Chapter 2. Installing Your Server

The Red Hat Linux Secure Server is provided in RPM (RPM Package Manager) format. RPM is a software packaging system which makes it easy to install, uninstall, upgrade and query software packages. If you always use RPM to install software, RPM will keep track of the packages installed on your system and the files that they include.

This chapter contains information about the Red Hat Linux Secure Server RPMs and how to install them. Optional packages are also included with the Red Hat Linux Secure Server; you can choose to install them or not, depending upon whether you want the functionality they offer. Descriptions of these packages are included in the section called Choose Which Packages to Install.

	Please Note
	In order to install the Red Hat Linux Secure Server, you must already have obtained and installed the Red Hat Linux operating system version 6.0, 6.1 or 6.2.

Choose Which Packages to Install

When you install the Red Hat Linux Secure Server, you can also install additional packages. Short descriptions of these optional packages are provided here, so that you may make an informed decision about whether to install each package. The following sections provide these brief descriptions and include a path to a configuration file if one exists. After installation of a package, you can find documentation for each package (if any exists) in /usr/doc/<package_name>-<version_number>/.

When possible, we've also included a reference to a Web page where you should be able to find more information about configuring and managing the program, and perhaps a more recent version of the package.

Before you start the installation, please review the following packages and decide which ones you want to install.

Apache JServ

Configuration File: /etc/httpd/conf/jserv.conf

Apache JServ is a 100% pure Java servlet engine that is fully compliant with the JavaSoft Java Servlet API's 2.0 specification. A Java servlet engine is an external process, written in Java, which runs separately from the Web server and handles requests to Java servlets. In the simplest sense, Java servlets can be thought of as CGI programs written in Java. Apache JServ also includes mod_jserv, a module for Apache which "translates" servlet requests sent to the Web server and forwards them to the servlet engine. For more information on Apache JServ, see the Apache JServ Project website at http://java.apache.org/jserv/.

	Please Note
	`Apache JServ` is known to have problems with the Kaffe Java Virtual Machine (JVM). If you're going to use `Apache JServ`, be sure to obtain the Sun Java Development Kit (JDK) from ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/linux/devel/lang/java/blackdown.org/JDK-1.1.7/ and the Sun Java Servlet Development Kit (JSDK) 2.0 from http://java.sun.com/products/servlet/.

More information on where you can obtain these files, where to put them on your machine, and how to get them up and running is available from the Red Hat Linux Apache Centralized Knowledgebase at http://www.redhat.com/support/docs/faqs/RH-apache-FAQ/book1.html.

ht://Dig

Configuration File: /etc/htdig.conf

ht://Dig is a Web indexing and search engine intended to be used by small domains or intranets. ht://Dig isn't meant to be an Internet search engine (such as AltaVista or Excite). Instead, ht://Dig is meant to provide searching capabilities for a single company or campus website or for a subsection of a large website.

Please Note

ht://Dig does not currently have the ability to connect to a secure Web server. If you want to use ht://Dig with your Red Hat Linux Secure Server, you will need to leave your server's configuration at the default configuration, which starts a secure server and a non-secure server. Please see the section called Using Virtual Hosts in Chapter 4 for information on how the default configuration of your Red Hat Linux Secure Server runs secure and non-secure servers on your machine using virtual hosts.

See the section called Configuring ht://Dig in Chapter 5 for more information on how to configure ht://Dig after installation. You may also want to look for more information on the ht://Dig Web page at http://www.htdig.org.

IMP

IMP (IMAP webMail Program) is the Horde Project's IMAP webmail client. IMP is a set of PHP3 scripts that implement an IMAP-based webmail system. When installed on a server which supports IMAP and PHP3, IMP allows users with accounts on the system to check their mail over the Web. IMP's website is located at http://www.horde.org/.

The imp package is in the noarch directory. If you're installing IMP, you'll also need to install the horde package in the same directory, as well as the mod_php3 package included with Red Hat Linux. After installing these packages, you'll need to load in the PHP3 module, as described in the section called Configuring mod_php in Chapter 5.

