WASD Hypertext Services - Technical Overview

This chapter provides a quick guide to getting your WASD package installed, configured and serving. This covers initial installation.

1. Unzip Package

   Install the files following the guidelines in 4 - Installation and Update. Note that more than one archive may be needed (4.1 - Source Archive, Object Module Archives).

2. INSTALL Package

   Server installation is performed using the INSTALL.COM procedure (4.5 - Installation DCL Procedure).

   • Build Package - Compile and link, or just link supplied object files to produce VMS executables for the system's version of VMS.

   • Check Package - Check basic operation of the package (4.7 - Quick-Check).

   • Create Server and Scripting Accounts - Create two independent accounts, one for executing the server, the other for executing scripts (5.1 - VMS Server Account). If quotas are enabled on the target disk provides an ambit allocation for these accounts. Review this at some stage.

   • Set Package Security - This sections traverses the newly installed tree and sets all package directories and files to required levels of access (7.2 - Maintaining Package Security).

   • Copy Support and Configuration Files - Copy the example server support and configuration files (5.3 - Account Support Files).

   • Install Scripts - Selectively copy groups of scripts from package build directories into the scripting directories.

3. Configure Package

   Following the execution of the INSTALL.COM procedure the package should require only minor, further configuration.

   Initially two files may require alteration.

   1. The startup file, possibly to set the local HTTPD$GMT logical. Consider using the STARTUP_LOCAL.COM file for other site-specific requirements (5.3 - Account Support Files).

   2. The only configuration that should require immediate attention will be to the mapping rules (13 - Mapping Rules).

   More generally server runtime configuration involves the considerations discussed in 6.1 - Site Organisation along with the following aspects:

   • Configuring the HTTP server run-time characteristics (6 - Server Configuration).

   • Mapping request paths to the VMS file system, and to other things such as scripts (13 - Mapping Rules).

   • Customizing some messages (or all if non-English language environment) (10 - Message Configuration).

   • Establishing an authentication and authorization environment (15 - Authentication and Authorization).

4. Start Server

   Execute the startup procedure. Get your browser and connect!

5. Find Out What's Wrong :^(

   Of course something will not be right! This can happen with the initial configuration and sometimes when changing configuration. The server provides information messages in it's run-time log, look in the HT_ROOT:[LOG_SERVER] directory.

   Remember, the basic installation's integrity can always be checked as described in 4.7 - Quick-Check. This uses the configuration files from the [EXAMPLE] directory, so provided these have not been altered the server should execute in demonstration mode correctly.

   Can't resolve it? See 4.13 - Reporting Problems.