Setting Up Nodes
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Setting Up Nodes

A node is the Netscape Calendar database containing all user and resource information and agendas. A node network is a series of two or more connected nodes. More than one node can be placed on a Calendar host. This situation is commonly encountered when a grouping of users require a different time zone, or when there is a logical division that the administrator wants to maintain within a group of users in the same time zone. For example, a company may have a small but growing branch office in San Diego while all servers and IT staff are located at the central office in Los Angeles. The Calendar administrator in Los Angeles may create a separate node on his Calendar server for all San Diego employees in anticipation of eventually moving the node to a separate server in the San Diego office. If the node is moved closer to its user community in San Diego, network latencies will be minimized and the maximum number of potential users will increase if the node is on its own server.

This chapter will cover the following topics:

Creating a node

To create a Calendar node:

  1. Follow the instructions for stopping the Calendar Server in the chapter "Server Administration" . The Calendar Server must be down in order to successfully create a node.

  2. Select Node Management | Create Calendar Node from the Calendar Server Manager.

  3. If you were successful in turning the Calendar Server off, you should see the message "The server is currently OFF" at the top of the form. If the Calendar Server is still on, go back and repeat Step 1.

  4. Complete the following fields on the Create Node form:

    5.  

    Node-ID: Any number between 10000 and 20000. When setting up a node, it is important to note that the Node-ID cannot be changed once the node has been created. Furthermore, an existing local node will be deleted if a new local node is given a Node-ID currently in use on the same computer. A warning prompt will be issued before this action is taken. Node-IDs must be unique not only locally, but also across the node network. If two nodes in a network are assigned the same Node-ID, connection between the two nodes will not be possible.

    Node Alias: A descriptive word containing no spaces. When multiple nodes are configured on a server, users need to indicate which node they want to connect to. Since, in general, a name is easier to remember than a numeric node-ID, aliases can be configured. If more than one alias needs to be configured, they must be separated by a comma. There is no default.
     
    Node Time Zone: The time zone for this node. See Appendix F for a complete list of countries with their
    corresponding time zone notation. The default value for this field is the time zone set during installation of the Calendar Server.

    SYSOP Group RDN:  The leftmost element in the distinguished name of the SYSOP group. Only the SYSOP is added to this group. The SYSOP group RDN (Relative Distinguished Name) defaults to a value set in the unison.ini file: [LDAP,v2,NSCP,1] admingroup = cn=Netscape Calendar Server Administrators, ou=Netscape Servers.  Refer to the section on "Relative Distinguished Names" in Netscape Directory Server Administrator's Guide for a discussion of the correct form for this and the following attribute.

    SYSOP Base RDN: The base RDN (Relative Distinguished Name) for the six Netscape Calendar Server reserved users. The SYSOP base RDN defaults to a value set in the unison.ini file: [LDAP,v2,NSCP,1] admin = ou=Netscape Servers.

    SYSOP Password: Previously set, up to 15 alphanumeric characters in length.

    Start Server: To automatically start the server upon node creation, ensure that there is a mark in the checkbox. If you do not want the server to be restarted immediately, click on the box to remove the check.

  5. Click OK to create the new node.

Deleting a node

Deleting a Calendar node manually requires an advanced knowledge of the Calendar Server. Before attempting to remove a node, you should familiarize yourself with the contents of the specified chapters.

To delete a node manually:

  1. Before deleting the node, you may wish to archive any or all of the information in this node by making a backup. See Chapter 8, "Node Maintenance" for complete instructions.

  2. Delete all node connections involving the node to be removed in the /users/unison/misc/nodes.ini file. For more information on the structure and syntax of this file, see Chapter 6, "Managing a Node Network."

  3. Shut down the Calendar Server.

  4. From the command line, delete the directory and everything below /users/unison/db/nodes/<name> where name is the key value in the node section being deleted.

  5. Delete the corresponding node section in /users/unison/misc/unison.ini. See Chapter 7, "Server Configuration" for a discussion of the contents of this file and the specific location of the information to be deleted.

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