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Download the OpenACS 4 software to the /tmp directory:
Login as nsadmin and untar the downloaded components into /web directory. The alpha-2 tarball is currently named alpha2.tgz. Replace alpha2.tgz in the commands below with whatever the current tarball is named.
joeuser:~$ su - nsadmin Password: *********** nsadmin:~$ cd /web nsadmin:/web$ tar xzf /tmp/alpha2.tgz
You should now have an openacs-4/ directory tree in /web. Rename this directory to whatever you want your web service to be identified as. The name of your web service is referred to as the service_name. Since you can run multiple separate web services under AOLserver, this identification is used internally by AOLserver to differentiate your services from one another. A service name should be a single word, letters and numbers only. If the name of your site is one word, that would be a good choice. For example "birdnotes" might be the service name for the birdnotes.net community. We'll use birdnotes as an example in these docs.
nsadmin:/web$ ls -l
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 8 nsadmin nsadmin 4096 Nov 27 09:32 openacs-4
nsadmin:/web$ mv openacs-4 birdnotes
nsadmin:/web$ ls -l
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 8 nsadmin nsadmin 4096 Dec 20 14:37 birdnotes
Skip ahead if you want to Prepare PostgreSQL for OpenACS
You should be logged on as nsadmin for this step and you should make sure that nsadmin is in the dba group.
Verify nsadmin membership by typing groups when you login:
nsadmin:~$ groups nsadmin dba webIf you do not see these groups, take the following action:
nsadmin:~$ su - Password: ************ root:~# usermod -g nsadmin -G dba,web nsadminIf you get an error about an undefined group, then add that group manually:
root:~# groupadd dba root:~# groupadd nsadmin root:~# groupadd webMake sure to logout as root when you are finished with this step and log back in as nsadmin.
Connect to Oracle using svrmgrl and login:
nsadmin:~$ svrmgrl SVRMGR> connect internal Connected.
Determine where the system tablespaces are stored:
SVRMGR> select file_name from dba_data_files;Example results:
/ora8/m01/app/oracle/oradata/ora8/system01.dbf /ora8/m01/app/oracle/oradata/ora8/tools01.dbf /ora8/m01/app/oracle/oradata/ora8/rbs01.dbf /ora8/m01/app/oracle/oradata/ora8/temp01.dbf /ora8/m01/app/oracle/oradata/ora8/users01.dbf /ora8/m01/app/oracle/oradata/ora8/indx01.dbf /ora8/m01/app/oracle/oradata/ora8/drsys01.dbf
Using the above output, you should determine where to store your tablespace. As a general rule, you'll want to store your tablespace on a mount point under the /ora8 directory that is separate from the Oracle system data files. By default, the Oracle system is on m01, so we will use m02. This enables your Oracle system and database files to be on separate disks for optimized performance. For more information on such a configuration, see Chapter 12 of Philip's book. For this example, we'll use /ora8/m02/oradata/ora8/.
Create the directory for the datafile; to do this, exit from svrmgrl and login as root for this step:
SVRMGR> exit nsadmin:~$ su - Password: ************ root:~# mkdir -p /ora8/m02/oradata/ora8/ root:~# chown nsadmin.web /ora8/m02/oradata/ora8 root:~# chmod 775 /ora8/m02/oradata/ora8 root:~# exit nsadmin:~$
As nsadmin, create a tablespace for the service. It is important that the tablespace can autoextend. This allows the tablespace's storage capacity to grow as the size of the data grows. We set the pctincrease to be a very low value so that our extents won't grow geometrically. We do not set it to 0 at the tablespace level because this would affect Oracle's ability to automatically coalesce free space in the tablespace.
nsadmin:~$ svrmgrl SVRMGR> connect internal; SVRMGR> create tablespace birdnotes datafile '/ora8/m02/oradata/ora8/birdnotes01.dbf' size 50m autoextend on default storage (pctincrease 1);
Create a database user for this service. Give the user access to the tablespace and rights to connect. We'll use birdnotespassword as our password.
Write down what you specify as service_name (i.e. birdnotes) and database_password (i.e. birdnotespassword). You will need this information for configuring exports and AOLserver.
