Portal Problems on NetWare 6

Articles and Tips: qna

01 Dec 2001

I am having difficulties getting Novell Portal Services (NPS) v1.01 to work correctly on NetWare 6 and NetWare 6 with Clustering enabled. Any help would be greatly and immensely appreciated.

Webbed with Distinction in Wilmette

Dear Webbed: You wouldn't be the only person with these types of Portal problems. Lucky for you, Novell has pieced together solutions for your NetWare 6 and NetWare 6 with Clustering problems. To get NPS v1.0/SP1 running on NetWare 6, perform the following steps:

For the path to where WebApps are to be installed, use SYS:WEBAPPS.
For the file path to the Tomcat configuration file, use:

\\your.ip.address\SYS\apache\conf\adminserv.conf
Finish installing both NPS v1.0 and it's service pack (SP1).

After the installs are completed, go to SYS:TOMCAT\33\CONF subdirectory and create a file named nwapps-nps.xml with the following contents, or you can copy and modify the contents of nwapp-webaccess.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<webapps>
<!--  Setting special properties for nps context  -->
<Context path="/nps"
docBase="SYS:/webapps/nps"
debug="0"
reloadable="false" >
</Context>
</webapps>

Open up the the SYS\apache\conf\adminserv.conf file and go to the NPS section. Find the following two lines:
```
JkMount /nps/servlet/* ajp12
JkMount /nps/*.jsp ajp12
```
Change the ajp protocol versions from 12 to 13 as follows:
```
JkMount /nps/servlet/* ajp13
JkMount /nps/*.jsp ajp13
```

In the NPS section of Adminserv.conf find the Alias entry and add the 3 additional commands as outlined below:

Alias /nps "sys:webapps/nps"
<Directory "sys:webapps/nps">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Directory>

In theory, the NPS section can be anywhere outside the virtual host section of the adminserv.conf file, my experience shows that it works better after the virtual host block. Move the NPS section to the end of, and outside of the virtual host block.
Now you can restart Apache & Tomcat or reboot the server. The new settings will take effect, allowing NPS to run on NetWare 6.

One way to get NPS v1.01 running on a NetWare 6 Cluster is by completing the following steps:

Note: A cluster typically has a shared volume with an IP address assigned to it, this will be referred to in these instructions as SharedVOL or SharedIP. Simply replace these tags with the real volume name and the real IP address of your cluster.
- For the WebServer Address and Port, use the SharedIP address.
- For the path to where WebApps are to be installed, use SharedVOL:WEBAPPS
- For the file path to Tomcat configuration file, use: \\your.ip.address\SYS\apache\conf\ adminserv.conf
- Finish installing both NPS v1.0 and it's service pack.
- After the installs are completed, go to SYS:TOMCAT\33\CONF subdirectory and create a file named nwapps-nps.xml with the following contents, or copy and modify the contents of nwapp-webaccess.xml:
```
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<webapps>

<Context path="/nps"
docBase="SharedVOL:/webapps/nps"
debug="0"
reloadable="false" >
</Context>
</webapps>
```
Note: The SharedVOL on the docBase line.

Once this is completed, copy nwapp-nps.xml to the other servers in the cluster.The following steps, 6 through 8, modify the ADMINSERV.CONF file.
Open up the SYS\apache\conf\adminserv.conf file and go to the the NPS section. Find the following two lines:
```
JkMount /nps/servlet/* ajp12
JkMount /nps/*.jsp ajp12
```
Change the ajp protocol versions from 12 to 13 as follows:
```
JkMount /nps/servlet/* ajp13
JkMount /nps/*.jsp ajp13
```

In the NPS section of the Adminserv.conf file, find the Alias entry and add the 3 additional commands as outlined below:

Alias /nps "sys:webapps/nps"
<Directory "sys:webapps/nps">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Directory>

The NPS section that the NPS install writes to the adminserv.conf file must now be copied to the other servers in the cluster. In theory, the NPS section can be anywhere outside the virtual host section of the adminserv.conf file, my experience shows that it works better after the virtual host block. Move the NPS section to the end, and then copy it to the adminserv.conf on the other servers in the cluster. While doing this take note of step 9.

Change the address that Apache listens on to the SharedIP address as shown in the port configuration section of the adminserv.conf file.

# Start Apache Services Port Configuration
Port 80
Listen SharedIP:80
<IfModule mod_tls.c>
SecureListen SharedIP:443 "SSL CertificateDNS"
</IfModule>
# End Apache Services Port Configuration

To accommodate the above configuration, Tomcat and Apache can only be loaded on the server that is currently running NPS. This may not be the only solution, but that is as far as I've gone with it to date.

To accomplish this, the Tomcat33 and NVXADMUP commands in the AUTOEXEC.NCF files of all servers in the cluster must be commented out. The following two commands should be added to the Cluster Resource Load Script:
```
TOMCAT33
NVXADMUP
The following two commands should be added to the Cluster Resource Unload Script:
TOMCAT33 -STOP
NVXADMDN
```
Reboot your servers.

* Originally published in Novell AppNotes

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The origin of this information may be internal or external to Novell. While Novell makes all reasonable efforts to verify this information, Novell does not make explicit or implied claims to its validity.