Installation and Configuration Supplement

Typical Web Server Scenarios

Although you can use the basic web server that comes with NetQuestion, for security reasons we strongly recommend that you use a "real" web server, such as Apache or Lotus Domino Go!, to serve DB2 documentation to remote clients.

The following sections describe some of the ways that you might put the DB2 documentation on a central server, with the details for particular platforms and web servers. If you use a different platform or web server, you should find it has corresponding features that allow you to achieve similar results.

Scenario 1: Lotus Domino Go! Web Server on OS/2

In this scenario, you are using your OS/2 machine as the DB2 server, and decide to use the Lotus Domino Go! web server to make the DB2 online documentation available to the rest of your intranet.

Install the DB2 Universal Database documentation
You install the DB2 documentation along with the DB2 Enterprise Edition server, on the E: drive. The HTML files are located in the subdirectory e:\sqllib\doc\html. The server documentation includes such books as the SQL Reference, Command Reference, SQL Getting Started, Administration Guide, and the Quick Beginnings book for that particular server. Because the Enterprise Server includes the DB2 Connect function and its documentation, you also get the DB2 Connect User's Guide and the DB2 Connect Enterprise Edition Quick Beginnings for OS/2 and Windows NT manual. Assume that your company does not do any application development, so you do not install the DB2 Personal Developer's Edition, which includes the programming books such as the Administrative API Reference.

Install the Web Server
Install the Lotus Domino Go web server from its installation CD-ROM. In this scenario, assume the web server is installed in c:\www and that its TCP/IP host name is udbserv.

Make the DB2 UDB Documentation Available through the Web Server
To serve files from the DB2 directory, add a line like the following to the c:\www\httpd.cnf file:
Pass /db2docs/* e:\sqllib\doc\html\*

Make sure that it comes before the line:

Pass /* document_root\*

Then, restart the web server.

Or, to copy the files to the web server directory, use the xcopy command with the /s option to copy e:\sqllib\doc\html\*.* to the c:\www\html\db2docs directory. Your users can now access the DB2 documentation by going to the URL http://udbserv/db2docs/index.htm.

Customize (Optional)
Later, you get a phone call from a user who tried to select the API Reference and received a "file not found" error because that book was not present on the web server. Another user tried to select the Quick Beginnings book for UNIX and got a similar error. You might edit the file e:\sqllib\doc\html\index.htm, removing the links to the programming books, and changing the links to the Windows and UNIX Quick Beginnings books to point to a different intranet web server that has those books installed.

Because the company has its own help desk for database problems, you add the help desk's phone number and a mailto: link to the index.htm file. Keep in mind that corrective service releases might include an updated version of index.htm, so be sure to keep a backup copy of any changes you make.

Scenario 2: Netscape Enterprise Web Server on Windows NT

You are a system administrator running Netscape Enterprise server on Windows NT. You are starting to roll out DB2 Universal Database and have not yet decided if you will combine the database server and the web server on a single machine, or use separate servers.

Install the DB2 Universal Database documentation
On this system, DB2 is installed on the E: drive, so the HTML files are all stored under e:\sqllib\doc\html.

Install the Web Server
To test the performance of a combined web and database server, you might install the Netscape Enterprise web server on the same system, named udbserv on the company's intranet. The web server is installed on the H: drive.

Make the DB2 Documentation Available
Initially, the web server only contains the DB2 documentation, so you want the default home page of http://udbserv/ to display the file e:\sqllib\doc\html\index.htm, the DB2 Information page. To make the DB2 documentation available:
  1. Run the Administer Netscape Servers program from the Netscape folder, and choose udbserv as the server.
  2. Under Content Mgmt, change the Primary Document Directory to e:\sqllib\doc\html.
  3. Use Document Preferences to add index.htm as one of the default document names so that the browser displays index.htm instead of a list of files in the directory.

Later, you decide to store other HTML files on the web server, and configure the server so that the DB2 books are located at http://udbserv/db2docs/:

  1. Change the Primary Document Directory back to a general directory, such as h:\netscape\server\docs.
  2. Under Content Mgmt, select Additional Document Directories and map the db2docs subdirectory to e:\sqllib\doc\html.
  3. From the new default page for the web server, add a link to the db2docs directory:
    <a href="db2docs/index.htm">DB2 Information</a>
    

Transfer Files (Optional)
Eventually, the load on the combined web and database server becomes too great and you decide to transfer the web server to a different machine. You use an archiving tool such as pkzip or a Windows version of tar to package the directory tree underneath e:\sqllib\doc\html. You restore all the files somewhere on the web server machine, then configure the web server as before to serve the HTML files.

On a different system, you decide to uninstall the DB2 server and keep the HTML files available for the web server. Before uninstalling the server, you use the xcopy command to copy the e:\sqllib\doc\html directory tree to h:\netscape\server\docs\db2docs, then remove the web server mapping for the additional document directory named db2docs.

Scenario 3: Microsoft Internet Information Server on Windows NT

In this scenario, you are using Windows NT 4.0 as the DB2 server, and decide to use Internet Information Server (IIS) to make the DB2 online documentation available to the rest of your workgroup. IIS is available with Windows NT 4.0 Server, but it also runs on Windows NT 4.0 Workstation.

You can also set up Peer Web Services (PWS), which is available with Windows NT 4.0 Workstation but can be installed on Windows NT 4.0 Server, using the following instructions.

Install the DB2 Universal Database Documentation
Install the DB2 documentation into the same directory as in the previous scenarios: e:\sqllib\doc\html.

Install the Web Server
If IIS is not installed at the same time as the Windows NT system, install it from your Windows NT installation CD-ROM. Open the Services dialog in the Control Panel to start this service automatically.

Make the DB2 Documentation Available through the Web Server
Run the Internet Service Manager from the Microsoft Internet Information Server folder of the Start menu, going to the WWW section and then the Directories subsection. Edit the home directory entry to change the path from c:\inetpub\wwwroot to e:\sqllib\doc\html and the default document to index.htm. Later, if you need to serve other documents as well as the DB2 books, change the home document back to c:\inetpub\wwwroot and add a new virtual directory named db2docs.

Customize (Optional)
If you want to use the built-in search facility of IIS, you must replace the file e:\sqllib\doc\html\index.htm with the file inetpub\samples\isapi\srch.htm, and copy the DB2 HTML files as explained below.

Copy Files (Optional)
To use the built-in search facility of IIS, copy the DB2 HTML files to the c:\inetpub\wwwroot directory tree. Create a directory named db2docs, and use the xcopy /s command to preserve the directory structure during the copy. Remove the virtual directory db2docs so that the files under the real db2docs directory will be used.


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