SVRMGR> create user birdnotes identified by birdnotespassword default tablespace birdnotes temporary tablespace temp quota unlimited on birdnotes; SVRMGR> grant connect, resource, ctxapp, javasyspriv, query rewrite to birdnotes; SVRMGR> revoke unlimited tablespace from birdnotes; SVRMGR> alter user birdnotes quota unlimited on birdnotes; SVRMGR> exit;
Your table space is now ready. In case you are trying to delete a previous OpenACS installation, consult these commands in the section called “Deleting a tablespace” below.
Make sure that you can login to Oracle using your service_name account:
nsadmin:~$ sqlplus birdnotes/birdnotespassword SQL> select sysdate from dual; SYSDATE ---------- 2001-12-20 SQL> exit
You should see today's date in a format 'YYYY-MM-DD.' If you can't login, try redoing step 1 again. If the date is in the wrong format, make sure you followed the steps outlined in the section called “Troubleshooting Oracle Dates”
Next we'll set up AOLserver so that it has the proper environment variables set before launching. Download this nsd-oracle script into /tmp/nsd-oracle.txt :
nsadmin:~$ cp /tmp/nsd-oracle.txt ./bin/nsd-oracle nsadmin:~$ chmod 700 ./bin/nsd-oracle
Preparing PostgreSQL is just a little bit simpler than preparing Oracle. We simply need to create a database with the name of our service-name (i.e. birdnotes)
nsadmin:/web$ createdb birdnotes
CREATE DATABASE
Next we'll set up AOLserver so that it has the proper environment variables set before launching. Download this nsd-postgres script into /tmp/nsd-postgres.txt :
nsadmin:/web$ cd nsadmin:~$ cp /tmp/nsd-postgres.txt ./bin/nsd-postgres nsadmin:~$ chmod 700 ./bin/nsd-postgres
The AOLserver architecture lets you run an arbitrary number of virtual servers. A virtual server is an HTTP service running on a specific port, e.g. port 80. In order for the OpenACS to work, you need to configure a virtual server. Because the process is involved, we have prepared a sample virtual server configuration file.
Download openacs4.tcl.txt into /tmp.
Modify it for your needs and save it in /usr/local/aolserver/birdnotes.tcl (Of course change birdnotes to whatever you're using as your service-name
nsadmin:~$ cp /tmp/openacs4.tcl.txt ./birdnotes.tcl nsadmin:~$ chmod 660 birdnotes.tcl nsadmin:~$ emacs birdnotes.tcl
Specifically, you'll have set the following variables
server - This is the name of the directory where your code resides. In our example above, we used birdnotes.
db_name - In almost all cases, this can be kept as a reference to $server. If for some reason, the tablespace you are using is different than your servername, then you can set it here. You should have a good reason for doing this.
servername - This is just a *pretty* name for your server. For example, we might call ours "Birdnotes.net Community"
httpport - If you want your server on a different port, enter it here
AOLServer is very configurable. These settings should get you started, but for more options, read the AOLServer docs.
Kill any current running AOLserver processes and start a new one. (Note, if you are using Oracle, rather than PostgreSQL, replace nsd-postgres with nsd-oracle):
nsadmin:~$ killall nsd
; Should probably see:
nsd: no process killed
nsadmin:~$ /usr/local/aolserver/bin/nsd-postgres -t /usr/local/aolserver/birdnotes.tcl
Attempt to connect to the service from a web browser as you did in the Test AOLserver section. You should specify a URL like:
http://ip_name:ip_port/
You should see a page that looks like this - if so, go on to Using the OpenACS Installer.
If you don't see the login page, view your error log (/usr/local/aolserver/logs/birdnotes-error.log) to make sure the service is starting without any problems. If you need to make changes, don't forget to kill any running servers.
nsadmin:~$ killall nsd
Now that you've got AOLserver up and running, let's install OpenACS 4.
You should see a page from the webserver titled OpenACS Installation: Welcome. You will be warned if your version of the database driver is out of date, if AOLserver cannot connect to the database, if any modules are missing or out-of-date, or if there are any problems with filesystem permissions on the server side. But if everything is fine, you can click Next to proceed to load the OpenACS Kernel data model.
The next page shows the results of loading the OpenACS Kernel data model - be prepared to wait a few minutes as it works. You should see a string of "No errors." as the tables are created. You'll see the line:
Loading package .info files ... this will take a few minutes
This will really take a few minutes. Have faith! Finally, another Next button will appear at the bottom - click it.
