WASD Install and Update

4.Server Account and Environment

The HTTP server account should be a standard account, preferably in a group of its own (definitely at least a non-system, non-user group), with sufficient quotas to handle the expected traffic.

Symptoms of insufficient process quotas include:

• Textual pages OK, but pages with a significant number of images having some or all "broken".
• Scripts failing mysteriously, particularly when multiple in use concurrently.
• Server and associated scripts all apparently waiting MWAIT or RWAST states.

A general rule is more is better, after all, it will only use as much as it needs! To assist with setting a reasonable BYTLM quota the WATCH report (see WATCH Facility of WASD Features and Facilities) provides some feedback on server BYTLM usage.

4.1VMS Server Account

The following provides a guide to the account.

4.2VMS Scripting Account

The following provides a guide to the account.

4.3Account Support Files

HTTPd Executables

Two server executables can be built by the package.

• HTTPD.EXE – basic server
• HTTPD_SSL.EXE – TLS/SSL-enabled server

Privileged Image

As the HTTP$SERVER account should be completely unprivileged, and the HTTPd image requires ALTPRI, CMKRNL, DETACH, NETMBX, TMPMBX, PRMGBL, PRMMBX, PSWAPM, SECURITY, SHMEM (VAX only), SYSGBL, SYSLCK, SYSNAM, SYSPRV and WORLD privileges (see the WASD_ROOT:[SRC.HTTPD]READMORE.TXT) document for a description of how and why the server uses these privileges).

It is installed using a command similar to the following:

DCL Procedure STARTUP.COM

STARTUP.COM

Putting all this together the HTTP server startup procedure becomes something similar to the supplied example. It should be called from SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM or the site's equivalent.

This procedure will support simple and quite complex sites. It works closely with STARTUP_SERVER.COM (see below). It is designed to accept parameters from the command-line or as pre-assigned symbols. Operating this way requires no modifications to the procedure itself. Startup characteristics are essentially determined by DCL symbol values. Some symbols are booleans, switching functionality off and on, others require string values. When relevant startup values are not assigned a reasonable default will be applied. See the following examples.

Startup characteristics can be determined by supplying symbol assignment values as command-line parameters when calling the procedure.

Startup characteristics can also be determined by assigning the symbol values before calling the procedure itself.

On VAX platforms prior to VMS V6.2 the startup uses a system batch queue. By default SYS$BATCH is used. An alternate queue can be specified.

Check the procedure itself for detail on symbol names and functionality. See WASD_ROOT:[EXAMPLE]STARTUP.COM

DCL Procedure STARTUP_LOCAL.COM

STARTUP_LOCAL.COM

This file is automatically executed by the STARTUP.COM procedure immediately before the server is actually started. It is provided to supply all the local site's additional startup requirements. For example, a STARTUP.COM defined logical name could be modified here before the server proper is actually started. See WASD_ROOT:[EXAMPLE]STARTUP_LOCAL.COM

DCL Procedure STARTUP_SERVER.COM

STARTUP_SERVER.COM

This procedure serves two purposes.

1. The procedure becomes SYS$COMMAND for a detached process created directly during the execution of STARTUP.COM.
2. The procedure then controls the activation of the HTTPd executable image during server restarts and exits.

It is recommended to pass server startup command-line parameters using the WASD_SERVER_STARTUP logical name that this procedure checks for and uses if present. If this is defined the contents are applied to the server image when executed. It can be explicitly defined before WASD startup.

The value can also be passed to the main startup procedure in a symbol. The startup procedure then defines a system logical name with that value (note that any quotes used must be escaped).

It can also be manually redefined at any time and the server restarted to apply different startup parameters to the running server.

4.4Global Pages/Sections

Various accounting, cache and other shared data used by the server is provided by shared global memory. These requires one permananet global section (SYSGEN parameter GBLSECTIONS) and a number of permanent global pages (SYSGEN parameter GBLPAGES) per item. The number of items varies depending on configuration.

Global Sections

If there are insufficient global sections or pages the server will fail to start for all requirements except the activity statistics, this will just be disabled. Server process log startup messages advise on current usage.

As permanent, system-accessible global sections are deployed it may be necessary to explicitly delete them after ad hoc server experimentation, etc. (4.6 Server Startup). The startup qualifier /GBLSEC=NOPERM disables the creation of permanent global sections eliminating this requirement.

4.5Logical Names

WASD uses an independent logical name table (see 4.5.1 WASD Name Table below). Versions prior to 10 used the SYSTEM table and a substantially different naming schema.

The following logical names are used in the operation of the package. These are usually created by STARTUP.COM during server startup.

Package Logical Names

4.5.1WASD Name Table

In an effort to localise WASD-related logical names and avoid polluting the SYSTEM logical name table WASD version 10 creates it's own world-readable, system-writable name table, and adds it to LNM$SYSTEM_DIRECTORY.

WASD logical names are then defined in that table leaving the SYSTEM table with just a few essential names.

As can be seen the number of LNM$SYSTEM_TABLE names is small, five in this example (though it can vary). Logical name WASD_FILE_DEV locates a procedure to insert the WASD_TABLE into a process' LNM$FILE_DEV to make the table names available. Until that is done they are not visible without an explicit /TABLE=WASD_TABLE. The server automatically uses the procedure for itself and scripting processes. Site admins can simply

The WASD_ROOT logical provides a convenient, global logical location for the primary (default) WASD environment. HT_ROOT is used to provide pre-v10 backward-compatibility with existing sites. (If yours does not need the name you can deassign it during server startup.)

The WASD_DECNET_CGI_OBJECT and WASD_DECNET_OSU_OBJECT names provide global locations for the two DECnet scripting environments. These logicals are defined when a site uses the [STARTUP]STARTUP_DECNET.COM procedure. It is necessary to provide a global location for these with multiple WASD environments because DECnet objects are global entities. The one object must provide an infrastructure for potentially multiple WASD environments.

Other SYSTEM logical names, WASD_TABLE+n name tables, and WASD_FILE_DEVn logical names are used for non-primary WASD environments (see Instances and Environments of WASD Features and Facilities).

4.5.2Pre-v10

The server code accepts both the v10 or later and pre-v10 schemas. If it cannot find a v10 logical name it attempts to use a pre-v10 logical name. This has been provided in an effort to make the transition as seamless as possible for existing sites. In addition the revised startup procedures configure and use WASD_TABLE but can be directed to use the SYSTEM table by STARTUP.COM being provided a WASD_TABLE=0 parameter (see 4.6 Server Startup).

4.6Server Startup

When starting up the server several characteristics of the server may be specified using qualifiers on the command line. If not specified appropriate defaults are employed. For recommended methods of passing parameters to the executable at server startup see ‘STARTUP_SERVER.COM’ in 4.3 Account Support Files. For clarity some esoteric and legacy qualifiers and parameters are not listed in this table.

Server Image Command-Line Parameters