Tarantella Administration Guide > Before you begin > Configuring your own web server for use with Tarantella

Configuring your own web server for use with Tarantella

You must have a web server running on each host on which Tarantella is installed. When you install Tarantella, Tarantella Setup also installs the Tarantella Web Server. This web server is pre-configured for use with Tarantella and we recommend you use it.

However, if you have your own web server already installed on the host, you can use this instead of the Tarantella Web Server. To be able to use your own web server with Tarantella, the web server must support CGI 1.0. We recommend the following web servers:

• Apache, which you can download from the Apache web site.
• Sun™ ONE web server (formerly Netscape/iPlanet), which you can download from the Sun web site.

For a list of known issues with web servers, see the Tarantella Base Component Release Notes.

To configure your own web server for use with Tarantella:

1. Use tarantella webserver stop command to stop the Tarantella Web Server.
2. Configure your web server by:
   • adding a Document directory for the Tarantella document root; and
   • add a Program (CGI) directory for the cgi-bin subdirectory of the document root.
3. If you changed the port on which your web server listens when you installed Tarantella, re-configure your web server to listen on port 80/443 tcp.

Every web server in an array of Tarantella servers must use the same HTTP (or HTTPS) port. You must not mix HTTP and HTTPS web servers in the same Tarantella array.

When you installed the Tarantella Web Server, Tarantella Setup also added files in the appropriate start-up directory to ensure the Tarantella Web Server starts when the system boots. This is usually /etc/rc.d/rc3.d, depending on what run level your system is in when you install Tarantella. If you are using your own web server, you must move or delete these files. The file names contain "TarantellaWebServer".

See your web server's documentation for full instructions on how to make these changes, or read one of the following sections.

Apache web servers

You must add two configuration directives to one of your web server configuration files, for example httpd.conf:

ScriptAlias  /tarantella/cgi-bin  install_dir/var/docroot/cgi-bin
Alias        /tarantella          install_dir/var/docroot

The lines must be in the order shown.

You should also ensure the web server follows symbolic links. The Directory directive for / should include Options FollowSymLinks. These changes assume you are using the default configuration of Apache. See your web server documentation for more information.

You must restart the web server for the configuration change to take effect.

Sun™ ONE web servers

1. Start the Web Server Administration Server and log in as an administrator.
2. Select the web server you want to use for Tarantella and click Manage.
3. Click the Virtual Server Class tab.
4. Select a virtual server class and click Manage.
5. Click the Programs tab.
6. On the CGI Directory page:
   • In the URL Prefix field, type "tarantella/cgi-bin".
   • In the CGI directory field type "install_dir/var/docroot/cgi-bin".
7. Click OK.
8. Click the Content Mgmt tab.
9. On the Additional Document Directories page:
   • In the URL Prefix field, type "tarantella".
   • In the Map To Directory field, type "install_dir/var/docroot".
10. Click OK.
11. Click Apply.
12. Click Apply Changes.