The following page shows the results of loading the package data models. You should see positive results for each of the previously selected packages, but watch out for any errors. Eventually, the page will display "Generating secret tokens" and then "Done"- click Next.
You should see a page, "OpenACS Installation: Create Administrator" with form fields to define the OpenACS site administrator. Fill out the fields as appropriate, and click Create User.
You should see a page, "OpenACS Installation: Set System Information" allowing you to name your service. Fill out the fields as appropriate, and click Set System Information
You'll see the final Installer page, "OpenACS Installation: Complete." It will tell you that the server is being restarted; note that unless you already set up a way for AOLServer to restart itself (ie. inittab or daemontools), you'll need to manually restart your service.
nsadmin:~$ /usr/local/aolserver/bin/nsd-postgres -t /usr/local/aolserver/birdnotes.tcl
Give the server a few minutes to start up. Then reload the final page above. You should see the front page, with an area to login near the upper right. Congratulations, OpenACS 4 is now up and running!
Now, we'll describe how to start AOLserver automatically on boot, or whenever else the service dies.
There are 2 ways of doing this - via inittab or via daemontools. The second way is by far the better way. Using daemontools gives you much finer control over your servers and avoids the hassle of messing with /etc/inittab. But, we'll describe the inittab way as this may be easier for some users. I encourage everyone to follow the links provided which describe how to Install daemontools.
Important: You need to set up either inittab or daemontools, not both!
This step should be completed as root. This can break every service on your machine, so proceed with caution.
There are 2 general steps to getting this working.
Install a script called restart-aolserver. This script doesn't actually restart AOLserver - it just kills it.
Ask the OS to restart our service whenever it's not running. We do this by adding a line to /etc/inittab.
Calling restart-aolserver kills our service. The OS notices that our service is not running, so it automatically restarts it. Thus, calling restart-aolserver effectively restarts our service.
Copy this file into /tmp/restart-aolserver.txt.
This script needs to be SUID-root, which means that the script will run as root. This is necessary to ensure that the AOLserver processes are killed regardless of who owns them. However the script should be executable by the web group to ensure that the users updating the web page can use the script, but that general system users cannot run the script. You also need to have Perl installed and also a symbolic link to it in /usr/local/bin.
nsadmin:~$ su - Password: *********** root:~# cp /tmp/restart-aolserver.txt /usr/local/bin/restart-aolserver root:~# chown root.web /usr/local/bin/restart-aolserver root:~# chmod 4750 /usr/local/bin/restart-aolserver root:~# ln -s /usr/bin/perl /usr/local/bin/perl root:~# exit
Test the restart-aolserver script. We'll first kill all running servers to clean the slate. Then, we'll start one server and use restart-aolserver to kill it. If it works, then there should be no more servers running. You should see the following lines.
nsadmin:~$ killall nsd nsd: no process killed nsadmin:~$ /usr/local/aolserver/bin/nsd-postgres -it /usr/local/aolserver/birdnotes.tcl nsadmin:~$ restart-aolserver birdnotes Killing 23727 nsadmin:~$ killall nsd nsd: no process killed
The number 23727 indicates the process id(s) (PIDs) of the processes being killed. It is important that no processes are killed by the second call to killall. If there are processes being killed, it means that the script is not working.
Assuming that the restart-aolserver script worked, login as root and open /etc/inittab for editing.
nsadmin:~$ su - Password: ************ root:~# emacs -nw /etc/inittab
Copy this line into the bottom of the file as a template, making sure that the first field nss1 is unique.
nss1:2345:respawn:/usr/local/aolserver/bin/nsd-postgres -i -u nsadmin -g web -t /usr/local/aolserver/birdnotes.tcl
Important: Make sure there is a newline at the end of the file. If there is not a newline at the end of the file, the system may suffer catastrophic failures.
Still as root, enter the following command to re-initialize /etc/inittab.
root:~# killall nsd nsd: no process killed root:~# /sbin/init q
See if it worked by running the restart-aolserver script again.
root:~# restart-aolserver birdnotes
Killing 23750
If processes were killed, congratulations, your server is now automated for startup and shutdown.
Installation instructions:
root:~# apt-get install daemontools-installer root:~# build-daemontools root:~# # answer 'yes' when asked to create symlink from /service to /var/lib/svscan
RPMs for RH 6.2 and RPM 7.1 are available http://untroubled.org/rpms/daemontools. I have not tested these, so I have no idea whether they work properly.
