Unpack the Aolserver tarball. Download the aolserver tarball to /tmp/aolserver3.3oacs1.tar.gz. As root, untar aolserver3.3oacs1.tar.gz into /usr/local/src.

[root@yourserver root]# cd /usr/local/src
[root@yourserver src]# tar xzf /tmp/aolserver3.3oacs1.tar.gz
[root@yourserver src]#
cd /usr/local/src
tar xzf /tmp/aolserver3.3oacs1.tar.gz

Compile AOLserver. Compile and install AOLserver. First, prepare the installation directory and the source code. The message about BUILD-MODULES can be ignored.

root@yourserver root]# mkdir -p /usr/local/aolserver
[root@yourserver root]# cd /usr/local/src/aolserver
[root@yourserver aolserver]# ./conf-clean
cat: BUILD-MODULES: No such file or directory
Done.
[root@yourserver aolserver]#
mkdir -p /usr/local/aolserver
cd /usr/local/src/aolserver
./conf-clean

If you are using Oracle, edit conf-db and change postgresql to oracle, or to the word both if you want both drivers installed. In order to get nsoracle to compile, you may need to su - oracle, and then su (without the -) root to set the environment variables properly.

conf-inst should contain the location where AOLserver is to be installed. Overwrite the tarball's default value with our default value, /usr/local/aolserver:

[root@yourserver aolserver]# echo "/usr/local/aolserver" > conf-inst
[root@yourserver aolserver]#

conf-make should contain the name of the GNU Make command on your system. It defaults to gmake.

Set an environment variable that the nspostgres driver Makefile needs to compile correctly and run conf, which compiles AOLserver, the default modules, and the database driver, and installs them.

(Debian Users working with AOLserver 3.3+ad13 and postgresql from apt-get may need to make these symlinks: ln -s /usr/include/postgresql/ /usr/include/pgsql and ln -s /usr/lib/postgresql /usr/local/pgsql)

[root@yourserver aolserver]# export POSTGRES=/usr/local/pgsql; ./conf
Building in /usr/local/aolserver
with the following modules:
aolserver
nscache
nsrewrite
nssha1
nsxml
pgdriver
==================================================================
Starting Build Sat Mar  8 10:28:26 PST 2003
Running gmake in aolserver/; output in log/aolserver.log
(several minute delay here)
Running gmake in nscache/; output in log/nscache.log
Running gmake in nsrewrite/; output in log/nsrewrite.log
Running gmake in nssha1/; output in log/nssha1.log
Running gmake in nsxml/; output in log/nsxml.log
Running gmake in nspostgres/; output in log/nspostgres.log
Creating  ...
==================================================================
Done Building Sat Mar  8 10:31:35 PST 2003
[root@yourserver aolserver]# 

This takes about 5 minutes. It builds aolserver, several modules, and the database driver. (Upgraders, note that the postgres database driver has changed from postgres.so to nspostgres.so). All of the results are logged to files in /usr/local/src/aolserver/log. If you run into problems running AOLserver, check these files for build errors.

Add a database-specific wrapper script. This script sets database environment variables before starting AOLserver; this allows the AOLserver instance can communicate with the database. There is one script each for Oracle and PostGreSQL. They don't conflict, so if you plan to use both databases, install both.

Install tDOM. Download the tDOM tarball to /tmp/tDOM-0.7.7.tar.gz, unpack it, adjust the configuration file to match our patched distribution of aolserver, and compile it.

[root@yourserver root]# cd /usr/local/src
[root@yourserver src]# tar xzf /tmp/tDOM-0.7.7.tar.gz
[root@yourserver src]# cd tDOM-0.7.7/unix
[root@yourserver unix]#
cd /usr/local/src
tar xzf /tmp/tDOM-0.7.7.tar.gz
cd unix
 

Edit the file CONFIG and change this section:

# ----------------------------------------------------
# aolsrc="/usr/src/aolserver-3.4"
# ../configure --enable-threads --disable-tdomalloc \
#   --with-aolserver=$aolsrc \
#   --with-tcl=$aolsrc/tcl8.3.4/unix 

to

# ----------------------------------------------------
aolsrc="/usr/local/src/aolserver/aolserver"
../configure --enable-threads --disable-tdomalloc \
  --with-aolserver=$aolsrc \
  --with-tcl=$aolsrc/tcl8.3.2/unix

And configure and compile:

[root@yourserver unix]# sh CONFIG
creating cache ./config.cache
checking for memmove... yes
  (many lines omitted)
creating Makefile
creating tdomConfig.sh
[root@yourserver unix]# make
gcc -pipe -DHAVE_UNISTD_H=1 -DHAVE_LIMITS_H=1 -DTCL_THREADS=1
-DHAVE_GETCWD=1 -DHAVE_OPENDIR=1 -DHAVE_STRSTR=1 -DHAVE_STRTOL=1 
  (many lines omitted)
          -Wl,-rpath,/usr/local/lib -o tcldomsh;\
fi
[root@yourserver unix]# cp libtdom0.7.7.so /usr/local/aolserver/bin/
sh CONFIG
make
cp libtdom0.7.7.so /usr/local/aolserver/bin/