Lynx-ssl

The lynx-ssl package contains a version of the Lynx text-based Web browser that has been patched to support Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) URLs (https:). The Lynx browser does not display any images, but it does support frames, tables and most other HTML tags. Lynx's advantage over graphical browsers is its speed -- Lynx starts, displays Web pages, and exits more swiftly than a graphical Web browser.

Mailman

Mailman (the GNU Mailing List Manager) is software for managing e-mail-based discussion lists. Mailman is comparable to other list management programs like Majordomo and Smartmail, but Mailman can be configured over the Web. Mailman sets up a Web page for each mailing list. Users can then subscribe and unsubscribe via the Web, and the list manager can perform all list management administration tasks via the Web. Mailman supports archiving, mail-to-news gateways, and most mailing list capabilities. For more information about Mailman, see the Mailman website at http://www.list.org/.

mod_dav

WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) is a set of HTTP extensions which allows users to edit and manage files on remote Web servers. WebDAV (usually referred to as DAV) supports the collaborative use and manipulation of documents via the Web. At this time, only the Microsoft(TM) Internet Explorer browser supports DAV functionality. However, other browsers are expected to support DAV in the future. For more information about DAV, see the WebDAV Resources website at http://www.webdav.org/.

The mod_dav module provides DAV capabilities for an Apache Web server. For more information on the mod_dav module and configuration options, see the mod_dav website at http://www.webdav.org/mod_dav/.

If you want to use mod_dav, you'll need to add the module to your Web server by adding LoadModule and AddModule lines to the Additional Modules section in httpd.conf. The LoadModule line should look like the following:

LoadModule dav_module          modules/libdav.so

The AddModule line should look like the following:

AddModule mod_dav.c

See the section called Adding Modules to Your Server in Chapter 4 for more information on adding modules to your server.

mod_roaming

Configuration File: /etc/httpd/conf/roaming.conf

The mod_roaming module allows your Apache Web server to act as a Netscape Roaming Access server. Using mod_roaming, you can store your Netscape Communicator preferences for multiple users (including bookmarks, address books, and cookies) on your Web server.

Then you can access, use and update the settings from any Netscape Communicator application which can access your Web server. For more information about mod_roaming, see the mod_roaming website at http://www.klomp.org/mod_roaming/.

If you want to use mod_roaming, you'll need to add the module to your Web server by adding LoadModule and AddModule lines to the Additional Modules section in httpd.conf. The LoadModule line should look like the following:

LoadModule roaming_module          modules/mod_roaming.so

The AddModule line should look like the following:

AddModule mod_roaming.c

See the section called Adding Modules to Your Server in Chapter 4 for more information on adding modules to your server.

mod_ssl-sxnet

The mod_ssl-sxnet package contains a Strong Extranet module for Apache and mod_ssl. A Strong Extranet allows you to use digital certificates to authenticate users on your Web server. Typically, users enroll in your Strong Extranet, under your control, through the Thawte Personal Certificate System. See http://www.thawte.com/certs/strongextranet/contents.html for more information about Thawte's Strong Extranet capabilities.

If you want to use Strong Extranet, you'll need to add the module to your Web server by adding a LoadModule line to in httpd.conf.ssl. The LoadModule line should look like the following:

LoadModule sxnet_module          modules/mod_sxnet.so

Add the LoadModule line immediately after the following line:

LoadModule ssl_module /usr/lib/apache/libssl.so

line in httpd.conf.ssl.

See the section called Adding Modules to Your Server in Chapter 4 for more information on adding modules to your server.

OpenSSH

OpenSSH is a set of network connectivity tools for logging in to and executing commands on a remote machine. OpenSSH tools encrypt all traffic (including passwords), so you can avoid eavesdropping, connection hijacking, and other attacks on the communications between your machine and the remote machine.