You can download the source directly from the author's site at http://cr.yp.to/daemontools/install.html.
Create a file called run inside /web/birdnotes:
nsadmin:~$ cd /web/birdnotes nsadmin:/web/birdnotes$ emacs run
Copy this text into that file:
#!/bin/sh exec /usr/local/aolserver/bin/nsd-postgres -it /usr/local/aolserver/birdnotes.tcl -u nsadmin -g web
As root, change the ownership of this file:
nsadmin:/web/birdnotes$ su - Password: *********** root:~# chown root.root /web/birdnotes/run root:~# chmod 700 /web/birdnotes/run
Now, we'll link our web root to the /service directory. This causes daemontools to monitor this directory. It should find your run script and run it as soon as you hit return.
root:~# killall nsd root:~# ln -s /web/birdnotes /service root:~# ps -A | grep nsd 19359 pts/3 00:00:08 nsd 19361 pts/3 00:00:00 nsd 19362 pts/3 00:00:00 nsd 19363 pts/3 00:00:00 nsd 19364 pts/3 00:00:00 nsd
At this point, you should be able to use the restart-aolserver script described in Editing inittab. Daemontools, however, allows you much more precision control.
svc -d /web/birdnotes - Bring the server down
svc -u /web/birdnotes - Start the server up. Also, restart it whenever it stops.
svc -o /web/birdnotes - Start the server up once. Do not restart it if it stops.
svc -t /web/birdnotes - Stop and immediately restart the server
svc -k /web/birdnotes - Sends the server a KILL signal. This is like KILL -9. AOLserver exits immediately. If svc -t fails to fully kill AOLserver, use this option.
At this point, these commands will work only for the root user. We can give a group permission to run these commands as well. Download this script to /tmp.
root:~# cp /tmp/svgroup.txt /usr/local/bin/svgroup root:~# chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/svgroup root:~# svgroup web /service/birdnotes
This command will give the web group permission to use svc commands on the birdnotes server.
Try it out. You may want to tail -f /usr/local/aolserver/log/birdnotes-error.log in another window, so you can see what happens when you type these commands.
root:~# exit nsadmin:~$ # first, bring the server down nsadmin:~$ svc -d /web/birdnotes nsadmin:~$ # now, start the server up nsadmin:~$ svc -u /web/birdnotes nsadmin:~$ # wait for server to come up, then restart it nsadmin:~$ svc -t /web/birdnotes
Most of this information comes from Tom Jackson's AOLServer+Daemontools Mini-HOWTO.
If you want to run the service on port 80 (the default HTTP port), you need to set the port to 80 in your service_name.tcl file in /usr/local/aolserver.
Moreover, you will need to start the service as root. If you follow the instructions above for automating startup, this will be taken care of, but if you ever start the server from the command line, be sure to su - first.
Port 80 is a privileged port. Only certain users can claim it. When you start nsd as root, it obtains the port, and then changes to run as whatever user you specify in the server configuration file. This ensures a high level of security, as the server, once started, is not running as root. This mean that if someone was able to exploit your web server to execute a command on your server, they would not be able to gain root access.
Skip down for instructions on Deleting a PostgreSQL tablespace.
Should it become necessary to rebuild a tablespace from scratch, you can use the drop user command in SVRMGRL with the cascade option. This command will drop the user and every database object the user owns.
SVRMGR> drop user birdnotes cascade;
If this does not work because svrmgrl "cannot drop a user that is currently connected", make sure to kill the AOLserver using this user. If it still does not work, do:
SVRMGR> select username, sid, serial# from v$session where username='birdnotes';
and then
SVRMGR> alter system kill session 'sid,serial#';
where sid and serial# are replaced with the corresponding values for the open session.
Use with caution!
If you feel the need to delete everything related to the service, you can also issue the following:
SVRMGR> drop tablespace birdnotes including contents cascade constraints;
Dropping a PostgreSQL tablespace is easy. You have to stop any AOLserver instances that are using the database that you wish to drop. If you're using daemontools, this is simple, just use the 'down' flag (-d). If you're using inittab, you have to comment out your server in /etc/inittab, reread the inittab with /sbin/init q, and then restart-aolserver birdnotes.
Then, to drop the db, just do:
nsadmin:~$ dropdb birdnotes
DROP DATABASE