Preparing for Installation

The Apache Web Server requires some variations from the default installation parameters. In particular:

• You must specify the logical host name, not the physical host name.

• Your binary files can reside on the local host, in which case you may not have to take down the logical host for upgrades; however, the docs directory must reside on the multihost disk. Alternatively, you can place all the files, including the binaries, on the multihost disk. In the latter case, when prompted, do not use the default server root disk.

The procedures described in this document assume that you are installing the binaries on the multihost disk.

You must follow certain conventions when you configure URL mappings for the Web server. For example, to preserve availability while setting the CGI directory, you must locate the mapped directories on the multihost disks associated with the logical host that serves Apache Web Server requests for this mapping. In this case, you map your CGI directory to /logicalhost/commerce/apache-home/cgi-bin.

In situations where the CGI programs access back-end data, verify that the data are also located on the multihost disks associated with the logical host that serves the Apache Web Server requests.

In situations where the CGI programs access back-end servers, such as an RDBMS, ensure that the back-end server is also controlled by Sun Cluster. If the server is an RDBMS supported by Sun Cluster, use one of the highly available RDBMS packages, such as Sun Cluster HA for Oracle, Sun Cluster HA for Sybase, or Sun Cluster HA for Informix. Otherwise, you can use the APIs that are documented in the Sun Cluster 2.2 API Developer's Guide to put the server under Sun Cluster control.