Configuration of the Development Server, hug.it.edu
for Web Publishing with Databases
Here we give an overview of how the development server hug.it.edu is
configured. The development server is for use in the course Web Publishing with Databases.
Basic Setup
Hug is a PC running RedHat Linux. Hug has one IP address:
130.226.140.24.
Student Setup
Each student with username login has a home directory on hug:
/home/login/
Each student also has a public Web directory for storing public pages:
/web/login/
This directory contains the subdirectories
-
www/ - for publicly visible files served by the
student's Web server (see below)
-
tcl/ - for tcl
procedures that are loaded at Web server start-up time; initially,
this directory is empty
-
log/ - for log files generated by the Web server;
errors in tcl-scripts are logged in the
server.log file,
which is located in this directory; if an error occurs when the
Web server tries to execute one of your tcl-scripts, try to see if
there is an error-message in the end of your server.log
file
For security reasons, hug is setup so that one cannot telnet or ftp to
it. Instead, each user is required to use ssh
(i.e., secure shell). To change your password on hug, login to hug,
using ssh, and execute the UNIX command
passwd.
Web Servers
Each student has a Web server (AOLserver) running on
hug.it.edu. The Web servers listen to different ports and the user has
access to killing the server, which automatically causes the Web
server to be restarted. To kill and restart a Web server, use the Web Server Services.
The public name of each students Web server is the name of the
development machine appended with a colon (:) and a port number
assigned to the student (e.g., 8013). For example, if a student with
login grethe is associated with port 8013, and if
grethe has a file
/web/grethe/www/sample.html, any person on the internet
can access this page using the url
http://hug.itu.dk:8013/sample.html.
Here are som useful links:
Oracle
Only one Oracle database instance is running on hug.it.edu. Each
student has an Oracle database account, each of which is associated
with an individual tablespace. When students log into hug.it.edu, they
can type sql on the command-line, which then runs
SQL*Plus; thus, students need to remember only one password--the
password necessary to connect to hug.it.edu with ssh!
Figuring out how to install Oracle is not easy. Here are some links
that might turn out useful if you're trying it for yourself:
Instead of using Oracle, it is possible to configure AOLserver to work
with other RDBMS's such as Postgres -- the best open-source
database available.
The Arsdigita Community System (ACS)
Here are some links for
those who are interested in the Arsdigita Community System:
mael@it.edu