT>/Apache/modplsql/cfg/wdbsvr.app

If you want to have mod_PL/SQL running in another Oracle Home, remember to change both the ORACLE_HOME and LD_LIBRARY_PATH settings.

If you want mod_PL/SQL to use a different configuration file, just change the WV_GATEWAY_CFG setting to point to the new configuration file.

<IAS_ROOT>/Apache/Apache/conf/httpds.conf

This configuration file defines the behavior of Oracle HTTP Server (powered by Apache). You can set your port number as well as other server settings.

<IAS_ROOT>/Apache/modplsql/cfg/plsql.conf

This configuration file describes settings for the mod_PL/SQL module. There are four settings that are configurable:

• LoadModule plsql_module <MOD_PATH> - the location of the mod_PL/SQL module.
  Default: <IAS_ROOT>/Apache/modplsql/bin/modplsq.so

• <Location <MOUNT_PATH>> - the prefix in the URL for which mod_PL/SQL is invoked.
  Default: /pls

• Alias /images/ <IMAGE_PATH> - the path to the images directory.
  Default: <IAS_ROOT>/Apache/modplsql/images

• Alias /help/ <HELP_PATH> - the path to the help directory.
  Default:<IAS_ROOT> /Apache/modplsql/help

<IAS_ROOT>/Apache/modplsql/cfg/wdbsvr.app

This is the main mod_PL/SQL configuration file. It contains all the DAD information. Please do not edit this file directly. Use mod_PL/SQL configuration page, which you can access through your browser as shown below.

2.6 Accessing the mod_PL/SQL configuration page

To access to mod_PL/SQL configuration page, enter the following URL in your Web browser:

http://<hostname>:<port>/pls/DAD/<admin_path>/gateway.htm 

where:

<hostname> is the machine where the application server is running.

<port> specifies the port at which the application server is listening. If omitted, port 80 is assumed.

<admin_path> specifies the URL path element that identifies an admin page. For example, if admin_path is /admin_/, the following URL will invoke mod_PL/SQL configuration page, given that the invoking user is listed in the administrators configuration setting:

http://www.myserver.com/pls/admin_/gateway.htm

Configuration settings are protected by the administration security settings. The web administration page can only be invoked by those users whose user names appear in the Administrators setting of the configuration file. See "Configuring mod_PL/SQL" for more information.

2.6.1 pls.conf configuration file

The Oracle HTTP Listener configuration file includes the modplsql configuration file plsql.conf. The contents of plsql.conf are:

# 
# Directives added for mod_PL/SQL 
# 
LoadModule plsql_module %APACHE_HOME%/modplsql/bin/modplsql.so 

# 
# Enable handling of all virtual paths beginning with "/pls" by mod-plsql 
# 
<Location /pls> 
  SetHandler pls_handler 
  Order deny,allow 
  Allow from all 
</Location> 

# 
# Additional aliases needed to resolve image and help files needed by mod_
PL/SQL 
# 
Alias /images/   "%APACHE_HOME%/modplsql/images/" 
Alias /help/     "%APACHE_HOME%/modplsql/help/" 

2.7 Starting and stopping the Oracle HTTP Server Listener

To start the Apache listener, type:

<IAS_ROOT>/Apache/Apache/bin/httpdsctl start 

To start the Apache listener with SSL. support, type:

<IAS_ROOT>/Apache/Apache/bin/httpdsctl startssl 

To stop the Apache listener, type:

> <IAS_ROOT>/Apache/Apache/bin/httpdsctl stop