Chapter 2   Administering iPlanet Web Servers


This chapter describes how to administer your iPlanet Web Servers with the iPlanet Web Server Administration Server. Using the Administration Server, you can manage servers, add and remove servers, and migrate servers from a previous release.

This chapter includes the following sections:

• Accessing the Administration Server

• Adding a Server: Running Multiple Servers

• Installing Multiple Instances of the Server

• Removing a Server

• Migrating a Server From a Previous Version

Accessing the Administration Server

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This section describes how to access the Administration Server for Unix/Linux and Windows NT platforms.

Unix/Linux Platforms

To access the Administration Server in Unix or Linux platforms, go to the server_root/https-admserv/ directory (for example,
/usr/netscape/server4/https-admserv/) and type ./start. This command starts the Administration Server using the port number you specified during installation.

Windows NT Platforms

The iPlanet Web Server installation program creates a program group with several icons for Windows NT platforms. The program group includes the following icons:

• Release Notes

• Start Administration Server

• Uninstall iPlanet Web Server 4.1

Note that the Administration Server runs as a services applet; thus, you can also use the Control Panel to start this service directly.

To access the Administration Server in Windows NT 4.0, perform the following steps:

1. Double-click the "Start Administration Server" icon, or type the following URL in your browser:

   http://hostname.domain-name:administration_port

   iPlanet Web Server then displays a window prompting you for a username and password.

2. Type the administration username and password you specified during installation.

   iPlanet Web Server displays the Administration Server page, as shown in Figure 2-1:

Figure 2-1    The Administration Server Page

For more information, see "Administration Server,"

You can also access the Administration Server from a remote location as long as you have access to client software such as Netscape Navigator. Since the Administrator Server is accessed through a browser, you can access it from any machine that can reach the server over the network. For more information, see Netscape Console.

Adding a Server: Running Multiple Servers

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There are three ways you can have multiple web servers running on your system:

• Use hardware virtual servers

• Install multiple instances of the server

Hardware Virtual Servers

Hardware virtual servers allow you to map up to five IP addresses to multiple document roots. For example, if you have two IP addresses, you could map the first IP address to one document root and the second IP address to a second document root. While hardware virtual servers take fewer system resources than multiple instances of the server, they must share the same configuration information. For example, if one hardware virtual server has enabled security features, they all must have it enabled.

Configuring Multiple Hardware Virtual Servers on the Same IP Address with Different Ports

You can configure up to fivehardware virtual servers on the same IP address by assigning a unique port number for each hardware virtual server. Note that you can not use the Administration Server to accomplish this task, you must manually edit the obj.conf file.

For example, to configure four hardware virtual servers on the same IP address with port numbers 80-83, add the following lines to the obj.conf file:

NameTrans fn="document-root" dir="/vs1docroot" ip="a.b.c.d" port="80"

NameTrans fn="document-root" dir="/vs2docroot" ip="a.b.c.d" port="81"

NameTrans fn="document-root" dir="/vs3docroot" ip="a.b.c.d" port="82"

NameTrans fn="document-root" dir="/vs4docroot" ip="a.b.c.d" port="83"

For more information on hardware virtual servers, see Setting Up Hardware Virtual Servers.

Multiple Server Instances

Multiple server instances enables you to define separate types of configuration information for each server. For example, one instance of the server could have security features enabled while another server could have them disabled. However, each instance of the server takes substantial resources of RAM, disk space, and swap space. For more information, see the following section, Installing Multiple Instances of the Server.

Installing Multiple Instances of the Server

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You can use the Administration Server to configure multiple servers via the following options:

• Install multiple copies of the server on NT as separate instances, each with a different IP address.

• Configure up to fiveadditional hardware virtual servers, with one iPlanet Web Server which responds to the various virtual servers independently.

• Configure a set of servers that all use the same IP address, but different port numbers.

If you have installed iPlanet Web Server on multiple servers, the installation process places all the files under the server root directory that you specified during installation, as specified in Single-Server Configuration. However, note that iPlanet Web Server also creates an additional https-identifier directory for each additional server you specify.

You can install another instance of the web server on your current computer. Your web server software license allows you to have as many web server instances as you want on one system. Each web server you have installed can run on any TCP/IP port on your system, but you cannot run two web servers on the same port at the same time unless they are configured to respond to different IP addresses. Contact your system's vendor for information on how to configure your system to respond to different IP addresses.

If your system is configured to listen to multiple IP addresses, for each server you install enter one of the IP addresses that your system is hosting.

If you installed your server before configuring your system to host multiple IP addresses, configure your system to respond to different IP addresses. Then you can either install hardware virtual servers or change the server's bind address using the Server Manager and install separate instances of the server for each IP address. For more information, see Configuring Network Settings.

To add another server instance, perform the following steps:

1. Access the Administration Server and choose the Servers tab.

2. Click the Add Server link.

3. Enter the desired information for the specified fields.

For more information, see "The Add Server Page,"

Removing a Server

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You can remove a server from your system using the Administration Server. Be sure that you don't need the server anymore before you remove it, since this process cannot be undone.

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Note	Some NT servers have an uninstall program that you can use to remove a server and its associated administration server. For details, check with your product documentation.

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To remove a server from your machine, perform the following steps:

1. Access the Administration Server and choose the Servers tab.

2. Click Remove Server.

The Administration Server subsequently deletes the server's configuration files, Server Manager forms, and the following directory (and any subdirectories):

server_root/<servertype>-<id>

For more information, see The Remove Server Page.

Migrating a Server From a Previous Version

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You can migrate an iPlanet Web Server from 3.6 to 4.1. Your 3.6 server is preserved, and a new 4.1 server using the same settings is created.

You should stop running the 3.6 server before migrating settings. Make sure you have Netscape Navigator 3.0 or later installed on your computer before migrating settings.

For a complete description of how to migrate a server from a previous version to FastTrack Server 4.1, see the iPlanet Web Server Installation and Migration Guide.

For more information, see "The Migrate Server Page,"