How to customize network settings on a server where

the Reciprocal Net site software has been pre-installed

The Reciprocal Net project is furnishing computer hardware to the twelve initial partner sites (alpha/beta-testers) in order to ease the burden of joining the Reciprocal Net Site Network.  These machines are PC’s that have been pre-installed with Red Hat Linux and the Reciprocal Net site software, along with all the supporting software packages that the site software requires.  It may be necessary for the system administrator who receives one of these pre-configured computers to customize its network settings to suit the local network environment.  This document is a guide for doing so.

Before you can proceed with these instructions, you will need to have obtained the following information from your local network’s administrator:

• The IP address assigned to your server.  This address must be reachable from the Internet on TCP port 80 (HTTP).  If your local network environment includes a NAT engine between your server and the Internet, your network administrator will assign to your server both a “private” address and a “public” one.  Use the private address as you follow these instructions.
• The IP subnet mask to be used by your server.
• The IP default gateway address to be used by your server.
• The IP broadcast address to be used by your server.  It is possible to compute this from the IP address and subnet mask to be used by your server, but it usually ends with .255.
• The IP network number to be used by your server.  It is possible to compute this from the IP address and subnet mask to be used by your server, but it usually ends with .0.
• The IP address(es) of your network’s existing DNS servers.
• The DNS name assigned to your server.  This name comes in two forms: yourserver (the hostname) and yourserver.youruniv.edu (the fully-qualified domain name).  You need to know both.  If your local network environment includes a NAT engine between your server and the Internet, your network administrator may assign to your server both a “public” name and a “private” name that are different.  Use the public name as you follow these directions.

Log in to the server’s console as root and get a command prompt.  Use your favorite text editor to open the file /etc/hosts .  There may be a variety of comment lines that begin with the character #, and one line that begins with 127.0.0.1 .  All other lines in this file are extraneous; delete them.  Now, add the following line to the bottom of the file:

150.150.150.150      yourserver.youruniv.edu            yourserver

.  Replace 150.150.150.150 with the IP address assigned to your server, yourserver.yourunix.edu with the fully-qualified domain name assigned to your server, and yourserver with the hostname assigned to your server.  Save the file and exit back to a command prompt.

Use your favorite text editor to open the file /etc/resolv.conf .  Delete every line in this file.  Then, add the following lines to it:

search youruniv.edu

nameserver 150.150.150.1

nameserver 150.150.150.2

.  Replace youruniv.edu with the DNS domain assigned to your server.  This is the part of the fully-qualified domain name after the hostname has been removed.  Replace 150.150.150.1 with the IP address of the first DNS server on your network.  Replace 150.150.150.2 with the IP address of the second DNS server on your network.  You should use one nameserver line for each DNS server that your network has.  Most networks use one, two, or three DNS servers.  Save the file and exit back to a command prompt.

Open the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 .  The file contains several lines and only some of them need to be changed.  Those lines are:

BROADCAST=150.150.150.255

IPADDR=150.150.150.150

NETMASK=255.255.255.0

NETWORK=150.150.150.0

.  Replace 150.150.150.255 with the IP broadcast address to be used by your server, 150.150.150.150 with the IP address assigned to your server, 255.255.255.0 with the IP subnet mask to be used your server, and 150.150.150.0 with the IP network address to be used by your server.  Save the file and exit back to a command prompt.

Open the file /etc/sysconfig/network .  Find the HOSTNAME line and change it to read:

HOSTNAME=yourserver.youruniv.edu

.  Replace yourserver.youruniv.edu with the fully-qualified DNS domain name assigned to your server.  Then find the GATEWAY line and change it to read:

GATEWAY=150.150.150.254

.  Replace 150.150.150.254 with the IP default gateway to be used by your server.  Save the file and exit back to a command prompt.

Open the file /etc/tomcat4/server.xml in your favorite text editor.  Find the <Engine> tag in this file and change it to read:

<Engine name=”Standalone” defaultHost=”yourserver.youruniv.edu” debug=”0”>

(wrapped for readability).  Replace yourserver.youruniv.edu with the fully-qualified DNS domain name assigned to your server.  Then find the <Host> tag and change it to read:

<Host name=”yourserver.youruniv.edu” debug=”0” appBase=”webapps” unpackWARs=”true”>

(wrapped for readability).  Again, replace yourserver.youruniv.edu with the fully-qualified DNS domain name assigned to your server.  Save the file and exit back to a command prompt.

Open the file /usr/local/apache2/conf/httpd.conf .  Find the ServerAdmin line and change it to read:

ServerAdmin root@yourserver.youruniv.edu

.  Replace yourserver.youruniv.edu with the fully-qualified DNS domain name assigned to your server.  Then find the ServerName line and change it to read:

ServerName yourserver.youruniv.edu

.  Replace yourserver.youruniv.edu with the fully-qualified DNS domain name assigned to your server.  The DNS name specified in this file must match exactly the one you set in Tomcat’s server.xml file a moment ago.  Save the file and exit back to a command prompt.

And finally, reboot your computer by typing

reboot

at the command prompt.  Your server should be activated with the network parameters you specified when it comes back up.

Configuring a Reciprocal Net-owned computer to suit a partner lab’s local network environment is a supported procedure.  Technical support for this procedure is available by sending e-mail to help@reciprocalnet.org. Comments about this document are also welcome.