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Install AOLserver 3.3+ad13

by Vinod Kurup
OpenACS docs are written by the named authors, but may be edited by OpenACS documentation staff.

This page assumes you have downloaded aolserver to to /tmp/aolserver3.3ad13-oacs1-beta-src.tar.gz. If not, get it. It also assumes you are following the 4.6.2-P or 4.6.2-O Reference Platform installation, using Red Hat 8.0. Places where other systems are different are noted.

  1. As root, untar aolserver3.3ad13-oacs1-beta-src.tar.gz into /usr/local/src. 

    [root@yourserver root]# cd /usr/local/src
[root@yourserver src]# tar xzf /tmp/aolserver3.3ad13-oacs1-beta-src.tar.gz
[root@yourserver src]#

    cd /usr/local/src
tar xzf /tmp/aolserver3.3ad13-oacs1-beta-src.tar.gz

  2. 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

    Put the name of the driver(s) that you want into conf-db. This can be postgresql, oracle, or the word both if you want both drivers installed. 

    [root@yourserver aolserver]# echo "postgresql" > conf-db
[root@yourserver aolserver]#

    conf-inst should contain the location where AOLserver is to be installed. This defaults to /usr/local/aolserver, so we don't need to change it.

    conf-make should contain the name of the GNU Make command on your system. It defaults to gmake. Verify that gmake is installed:

    [root@yourserver aolserver]# gmake -v
GNU Make version 3.79.1, by Richard Stallman and Roland McGrath.
Built for i386-redhat-linux-gnu
Copyright (C) 1988, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 2000
        Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Report bugs to <bug-make@gnu.org>.

[root@yourserver aolserver]#

    If you don't get similar results, including an equal or higher version number to 3.79.1, install gmake or check your aliases.

    If you're going to be installing the Postgresql driver, you'll have to adjust the makefile first. This will hopefully be cleaned up in future versions of this distribution. 

    [root@yourserver aolserver]# emacs pgdriver/makefile

    Edit the lines containing PGLIB and PGINC so they look like this: 

    PGLIB=/usr/local/pgsql/lib
PGINC=/usr/local/pgsql/include

    Run the conf program, which compiles AOLserver and the default modules and installs them.

    [root@yourserver aolserver]# ./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 pgdriver/; output in log/pgdriver.log
Creating  ...
==================================================================
Done Building Sat Mar  8 10:31:35 PST 2003
[root@yourserver aolserver]#

    This takes about 5 minutes. 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.

  3. 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.

    • Oracle

      [root@yourserver aolserver]# cd /usr/local/aolserver/bin
[root@yourserver bin]# cp /tmp/openacs-4-6/packages/acs-core-docs/www/files/nsd-oracle.txt ./nsd-oracle
[root@yourserver bin]# chmod 750 nsd-oracle
[root@yourserver bin]#

      cd /usr/local/aolserver/bin
cp /tmp/openacs-4-6/packages/acs-core-docs/www/files/nsd-oracle.txt ./nsd-oracle
chmod 750 nsd-oracle

    • PostGreSQL

      [root@yourserver aolserver]# cd /usr/local/aolserver/bin
[root@yourserver bin]# cp /tmp/openacs-4-6/packages/acs-core-docs/www/files/nsd-postgres.txt ./nsd-postgres
[root@yourserver bin]# chmod 755 nsd-postgres
[root@yourserver bin]#

      cd /usr/local/aolserver/bin
cp /tmp/openacs-4-6/packages/acs-core-docs/www/files/nsd-postgres.txt ./nsd-postgres
chmod 755 nsd-postgres

  4. OPTIONAL - install nsopenssl. This AOLserver module is required if you want people to connect to your site via https. These commands compile nsopenssl and install it, along with a tcl helper script to handle https connections. You will also need ssl certificates. Because those should be different for each server service, you won't need those instructions until later. You will need the nsopenssl tarball in /tmp.

    [root@yourserver bin]# cd /usr/local/src/aolserver
[root@yourserver aolserver]# tar xzf /tmp/nsopenssl-2.1.tar.gz
[root@yourserver aolserver]# cd nsopenssl-2.1
[root@yourserver nsopenssl-2.1]# make OPENSSL=/usr/local/ssl
gcc -I/usr/local/ssl/include -I../aolserver/include -D_REENTRANT=1 -DNDEBUG=1 -g -fPIC -Wall -Wno-unused -mcpu=i686 -DHAVE_CMMSG=1 -DUSE_FIONREAD=1 -DHAVE_COND_EINTR=1   -c -o nsopenssl.o nsopenssl.c
(many lines omitted)
gcc -shared -nostartfiles -o nsopenssl.so nsopenssl.o config.o init.o ssl.o thread.o tclcmds.o -L/usr/local/ssl/lib -lssl -lcrypto
[root@yourserver nsopenssl-2.1]# cp nsopenssl.so /usr/local/aolserver/bin
[root@yourserver nsopenssl-2.1]# cp https.tcl /usr/local/aolserver/modules/tcl/
[root@yourserver nsopenssl-2.1]#

    cd /usr/local/src/aolserver
tar xzf /tmp/nsopenssl-2.1.tar.gz 
cd nsopenssl-2.1 
make OPENSSL=/usr/local/ssl 
cp nsopenssl.so /usr/local/aolserver/bin 
cp https.tcl /usr/local/aolserver/modules/tcl/

  5. OPTIONAL - install OpenFTS. If you want full text search, and you are running PostGreSQL, install this module to support FTS. You will need the openfts tarball in /tmp.

