Sun Cluster 3.0 U1 Data Services Installation and Configuration Guide

Installing and Configuring an iPlanet Web Server

This section describes the steps to use the setup command to perform the following tasks.

Install the iPlanet Web Server.
Enable the iPlanet Web Server to run as the Sun Cluster HA for iPlanet Web Server data service.

Note -

You must follow certain conventions when you configure URL mappings for the Web server. For example, to preserve availability when setting the CGI directory, you must locate the mapped directories on the cluster file system. In this example, you map your CGI directory to /global/pathname/cgi-bin.

In situations where the CGI programs access "back-end" servers, such as an RDBMS, ensure that the Sun Cluster software also controls the "back-end" server. If the server is an RDBMS that the Sun Cluster software supports, use one of the highly available RDBMS packages. Alternatively, you can use the APIs documented in the Sun Cluster 3.0 U1 Data Services Developers' Guide to put the server under Sun Cluster control.

How to Install an iPlanet Web Server

To perform this procedure, you need the following information about your configuration.

The server root directory (the path to the application binaries). You can install the binaries on the local disks or on the cluster file system. For a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of each location, see "Determining the Location of the Application Binaries".
The logical hostname (for failover services) or shared address (for scalable services) that clients use to access the data service. You must configure these addresses, and they must be online.

Note -

If you run the Sun Cluster HA for iPlanet Web Server service and another HTTP server and they use the same network resources, configure them to listen on different ports. Otherwise, a port conflict might occur between the two servers.

Become superuser on a cluster member.

Run the setup command from the iPlanet install directory on the CD.

When prompted, enter the location where the iPlanet server binaries will be installed.

You can specify a location on the cluster file system or on local disks for the location of the install. If you choose to install on local disks, run the setup command on all the cluster nodes that are potential primaries of the network resource (logical hostname or shared address) specified in the next step.

When prompted for a machine name, enter the logical hostname on which the iPlanet server depends and the appropriate DNS domain name.

A full logical hostname is of the format network-resource.domainname, such as schost-1.sun.com.

Note -
For the Sun Cluster HA for iPlanet Web Server data service to fail over correctly, you must use either the logical hostname or shared-address resource name (rather than the physical hostname) here and everywhere else that you are asked.

Select Run Admin Server as Root when you are asked.

Note the port number that the iPlanet install script selects for the administration server if you want to use this default value later when configuring an instance of the iPlanet Web server. Otherwise, you can specify a different port number when you configure the iPlanet server instance.

Type a Server Administrator ID and a chosen password when you are asked.

Follow the guidelines for your system.

When a message displays that the admin server will be started, your installation is ready for configuration.

Where to Go From Here

To configure the Web server, see the next section, "How to Configure an iPlanet Web Server".

How to Configure an iPlanet Web Server

This procedure describes how to configure an instance of the iPlanet Web server to be highly available. Use the Netscape browser to interact with this procedure.

Consider the following points before you perform this procedure.

Before you start, ensure that you have installed the browser on a machine that can access the network on which the cluster resides. You can install the browser on a cluster node or on the administrative workstation for the cluster.
Your configuration files can reside on either a local file system or on the cluster file system.
Any certificates that are installed for the secure instances must be installed from all cluster nodes. This installation involves running the admin console on each node. Thus, if a cluster has nodes n1, n2, n3, and n4, the installation steps are as follows.
1. Run the admin server on node n1.
2. From your Web browser, connect to the admin server as http://n1.domain:port-for example, http://n1.eng.sun.com:8888-or whatever you specified as the admin server port. The port is typically 8888.
3. Install the certificate.
4. Stop the admin server on node n1 and run the admin server from node n2.
5. From the Web browser, connect to the new admin server as http://n2.domain:port, for example, http://n2.eng.sun.com:8888.
6. Repeat these steps for nodes n3 and n4.
After you have considered the preceding points, complete the following steps.

From the administrative workstation or a cluster node, start the Netscape browser.

On one of the cluster nodes, go to the directory https-admserv, then start the iPlanet admin server.
# cd https-admserv # ./start

Enter the URL of the iPlanet admin server in the Netscape browser.

The URL consists of the physical hostname and port number that the iPlanet installation script established in Step 4 of the server installation procedure, for example, n1.eng.sun.com:8888. When you perform Step 2 of this procedure, the ./start command displays the admin URL.

When prompted, use the user ID and password you specified in Step 6 of the server installation procedure to log in to the iPlanet administration server interface.

Begin to administer the iPlanet Web Server instance that was created.

If you need another instance, create a new one.

The administration graphical interface provides a form with details of the iPlanet server configuration. You can accept the defaults on the form, with the following exceptions.
- Verify that the server name is correct.
- Verify that the server user is set as superuser.
- Change the bind address field to one of the following addresses.
  - A logical hostname or shared address if you use DNS as your name service
  - The IP address associated with the logical hostname or shared address if you use NIS as your name service

Create a directory on the local disk of all the nodes to hold the logs, error files, and PID file that iPlanet Web Server manages.

For iPlanet to work correctly, these files must be located on each node of the cluster, not on the cluster file system.

Choose a location on the local disk that is the same for all the nodes in the cluster. Use the mkdir -p command to create the directory. Make nobody the owner of this directory.

The following example shows how to complete this step.
phys-schost-1# mkdir -p /var/pathname/http-instance/logs/
Note -
If you anticipate large error logs and PID files, do not put them in a directory under /var because they will overwhelm this directory. Rather, create a directory in a partition with adequate space to handle large files.

Edit the ErrorLog and PidLog entries in the magnus.conf file to reflect the directory created in the previous step, and synchronize the changes from the administrator's interface.

The magnus.conf file specifies the locations for the error files and PID files. Edit this file to change the error and PID file locations to the directory that you created in Step 5. The magnus.conf file is located in the config directory of the iPlanet server instance. If the instance directory is located on the local file system, you must modify the magnus.conf file on each of the nodes.

Change the entries as follows.

# Current ErrorLog and PidLog entries
ErrorLog /global/data/netscape/https-schost-1/logs/error
PidLog /global/data/netscape/https-insecure-schost-1/logs/pid
 
# New entries
ErrorLog /var/pathname/http-instance/logs/error
PidLog /var/pathname/http-instance/logs/pid

As soon as the administrator's interface detects your changes, the interface displays a warning message, as follows.

Warning: Manual edits not loaded
Some configuration files have been edited by hand. Use the Apply

button on the upper right side of the screen to load the latest

configuration files.

Click Apply as prompted.

The administrator's interface then displays the following warning.

Configuration files have been edited by hand. Use this button to

load the latest configuration files.

Click Load Configuration Files as prompted.

Use the administrator's interface to set the location of the access log file.

From the administration graphical interface, click the Preferences tab and then Logging Options on the side bar. A form is then displayed for configuring the Access Log parameter.

Change the location of the log file to the directory that you created in Step 5.

For example, make the following changes to the log file.
Log File: /var/pathname/http-instance/logs/access

Click Save to save your changes.

Do not click Save and Apply-doing so starts iPlanet Web Server.

Where to Go From Here

If you have not installed the Sun Cluster HA for iPlanet Web Server data-service packages from the Sun Cluster Agents CD, go to "Installing Sun Cluster HA for iPlanet Web Server Packages". Otherwise, go to "Registering and Configuring Sun Cluster HA for iPlanet Web Server".