The openssh package includes the OpenSSH clients: ssh, a secure replacement for rlogin and telnet; and scp, a secure replacement for rcp and ftp.

The openssh-askpass package contains the GNOME passphrase dialog.

The openssh-server package contains the sshd secure shell daemon and documentation. The secure shell daemon is the server side of the OpenSSH suite, and is required if you want to allow SSH clients to connect to your host.

For more information about OpenSSH, see the OpenSSH website at http://www.openssh.com/.

openssl-devel

The openssl-devel package contains the static libraries, headers and utilities needed to compile applications with support for various cryptographic algorithms and protocols, including DES, RC4, RSA and SSL. You only need to install this package if you're going to compile secure applications.

perl-Apache-ASP

Configuration File: /etc/httpd/conf/asp.conf

Apache::ASP is a port of Active Server Pages (ASP) to Apache, using Perl as the host scripting language. Apache::ASP allows developers to create ASP-style Web applications that embed session management and Perl into HTML files. For more information about Apache::ASP, see the Apache::ASP Web page at http://www.nodeworks.com/asp/.

If you are going to install the perl-Apache-ASP package, you'll also need to install all of the included perl module packages: perl-Apache-filter, perl-Apache-SSI, perl-Devel-Symdump, perl-HTML-Clean, perl-HTML-Parser, perl-HTML-SimpleParse, perl-MIME-Base64, perl-MLDBM, perl-URI, perl-libnet and perl-libwww. (If you're using RPM to install the packages, the command rpm -Uvh perl*.rpm will install them all.)

If you want to use Apache::ASP, you'll need to add the module to your Web server by adding LoadModule and AddModule lines to the Additional Modules sections in httpd.conf. The LoadModule line should look like the following:

LoadModule jserv_module          modules/mod_jserv.so

The AddModule line should look like the following:

AddModule mod_jserv.c

See the section called Adding Modules to Your Server in Chapter 4 for more information on adding modules to your server.

Additionally, if you're going to use Apache::ASP, you'll need to install the mod_perl package which comes with the Red Hat Linux operating system and then load in the mod_perl module, as described in the section called Configuring mod_perl in Chapter 5.

Basic information on configuring Apache::ASP is provided in the section called Configuring Apache::ASP in Chapter 5. More configuration information is available at http://www.nodeworks.com/asp/.

PGP

PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is a public key encryption program and the de-facto standard for e-mail encryption on the Internet. See http://www.pgpi.org/ for more information about PGP.

rhl-ss

The rhl-ss package contains the Official Red Hat Linux Installation Guide in HTML format. Install this package if you'd like to use your Web browser to view an HTML version of this manual.

stunnel

Stunnel is a socket wrapper which can provide SSL support for non-secure applications. For example, stunnel can be used with an imapd daemon to provide an secure, SSL-supporting IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) e-mail server. See http://mike.daewoo.com.pl/computer/stunnel/ for more information about stunnel.

Webalizer

The Webalizer is a Web server log file analysis program written in C for speed and portability. The Webalizer takes a Web server's log file as input, analyzes the data, and produces reports and graphs which can be viewed with a browser. For more information about the Webalizer, see the Webalizer website at http://www.mrunix.net/webalizer/.

Packages Included in Red Hat Linux

The Red Hat Linux operating system includes several packages with can provide extra functionality to your Red Hat Linux Secure Server. Descriptions of these packages are provided next.

apache-devel

The apache-devel package contains the APXS utility and other files that you'll need if you intend to load any extra modules, other than the modules provided with this product. Please see the section called Adding Modules to Your Server in Chapter 4 for more information on loading modules into your Red Hat Linux Secure Server using Apache's DSO functionality.

If you do not intend to load other modules into your Red Hat Linux Secure Server, you do not need to install this package.

Netscape Navigator

Documentation: http://help.netscape.com/

Netscape Navigator is a popular Web browser. Extensive help is available from Navigator's Help menu or from Netscape's Technical Support website at http://help.netscape.com/.

