Chapter 9   Expanding The Portal


This chapter has the following topics:

• Adding a gateway after installation

• Adding a server after installation

• Restarting a gateway or server

• Modifying information about a gateway or a server

• Setting up multiple gateways and servers

Adding Servers and Gateways

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After setting up your initial server and gateway, you can add additional gateways and servers as required by your site.

You add more gateways and servers at the Platform level of the role tree.

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Note	You must be Super Administrator to perform the tasks in this section. Domain Administrators are denied access to these tasks.

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Character Restrictions on Host Names

iPlanet Portal Server has restrictions on the use of special characters in host names. The servers and gateways you add can have names consisting of the following ASCII characters:

• Characters (a-z, A-Z)

• Digits (0-9)

• Minus sign (-)

• Period (.)

Host names must not include special characters such as braces and commas.

To Add a Gateway After Installation

1. Click Gateway Management on the Administration Console menu.

2. Click Manage Gateway Profile.

   The Component Profile: Platform is displayed.

3. Scroll down to the Gateway List attribute box.

4. Type the fully qualified host name of the new gateway in the field below the attribute box.

5. Press the Add button to add the gateway.

   The new gateway uses the default platform values for gateway port number, name of platform profile, retry interval, and default domain.

6. If the added gateway is on a different domain than the iPlanet Portal Server, scroll to the Cookie Domain List window and enter the new gateway domain name in the text box.

   For example, if the new gateway host name is host1.domain1.com and the iPlanet Portal Server host name is host2.domain2.com, then domain1.com is added to the Cookie Domain List attribute.

7. Click the Add button.

8. Click Submit to create the new gateway.

   You receive a message that the profile was successfully updated.

9. The new gateway URLs must now be added to the iPlanet Portal Server so that a user could log in from the gateway. In the admin console, click Manage Domains.

10. Click the domain desired to give access to the new gateway to open its Domain, Role and Users page.

11. Click the Authentication link.

12. Scroll to the Domain URLs List window attribute and type the gateway hostname in the text box.

13. Click the Add button. Additional forms of the URL will also be added to this list as indicated by the following steps.

14. Type the IP address of the new gateway.

    For example, if the IP address is 10.0.0.1, type this value.

15. Click the Add button.

16. Type the URL in the form of gateway_hostname/gateway_domain.

    For example, if the host name is host1 and the domain name is domain1, type host1.domain1.com/domain1.com

17. Click the Add button.

18. Type the URL in the form of gateway_ipaddress/gateway_domain.

    For example, from the above indicated values, type 10.0.0.1/domain1.com

19. Click the Add button.

20. Type the URL in the form of /gateway_domain.

    For example, from the above indicate value, type /domain1.com

21. Click the Add button.

22. Click the Submit button. The message, `Profile Successfully Updated' will be displayed.

23. Click the Continue button and repeat steps 10 through 22 for any other domains that will have access to the new gateway.

24. From the admin console home page, click the Server Management link from the left frame.

25. Select the Server name associated with the added gateway and click Restart Servers. The prompt, `Restart request has been sent to servers' will be displayed.

26. Click the Continue button to return to the Server Management page.

To Add a Server After Installation

1. Click Server Management on the Administration Console menu.

2. Click Manage Server Profile.

3. Go to the field beneath the Server List attribute box and type the fully qualified host name of the new server.

4. Press the Add button to add the server.

   The new server uses the default platform values for server port number and protocol.

5. If the added server is on a new domain, scroll down to the Cookie Domain list window and type the new server domain name in the text box.

   For example, if the new server domain is xxx.com, and xxx.com is not on the list, add it.

6. Click the Add button.

7. Click Submit to create the new server.

   You receive a message that the profile was successfully updated.

To Restart a Gateway or Server

A gateway or server will normally not need to be restarted. However when you change a profile server in a way that does not automatically get updated in the applications, or if you have installed new class files, or if the server or gateway is not responding and thus needs restarting, you may need to use the following procedures.

To Restart a Gateway

1. Click on the Gateway Management link in the iPlanet Portal Server Services part of the menu.

2. Click the button to the left of the gateway's name, then click the Restart Gateways button.

   
   

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   Note

   If the checkbox does not appear next to the gateway name, either the administrator does not have permission to restart the gateway, or the server has been restarted more recently than the gateway. For the first condition, the session privileges can be checked in the: Manage Domain>Default_Domain>AdminRole>Policy>Session to add the gateway domains to the allow list of the get valid sessions and delete session attributes. For the second condition, restarting the server wipes out the session information stored on that server. This includes the sessions related to the gateway. Without the handle to the gateway session, the administrator cannot restart it.

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To Restart a Server

1. Click on Server Management in the iPlanet Portal Server Services part of the menu.

2. Click the button to the left of the server's name, then click the Restart button.

   
   

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   Note

   If the checkbox does not appear, go to Manage Domain>Default_Domain> AdminRole>Policy>Platform, add the server names to the Allow list, and remove the names from the Deny list. If you restart the server running the Administration Console, you must log in again. All users who were logged into the server before it was restarted must log in again.

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Modifying Information About a Server or Gateway

Should include:

• Renaming a machine

• Changing an IP address

• Removing a server or gateway

Setting Up Multiple Gateways and Servers

Your iPlanet Portal Server platform can have multiple gateways communicating with multiple servers. Each gateway must run on a separate host machine. The iPS gateway uses a round-robin algorithm to assign one user session to one specific server.

Figure 9-1 illustrates a configuration of two gateways and three servers. Server1 has the iPlanet Portal Server profile server installed. Server2 and Server3 are configured to resolve all profile requests through Server1. G1 and G2 use the round-robin algorithm to assign client sessions to Server1, Server2, and Server3. Note that clients A, B, and C are connected using the Gateway1.com on G1, and that client D is connected using Gateway2.com on G2.

Figure 9-1    iPlanet Portal Server Platform With Multiple Gateways and Multiple Servers

Load Balancing Support in iPlanet Portal Server

If your site requires multiple gateways and servers, consider setting up load balancing and transparent clustering for your iPlanet Portal Server platform. In this scenario, multiple gateways appear to the user to be a single gateway. The iPlanet Portal Server Server supports load balancing, but requires you to configure a single server with the Profile Server for all gateways and servers to share.

To set up load balancing at your site, you must obtain third-party load balancing software. and install it on the gateway identified as the primary contact. This gateway then parcels out the user requests depending on the current load on each gateway.

How Load Balancing Works
Figure 9-2 shows a load balancer installed in front of the iPlanet Portal Server gateways. Each gateway has its own scheduler that allocates service to all four servers.

Figure 9-2    iPS Topology With Load Balancer Between Clients and Gateways

Each server in Figure 9-2 has a copy of the iPlanet Portal Serversoftware installed. Only one server is designated as the profile server. Additionally, Server1 was designated the Profile Server during installation. Whenever any server in the platform wants to know about any particular user or application privileges and attributes, it queries the Profile Server on Server1.

Pre-Configuration Issues for Multiple Gateways and Servers

When configuring multiple gateways and servers for your iPlanet Portal Server platform, you have to:

• Configure clients to allow connections to multiple gateways.

• Designate one server as the central Profile Server. When you install the iPlanet Portal Server software on all other servers and gateways of the platform, specify this server when prompted for the name of the Profile Server.

• Decide whether to implement gateway load balancing and transparent clustering.