WebSpeed 1.0 - Tips for using the CERN Web Server on UNIX
Learning the basics of the CERN Web Server on UNIX
You first must set up the Web Server to run and accept requests on the
UNIX system. There are several steps involved in this, and if one
step is missed, it can and will cause problems down the line.
Things to look for:
1> ServerRoot
The ServerRoot is an CERN specific term that refers to the directory
where the CERN Web Server is installed. This term is defined in the
httpd.conf in the config directory where the CERN server is installed.
2> httpd
The httpd is the Web Server daemon process. The letters stand for
"hyper text transfer protocol daemon". By default, the httpd
executable will be placed in the Daemon/<OS version> directory where
the CERN server was installed. There may be several of these
processes running on the system, and the main daemon process will
spawn new ones as needed.
On Sun Solaris and AIX:
Check to see whether the daemon process(es) is(are) running
ps -ef | grep httpd
Check the port status
netstat -a | grep <port #> <-- the port # is the number specified
by the Port parameter in the
httpd.conf file.
3> How to customize the configuration file(s)
Unless you are using special optional functionality of the server,
the only configuration file that must be present on the system. By
default, this file is /etc/httpd.conf, but httpd.conf may be located
elsewhere on the system. A sample httpd.conf can be found in the
server_root/config directory where you installed the CERN server.
If you don't use the default location of /etc for httpd.conf, you
will have to specify it with the startup parameter -r. For example:
/some/dir/httpd -r /some/other/dir/httpd.conf
It is very important that all of the necessary changes have been made
to httpd.conf. If any piece of the Web Server is not configured
properly, it will not work.
Most importantly for WebSpeed, make sure that the scripts directory
(cgi-bin by default) is configured correctly.
Make sure you shut down and restart the Web server if you make any
changes to any of the configuration files.
4> Test the static HTML page
You can quickly check that the server is running and accepting client
requests by placing a sample HTML file in the document directory
on the Web Server machine (defined by the "Pass" parameter in
httpd.conf). This is the directory where the Web Server
looks for any HTML documents.
Make sure the document directory has execute permissions by the
owner of the httpd process. The files in the document directory
need read permissions by the owner of the httpd process.
The URL that you need to type into the browser is as follows.
httpd://<machine>:<port#>/mytest.html
5> Test the CGI (Common Gateway Interface) capability
Before testing the CERN server with WebSpeed, you should test your
set-up by attempting to run a test CGI script. A simple test
script can be found in kbase 16067, "UNIX CGI test script for
web server testing with WebSpeed". Information on how to write
and test CGI scripts with the CERN server can be found at:
http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Daemon/User/CGI/
Make sure the script directory (as defined by the Exec line in
httpd.conf) has execute permissions by the httpd process owner.
The files in this directory also need execute permissions by
the httpd process owner.
The URL that you need to type into the browser will look like:
httpd://<machine>:<port#>/cgi-bin/test-cgi
where test-cgi is the name of your test script. If this works,
you should be all set to use your web server with WebSpeed!
29-Aug-96
Other documentation:
The CERN server home page is online at:
http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Daemon/
Progress Software Technical Support Note # 16068