Administration server basics

his section describes the concepts behind the administration server and its Server Manager forms you use to configure your Netscape® servers. This chapter also gives you an overview of some new features and provides instructions to start and stop the server. For online step-by-step directions on using specific forms in the Server Manager, click the Help button that appears at the bottom of each form.

Because every Netscape server is configured using an administration server and the Server Manager forms, you can easily configure your servers remotely, using any computer in your network.

Remotely configuring your Netscape servers

Using the administration server

The administration server is installed when you install your first Netscape server. The directory where you install the servers is called the server root directory.

After installing a server and administration server, you use your browser to navigate to the administration server and then click its forms to configure your servers. When you submit the forms, the administration server modifies the configuration for the server you were administering.

The URL you use to navigate to the administration server depends on the computer hostname and the portnumber you choose when you install any Netscape server. For example, if you installed the administration server on port 12345, the URL would look like this:

http://myserver.novell.com:12345

Before you can get to any forms, the administration server prompts you to authenticate yourself. This means you need to type a username and password. You set up the "superuser" username and password when you install the first Netscape server and administration server on your computer.

The first page you see when you access the administration server is called the Server Administration page (Figure 1.2). The Server Administration page has three or four sections, depending on the servers you have installed. Figure 1.2 shows all three sections:

The first page you see when you access the administration server is called the Server Administration page (Figure 1.2). The Server Administration page has three sections, depending on the servers you have installed. Figure 1.2 shows all three sections, which are described here.

1. Netscape Server Administration contains links to the Novell homepage and to the online documentation.
   
2. General Administration contains buttons for configuring the administration server.
   
3. Servers Supporting General Administration contains buttons for configuring webservers.
   

The Server Administration

Using the Server Manager forms

The Server Administration page, shown in Figure 1.2, contains links to each Server Manager.

• To get to the Server Manager forms for the administration server, click any of the category buttons on the Server Administration page.
  
  

• To get to the Server Manager forms for a particular server, click the button in the General Administration section that has the server's name on it. For directions on configuring a particular server, see that server's documentation or click Help in any online form.
  
  

The administration server's Server Manager form

To use the Server Manager, you click a category button in the top frame (for example, Server Preferences), and then you click a link in the left frame (for example, Network Settings). A form appears in the remaining frame where you select options and specify values that configure the server. To submit your changes in the form, click the OK button. Click the Help button in any form to get specific directions on using that form.

To return to the Server Administration page (Figure 1.2), click the Server Administration button in the top frame of the Server Manager.

Before installing or configuring your servers

Setting up the SuiteSpot user and group

For example, if you're installing Netscape Messaging Server and Netscape FastTrack Server on the same computer, you might create a group called suitespot with system users mail and web.

When you create these accounts, you should create them so that no other system users or groups have write access to the files owned by the servers. In particular, you'll want to write protect the administration server's password file located at <server_root>/admin-serv/config/admpw. You should also consider protecting any encryption key-pair files and certificates (in the directory <server_root>/alias), and the local database (in the directory <server_root>/userdb).

Logging in to the administration server

There are two general levels of users:

• superuser: The user listed in the file <server_root>/admin-serv/config/admpw. This is the username (and password) you specified during installation. This user has full access to all features in the administration server and sees all forms in the administration server except the Users & Groups forms, which depends on the superuser having a valid account in an LDAP server. If you use the local database, superuser will always have access to the Users & Groups forms.
  
• end users: These users see a limited set of forms that allow them to change information specific to themselves, such as their password and any other information about themselves that is stored in the user database.
  

Stopping the administration server

To shut down the administration server from the Server Administration page, perform the following:

1. Under General Administration, click Admin Preferences | Shut Down.
   
2. Click Shut down the administration!