SFX System Administration SFX Training, 2005

2 SFX File Structure The SFX installation is contained in one directory: /exlibris/sfx_ver/sfx_version_3 This directory contains: One applications directory Separate trees which hold separate SFX instances

3 SFX File Structure /exlibris/sfx_ver/sfx_version_3 contains all supporting software needed to run SFX: MySQL [v ] Apache Web server [v ] Perl [v ]

SFX Package – Standard Installation sfxlcl3 app MySQL data sfxglb3sfxtst3 sfx_version_3 sfx_ver symbolic link sfxglb3 sfxlc3l sfxtst3 exlibris

5 sfxglb3 instance ("sfx_global") sfxglb3 instance provides the customer with the most up-to-date KnowledgeBase, consisting of a database, programs, and configuration files The files in the local filesystem use UNIX symbolic links to point to the same files in the sfxglb3 instance Ex Libris regularly updates the files on the sfxglb3 instance and because of the relationship between the local and the sfxglb3 instance, the local instance immediately picks up any changes

sfxglb3 app sfxtst3 exlibris libadminlogshomefilesdbsconfigcgi backup_ scripts aztools category sfxadmin publictarget sqltab scratch parsersapache startup_ scripts templates reports citation sfxmenu a-z perl mysql utils apache sfxlcl3 base_export curr_export core ahmh ph ds tp,sp,td tm diagnostics server_ admin_util sfx_ver sfx_version_3 source e-collection -html cv sx cn da css img symbolic links

7 Mod_perl What? A persistent Perl interpreter embedded in SFX web server. Advantage? Performance, by avoiding overhead of starting external interpreter and penalty of Perl start-up time. Note: first request to SFX server is slower since this is when initial compilation takes place. if changes are made to Perl modules (example: target parsers), it is necessary to restart the instance's Apache

8 Reverse proxy (1) Different SFX instances on the same server share the same binaries of Apache, but each instance has its own Apache daemon. port 3210

9 Reverse Proxy (2) How does this work? 1. In sfx_global instance, the following configuration file lists the apache configuration of the different instances: /exlibris/sfx_ver/sfx_version_3/sfx_global/config/reverse_proxy_httpd.config 2. In the local SFX instances, the following configuration files contain apache demon information: /exlibris/sfx_ver/sfx_version_3/ /config/httpd.conf /exlibris/sfx_ver/sfx_version_3/ /config/local_httpd.config To the outside world, all SFX instances have the same port (e.g. 3210).

10 SFX Users Each instance has two "main" users: UNIX user: administrates the unix level of the instance, used to access the file system MySQL user: used by programs to access the database associated with the instance; needed in those scripts and programs where database access is required, e.g. KBManager, DataLoader, etc. And a third "type" of user: SFXAdmin access: listed in USERS table in db Different SFXAdmin users may have different privileges in KBManager (but all use the same MySQL user to accomplish tasks…)

11 Server Admin Utility A command-line utility used to accomplish various server-related tasks Start/stop Apache & MySQL Change MySQL and UNIX user passwords Copy one instance to another (db and files) Export/import data Clean SFX directories Manage statistical data (on2off, archive) Run and schedule A-Z index build Diagnostics

12 Startup Scripts One script to handle MySQL and Apache startup: sfxd Located at: /etc/rc.d/init.d Symbolic links created in appropriate /etc/rc*.d/ directory, for init program to load at server startup When starting Apache, reverse proxy server is started first, then individual Apache servers for each instance

13 SFX Backup Ex Libris recommendation: Daily backup with no downtime; full backup with downtime once a week Backup scripts included in /sfxglbl3/admin/backup_scripts Backup with downtime: server must go down to run backup but recovery is straightforward Backup with no downtime: no downtime for server but recovery requires more manual work Tar archive includes backup of SFX files and MySQL databases

14 Security issues Change SFXAdmin and unix passwords Using User Administration tool in SFXAdmin and server_admin_util program in unix admin directory Change MySQL password Using server_admin_util program in unix admin directory Can restrict access to SFXAdmin: connection_admin.config [for each instance] Can restrict access to SFX Menu: connection_user.config [for each instance]

Changing the name of an SFX instance reverse_proxy_httpd.config__ httpd.conf for reverse proxy server

Debugging Apache logs: /app/apache/logs Error_log Access_log