ePages Installation Guide for Linux 6.14.0
Created: 6.12.2; Updated: 6.14.0

For detailed instructions and information on ePages 6, please visit the ePages helpcenter at http://helpcenter.epages.com .

Table of Contents

1 Components of an ePages 6 Installation

An ePages 6 system consists of 5 main components:

All RPM packages require epages-requires*.rpm, epages-common*.rpm, epages-patch*.rpm, epages-perl*.rpm. Packages epages-appsrv'' and epages-mysqld additionally require epages-mysql*.rpm.

You can install all of the components on one machine (single server installation), or certain components on specific machines (distributed installation). The installation instructions below describe both scenarios.

ePages is installed from the ePages YUM repository.

2 System Requirements

3 Verify RPM Packages

All ePages RPM packages are signed by a GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) key. If you want to verify that a RPM package was really made by ePages, you need the public key. Get from the web site http://epages.com/security/b1d28320.txt .

To show which key was used to sign an ePages RPM package, run the command:

  rpm --checksig -v <filename>.rpm

To verify the signature of an ePages RPM package, first import the public key:

  rpm --import b1d28320.txt

Then execute:

  rpm -K <filename>.rpm

The command should return:

  <filename>.rpm: (sha1) dsa sha1 md5 gpg OK

4 Single Server Installation from YUM Repository

1. Add ePages to your YUM repository:

  curl http://epages.com/RPMS/rpmify/rpmify-epages.sh | sh

If some RPM packages are missing that are required for the ePages installation, a message is shown how to install those packages first. Then re-run the command above.

2. File /etc/sysconfig/epages6 contains variable settings.

All variables are optional and have sensible defaults. Read the variable descriptions in /etc/sysconfig/epages6.

If you want to customize variables, edit /etc/sysconfig/epages6.

If the password of the MySQL user root has changed (i.e. it is neither empty nor epages), change EPAGES_INSTALL_MYSQL_PASS in /etc/sysconfig/epages6 accordingly, e.g.:

  export EPAGES_INSTALL_MYSQL_PASS="secret_password"

3. Install and start ePages:

5 Distributed Installation

Distributed installation allows you to install certain components of ePages 6 on specific machines:

5.1 Preliminaries

5.1.1 Time Server

Make sure that all involved machines have the same system time. If you use a network time protocol daemon (as ntpd), make sure that all machines use the same configuration file (as ntp.conf). For more information about the network time protocol daemon, please see the manual pages (as man ntpd).

5.1.2 Add ePages to YUM repository

Add on any involved server the ePages repository from the web:

  curl http://epages.com/RPMS/rpmify/rpmify-epages.sh | sh

This installs the configuration file /etc/sysconfig/epages6. Customize it as described in the following sections before installing ePages itself. /etc/sysconfig/epages6 must be the same on all involved machines.

5.1.3 Customize Users and Groups

A distributed ePages 6 installation requires user and group definitions with the same user and group IDs on all machines.

parameter defines default
EPAGES_INSTALL_WS_GROUP web server group name ep_web
EPAGES_INSTALL_WS_RUNUSER user who runs the web server eprunweb
EPAGES_INSTALL_AS_RUNUSER user who runs the application server eprunapp
EPAGES_INSTALL_EPAGESJ_USER user who runs the java server epagesj
EPAGES_INSTALL_WS_RUNUID ID of $EPAGES_INSTALL_WS_RUNUSER
EPAGES_INSTALL_WS_UID ID of the web server file owner
EPAGES_INSTALL_WS_GID ID of the web server group
EPAGES_INSTALL_EP_GID ID of the group epages
EPAGES_INSTALL_AS_RUNUID ID of $EPAGES_INSTALL_AS_RUNUSER
EPAGES_INSTALL_AS_UID ID of the application server file owner ep_appl
EPAGES_INSTALL_DB_UID ID of the database server user ep_db
EPAGES_INSTALL_EPAGESJ_UID ID of $EPAGES_INSTALL_EPAGESJ_USER

5.1.4 Customize Server Names, IPs, Ports

In a distributed environment you must define what hosts shall run what services. Furthermore you may choose what IPs and ports to use (especially if you have more than 1 network card).

Set those parameters in /etc/sysconfig/epages6.