    1. Install Tsearch. This is a PostGreSQL module that OpenFTS requires.

      [root@yourserver root]# su - postgres
[postgres@yourserver pgsql]$ cd /usr/local/src/postgresql-7.2.3/contrib/tsearch/
[postgres@yourserver tsearch]$ make
sed 's,MODULE_PATHNAME,$libdir/tsearch,g' tsearch.sql.in >tsearch.sql
/usr/bin/flex  -8 -Ptsearch_yy -o'parser.c' parser.l
(many lines omitted)
rm -f libtsearch.so
ln -s libtsearch.so.0.0 libtsearch.so
[postgres@yourserver tsearch]$ make install
mkdir /usr/local/pgsql/share/contrib
mkdir /usr/local/pgsql/doc/contrib
(2 lines omitted)
/bin/sh ../../config/install-sh -c -m 755 libtsearch.so.0.0 /usr/local/pgsql/lib/tsearch.so
[postgres@yourserver tsearch]$ exit
logout

[root@yourserver root]#

      su - postgres
cd /usr/local/src/postgresql-7.2.3/contrib/tsearch
make
make install
exit

    2. Unpack the OpenFTS tarball and compile and install the driver.

      [root@yourserver root]# cd /usr/local/src
[root@yourserver src]# tar xzf /tmp/Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2.tar.gz
[root@yourserver src]# cd /usr/local/src/Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2/
[root@yourserver Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2]# ./configure --with-aolserver-src=/usr/local/src/aolserver/aolserver --with-tcl=/usr/lib/
checking prefix... /usr/local
checking for gcc... gcc
(many lines omitted)
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile.global
[root@yourserver Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2]# make
(cd parser; make all)
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/local/src/Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2/parser'
(many lines omitted)
packages provided were {Lingua::Stem::Snowball 0.3.2}
processed fts_base_snowball.tcl
[root@yourserver Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2]# cd aolserver
[root@yourserver aolserver]# make
gcc -c -fPIC  -DPACKAGE=\"OPENFTS\" -DVERSION=\"0.3.2\" -DHAVE_UNISTD_H=1 -DSTDC_HEADERS=1 -DHAVE_SYS_TYPES_H=1 -DHAVE_SYS_STAT_H=1 -DHAVE_STDLIB_H=1 -DHAVE_STR
(many lines omitted)
n_stem.o italian_stem.o norwegian_stem.o portuguese_stem.o russian_stem.o nsfts.o  -o nsfts.so
[root@yourserver aolserver]# cp nsfts.so /usr/local/aolserver/bin/
[root@yourserver aolserver]#

      cd /usr/local/src 
tar xzf /tmp/Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2.tar.gz
cd /usr/local/src/Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2/
./configure --with-aolserver-src=/usr/local/src/aolserver/aolserver --with-tcl=/usr/lib/
make
cd aolserver
make
cp nsfts.so /usr/local/aolserver/bin

    3. Build some supplemental modules.

      [root@yourserver aolserver]# cd ..
[root@yourserver Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2]# cp -r pgsql_contrib_openfts /usr/local/src/postgresql-7.2.3/contrib
[root@yourserver Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2]# cd /usr/local/src/postgresql-7.2.3/contrib/pgsql_contrib_openfts
[root@yourserver pgsql_contrib_openfts]# make
sed 's,MODULE_PATHNAME,$libdir/openfts,g' openfts.sql.in >openfts.sql
gcc -O2 -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes -Wmissing-declarations -fpic -I. -I../../src/include   -c -o openfts.o openfts.c
gcc -shared -o openfts.so openfts.o
rm openfts.o
[root@yourserver pgsql_contrib_openfts]# su postgres
[postgres@yourserver pgsql_contrib_openfts]$ make install
/bin/sh ../../config/install-sh -c -m 644 openfts.sql /usr/local/pgsql/share/contrib
/bin/sh ../../config/install-sh -c -m 755 openfts.so /usr/local/pgsql/lib
/bin/sh ../../config/install-sh -c -m 644 ./README.openfts /usr/local/pgsql/doc/contrib
[postgres@yourserver pgsql_contrib_openfts]$ exit
[root@yourserver pgsql_contrib_openfts]#

      cd ..
cp -r pgsql_contrib_openfts /usr/local/src/postgresql-7.2.3/contrib
cd /usr/local/src/postgresql-7.2.3/contrib/pgsql_contrib_openfts
make
su postgres
make install
exit

  6. 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.

  7. 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

  8. OPTIONAL - install Analog web file analyser. You should have the source tarball in /tmp. Unpack, compile, and install analog.

    [root@yourserver aolserver]# cd /usr/local/src
[root@yourserver src]# tar xzf /tmp/analog-5.31.tar.gz
root@yourserver analog-5.31]# make
cd src && make
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/local/src/analog-5.31/src'
(many lines omitted)
***IMPORTANT: You must read the licence before using analog
***
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/local/src/analog-5.31/src'
[root@yourserver analog-5.31]# cd ..
[root@yourserver src]# mv analog-5.31 /usr/share/
[root@yourserver src]#

    cd /usr/local/src
tar xzf /tmp/analog-5.31.tar.gz
cd analog-5.31
make
cd ..
mv analog-5.31 /usr/share/

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