Netscape Communicator

Documentation: http://help.netscape.com/

Netscape Communicator is a suite of products that includes the Navigator Web browser as well as an e-mail client, a news reader, and a Web page editor. Extensive help is available via any of the individual program's Help menus or from Netscape's Technical Support website at http://help.netscape.com/.

mod_perl

Mod_perl is an Apache module that incorporates a Perl interpreter into Apache, so that Apache can directly execute Perl code. Installation of the mod_perl package links the Perl runtime library into the server and provides an object-oriented Perl interface for the Apache server's C language Application Programming Interface (API). The result is a quicker CGI script turnaround process, since no external Perl interpreter has to be started.

The most common use of mod_perl is the use of its Apache::Registry module as a speedy replacement for the Common Gateway Interface (CGI). CGI scripts are commonly used on the Web to process data input by users. The Apache::Registry module emulates the CGI environment, so programmers can write CGI scripts which will run under either CGI or mod_perl.

You should realize that previously existing CGI scripts may require some improvements. Normally, CGI scripts have a lifetime of one HTTP request. That short lifespan allows programmers to get away with questionable scripting. Since the Apache::Registry module maintains a cache of scripts, it is quicker, but it may be less forgiving of non-standard programming.

For more information on how to set up mod_perl as a replacement for CGI, refer to the section called Configuring mod_perl in Chapter 5. For more general information about mod_perl, try the Apache/Perl Integration Project Web page at http://perl.apache.org/. Basic information on getting mod_perl set up is included in the section called Configuring mod_perl in Chapter 5.

PHP3 and PHP/FI

PHP is an HTML-embedded scripting language. PHP attempts to make it easy for developers to write dynamically generated Web pages. PHP also offers built-in database integration for several commercial and non-commercial database management systems, so writing a database-enabled Web page with PHP is fairly simple. The most common use of PHP coding is as a replacement for CGI scripts.

The mod_php module provides Apache with the ability to understand and process the embedded PHP language in Web pages. Please refer to the section called Configuring mod_php in Chapter 5 for more information on post-installation configuration of mod_php. You should also try the PHP Web page at http://www.php.net/ for more information about PHP.

Both PHP3 (the php package) and PHP/FI (the phpfi package) are included in Red Hat Linux 6.2. PHP/FI, the older version of PHP, is provided for people who run programs which depend on PHP/FI and will not run with PHP3. It isn't necessary to install PHP/FI to run PHP3 programs.

Basic information on how to get PHP started is included in the section called Configuring mod_php in Chapter 5.

Squid

Configuration File: /etc/squid/squid.conf

Squid is a proxy caching server for Web clients. Squid supports HTTP, FTP and gopher data objects. Squid keeps meta data, popular objects, and Domain Name System (DNS) lookups cached in RAM (or on disk if you don't have the memory to spare). Squid supports non-blocking DNS lookups and implements negative caching of failed requests.

Using Squid, you can set Web browsers to use your Web server as a proxy server. Squid will cache requests so that if you access a site more than once, the subsequent retrievals will be much faster. The second and subsequent retrievals will be provided from the proxy server's memory instead of from the actual website.

More information about Squid and its configuration is provided at the Squid Web page at http://squid.nlanr.net/. Basic configuration information is provided in the section called Configuring Squid in Chapter 5.

Bonus E-Commerce Applications

The Red Hat Linux Secure Server includes bonus applications that provide support for electronic commerce. All of these bonus applications are provided as RPMs and are located in vendor subdirectories in the ecommerce directory on the Linux Applications Library (LAL) included with the Red Hat Linux Secure Server.

The LAL also contains demonstration versions, in RPM format, of a number of other commercial Linux products. For more information, please refer to the README file on the CD.

Please note that the products on the LAL are not supported by Red Hat, Inc. Questions and issues concerning software on the LAL should be addressed to the responsible company, and not to Red Hat, Inc.