Define server names/IPs and ports in /etc/sysconfig/epages6. All variables ending in _HOST must contain either a host name (short as www or long as www.example.com) or an IP address:

parameter defines
EPAGES_INSTALL_AS_HOST application server host
EPAGES_INSTALL_RR_HOST request router host (typically same as web server)
EPAGES_INSTALL_WS_HOST web server host
EPAGES_INSTALL_EPAGESJ_HOST java server host
EPAGES_INSTALL_SOLR_HOST solr server host
EPAGES_INSTALL_SOLRSLAVE_HOST solr slave host
EPAGES_INSTALL_MONGO_HOST mongodb server host
EPAGES_INSTALL_MYSQL_CONNECTION MySQL server connection string

For each variable ending in _HOST there is a variable ending in _HOSTIP that defines the IP of the host. Set both variables if hostname and IP are not DNS resolvable or if there is more than 1 network card.

For each variable ending in _HOST there is a variable ending in _PORT defining the server port. These variables are optional and have sensible defaults. Do not change this variables unless you really need to.

5.1.5 Customize MySQL

If the password of the MySQL user root has changed (i.e. is neither empty nor epages), change EPAGES_INSTALL_MYSQL_PASS in /etc/sysconfig/epages6 accordingly, e.g.:

  export EPAGES_INSTALL_MYSQL_PASS="secret_password"

5.2 Custom Installation from YUM Repository Using Two Machines

NOTE
Before starting with custom installation you must execute on all involved machines the steps described in Preliminaries. Make sure that all involved machines have the same configuration file /etc/sysconfig/epages6.

5.2.1 Machine 1: Application Server, Java Server and Web Server

Install the application server, java server, web server and request router:

Share the installed file system:

  /var/epages/epages-fs.sh -share

5.2.2 Machine 2: Database Server

Mount the previously shared file system (replace HOSTNAME by the hostname of machine 1):

  /var/epages/epages-fs.sh -mount HOSTNAME

Add the ePages repository to your YUM repository:

5.2.3 Start ePages 6 services

After successful installation first (order is important!) start ePages 6 first on the database server, then on the application/web server:

5.3 Custom Installation from YUM Repository Using Three Machines

NOTE
Before starting with custom installation you must execute on all involved machines the steps described in Preliminaries. Make sure that all involved machines have the same configuration file /etc/sysconfig/epages6.

5.3.1 Machine 1: Application Server and Java Server

Install the application server:

Share the installed file system:

  /var/epages/epages-fs.sh -share

5.3.2 Machine 2: Database Server

Mount the previously shared file system (replace HOSTNAME by the hostname of machine 1):

  /var/epages/epages-fs.sh -mount HOSTNAME

Install the database server:

5.3.3 Machine 3: Web Server and Request Router

Mount the previously shared file system (replace HOSTNAME by the hostname of machine 1):

  /var/epages/epages-fs.sh -mount HOSTNAME

Install web server and request router:

5.3.4 Start ePages 6 services

After successful installation first (order is important!) start ePages 6 first on the web server, second on the database server, third on the application server:

  yum install epages-setup

6 Starting and Stopping Services

Services may be started automatically (initlevel or rc scripts) or manually by the UNIX command:

  /etc/init.d/epages6 <start parameter>

Services may be stopped automatically (initlevel or rc scripts) or manually by the UNIX command:

  /etc/init.d/epages6 <stop parameter>

<parameter> defines the components of the application involved:

start parameter stop parameter controls
start_httpd stop_httpd web server (only if installed and configured with epages)
start_service stop_service application server
start_rr stop_rr request router
start_db stop_db database server
start stop includes web, database, and application server
show   show all running ePages processes

A manual start of an active service causes that service to stop and restart.

Starting the SSL web server works only if:

  1. The SSL certificate file for the web server is stored in $HTTPD_ROOT/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt (where $HTTPD_ROOT is for example /etc/httpd).
  2. The SSL certificate key file for the web server is stored in $HTTPD_ROOT/conf/ssl.key/server.key (where $HTTPD_ROOT is for example /etc/httpd).
The epagesj server is started as follows:

/etc/init.d/epagesj start

The solr server is started as follows:

/etc/init.d/epages-solr start

The solr slave server is started as follows:

/etc/init.d/epages-solr-slave start

Stop all servers with 'stop', show status of those servers with 'status'.

7 ePages Start Pages

After starting ePages you should be able to view following web pages (where www.example.com is the name of your web server incl. domain):

8 Uninstall a Installation from YUM repository

Execute on any involved computer (use instead of epages the groups you did install):

  /var/epages/delete-epages.sh


Copyright ePages Software GmbH 2012