Install nsopenssl (OPTIONAL)

Install Full Text Search with OpenFTS (OPTIONAL)

Test AOLserver. In order to test AOLserver, we'll run it using the sample-config.tcl file provided in the AOLserver distribution, under the nobody user and web group. The sample-config.tcl configuration writes to the default log locations, so we need to give it permission to do so or it will fail. Grant the web group permission to write to /usr/local/aolserver/log and /usr/local/aolserver/servers.

[root@yourserver root]# cd /usr/local/aolserver
[root@yourserver aolserver]# chown -R root.web log servers
[root@yourserver aolserver]# chmod -R g+w log servers
[root@yourserver aolserver]# ls -l
total 32
drwxr-sr-x    2 root     root         4096 Mar  8 12:57 bin
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     root         4096 Mar  8 10:34 include
drwxr-sr-x    3 root     root         4096 Mar  8 10:34 lib
drwxrwsr-x    2 root     web          4096 Mar  8 10:31 log
drwxr-sr-x    3 root     root         4096 Mar  8 10:31 modules
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root         7320 Mar 31  2001 sample-config.tcl
drwxrwsr-x    3 root     web          4096 Mar  8 10:31 servers
[root@yourserver aolserver]#
cd /usr/local/aolserver
chown -R root.web log servers
chmod -R g+w log servers
ls -l

Now, we'll run a quick test to ensure AOLserver is running correctly. We'll use the sample config file provided with AOLserver. This file will attempt to guess your IP address and hostname. It will then start up the server at port 8000 of that IP address.

[root@yourserver aolserver]# ./bin/nsd -t sample-config.tcl -u nobody -g web
[root@yourserver aolserver]# [08/Mar/2003:15:07:18][31175.8192][-main-] Notice: config.tcl: starting to read config file...
[08/Mar/2003:15:07:18][31175.8192][-main-] Warning: config.tcl: nsssl not loaded -- key/cert files do not exist.
[08/Mar/2003:15:07:18][31175.8192][-main-] Warning: config.tcl: nscp not loaded
-- user/password is not set.
[08/Mar/2003:15:07:18][31175.8192][-main-] Notice: config.tcl: finished reading
config file.

The first warning, about nsssl, can be ignored. We won't be using nsssl; we'll be using nsopenssl instead, and we haven't fully configured it yet. The nscp warning refers to the fact that, without a user and password in the config file, the administrative panel of AOLserver won't load. We don't plan to use it and can ignore that error as well. Any other warning or error is unexpected and probably a problem.

Test to see if AOLserver is working by starting Mozilla or Lynx on the same computer and surfing over to your web page. If you browse from another computer and the sample config file didn't guess your hostname or ip correctly, you'll get a false negative test.

[root@yourserver aolserver]# lynx localhost:8000

You should see a "Welcome to AOLserver" page. If this doesn't work, try going to http://127.0.0.1:8000/. If this still doesn't work, check out the Troubleshooting AOLserver section below. Note that you will not be able to browse to the web page from another machine, because AOLserver is only listening to the local address.

Shutdown the test server:

[root@yourserver aolserver]# killall nsd
[root@yourserver aolserver]#

The killall command will kill all processes with the name nsd, but clearly this is not a good tool to use for managing your services in general. We cover this topic in the Keep AOLServer alive section.

Troubleshooting. If you can't view the welcome page, it's likely there's a problem with your server configuration. Start by viewing your AOLserver log, which is in /usr/local/aolserver/log/server.log. You should also try to find lines of the form:

[01/Jun/2000:12:11:20][5914.2051][-nssock-] Notice: nssock: listening on http://localhost.localdomain:8000 (127.0.0.1:8000)
[01/Jun/2000:12:11:20][5914.2051][-nssock-] Notice: accepting connections

If you can find these lines, try entering the URL the server is listening on. If you cannot find these lines, there must be an error somewhere in the file. Search for lines beginning with the word Error instead of Notice.

The sample-config.tcl file grabs your address and hostname from your OS settings.

set hostname        [ns_info hostname]
set address         [ns_info address]

If you get an error that nssock can't get the requested address, you can set these manually. If you type 0.0.0.0, AOLserver will try to listen on all available addresses. Note: ns_info address doesn't appear to be supported in current versions of AOLserver.

set hostname        [ns_info hostname]
#set address         [ns_info address]
set address 0.0.0.0

Install Analog web file analyzer. (OPTIONAL)