Some notes for administration of the church clients.

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Contents

Email Accounts

For email to work, each email user must have a user account on the email server (church101.sch). To make class administration easier:

• We will just use one machine for serving mail (it is very slow, but I don't think it's an inherent problem with using one server -- I suspect I could improve the configuration if I knew what the problem was -- note the need to kick the server queue -- see below.
• I created a bunch of user accounts for a set of "arbitrary" male and female names as shown in the table below.
• I think it would be helpful to everybody to hand them an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper at the start of the email class containing just the information they would typically get from their ISP, let them start with a "blank" email configuration, and let them configure the machine. (Then send a mail, do this all in the first half of the class -- in the last half of the class (at least an hour later) have them check for their mail.)

IP Addresses, Server, Email Accounts, and Printer by Client Machine

Client	IP Address	Default Server	Male Name	Female Name	Hub Port	Printer
A	192.168.0.11	church100	al	alice	2	*lexmark2
B	192.168.0.12	church100	bob	barb	21	A:lexmark2
C	192.168.0.13	church101	carl	chris	1	A:lexmark2
D	192.168.0.14	church100	dave	deb	4	*lexmark1
E	192.168.0.15	church101	ed	edie	18	D:lexmark1
F	192.168.0.16	church100	frank	fran	3	D:lexmark1
G	192.168.0.17	church101	greg	gina	5	D:lexmark1
H	192.168.0.18	church100	harry	harriet	10	J:lexmark4
I	192.168.0.19		ira	irene
J	192.168.0.20	church101	joe	jean	7	*lexmark4
K	192.168.0.21	church101	ken	kathy	8	J:lexmark4
L	192.168.0.22	church101	larry	lisa	9	J:lexmark4
M	192.168.0.23	church100	mark	mary	23	O:lexmark3
N	192.168.0.24	church100	nick	nancy	22	O:lexmark3
O	192.168.0.25	church100	oscar	olga	24	*lexmark3

Printers: All printers are "shared" as "lexmark"n (n is any of 1..4). Printers prefixed by an asterisk are connected to that machine. Printers prefixed by a letter indicate the machine to browse to to find / connect to that printer.

Servers

Server	IP Address	Hub Port
church100	192.168.0.100	6
church101	192.168.0.101	20
church102	192.168.0.102	<future>

Hub

The lights and sockets on the hub are (each) arranged as follows:

| 24 22 20 18 16 14 | 12 10 08 06 04 02 |
| 23 21 19 17 15 13 | 11 09 07 05 03 01 |

1. Someday we might rearrange the hub ports to match at least most of the workstation IP numbers. (Some cables are already stretched fairly tight.)

Arrangement of the Room

--------------------
|  2  A  B  C  hub |
door           s 1 |
| 3                |
| O              D |
| N              E |
| M              F |
|               door   
|               door   
| L              G |
| K              H |
| J              s |
| 4                |
-------window-------

Notes:

1. Workstations indicated by uppercase letter (A..O) I does not exist.
   
   
2. Printers indicated by number (1..4)
   
   
3. Servers indicated by lowercase "s"
   
   
4. Workstation I does not exist -- server church100.sch sits in it's place.
   
   

Email Stuff

Mail Addresses

The mail server is church100.sch, thus all email addresses are of the form <username>@church100.sch. (E.g., kathy@church100PLEASENOSPAM.sch)

Passwords

Currently the password for all mail accounts is "passworry" -- this will be changed. (Reminder to me: As root, issue passwd <username> and you will be prompted for the new password -- there is a way to provide it from stdin.)

The password for user01 and user02 is "password".

The following passwords will not be recorded on Wikilearn to keep them at least somewhat secret.

The password for val is _______.

The password for rhk is _______.

The password for root is _______.

Starting, Stopping, and Kicking the Mail Server

Normally, the Postfix email server is started when the server boots up (and shuts down when the server is shutdown).

You can run the following commands as root:

• service postfix status
• service postfix start
• service postfix restart
• service postfix stop
• postfix flush (kick the postfix queue -- get the mail moving)
• hmm, I used to occasionally use something like sendmail -q when I was testing / developing the email server -- does that do the same thing as "postfix flush"? -- anything more?

During class you may want to kick the queue a twice after the last person has sent their email.

Setting Up an Email Client

We have installed Netscape Navigator 3.04 to use as a mail client because (among other things) there are no licensing issues.

In general you need to set these things:

• POP3 (incoming mail) server: church100.sch (as long as the hosts file is setup, otherwise you can use 192.168.0.100)

• SMTP (outgoing mail) server: church100.sch (as long as the hosts file is setup, otherwise you can use 192.168.0.100)

• user name -- pick a male or female email account name from the table above to match the letter of your machine

• all user passwords will (for us) be the same -- for now, "passworry" (or I could make it some simple permutation of the client letter, ip address, and email name, for instance the password for al could be A11&al (and A11&alice) -- something to talk about -- having different passwords for each is more realistic, or I could just make it some totally non-mnemonic string (just like real life), in which case we might want to create a little 8 1/2 x 11 (or smaller) sheet of paper just like they'd get from their ISP.

On Netscape Navigator 3.0x, all these settings are made under: Options --> Mail and News Preferences, then the Servers and Identity tabs.

General Server Stuff

We have at least two servers in service -- a third will probably be set up and used for development and class (I may carry it between home and class, or maybe a hard drive in a removable caddy). (A third server might improve the response time in class, but I think the bigger improvement would come if I could get the TWikis to use mod-perl -- shouldn't be too hard in Mandrake 7.2 since I think they configure two servers -- one mod-perl and one not -- just have to find out how to invoke the mod-perl server.)

This is the minimum content in a hosts file (server or client):

127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.0.100 church100.sch
192.168.0.101 church101.sch
192.168.0.102 church102.sch

Since we are not running a DNS, each Windows (or Linux) client requires that the three entries corresponding to the above be in the hosts file (no extension). (The format above is not correct for the hosts file -- later.)

Starting and Stopping the Servers

Start the Servers

Simply turn on the power switch on each server. (Probably takes two minutes until the web and mail servers are up and running (just a guess at this point).)

Stop the Servers

The servers should be shutdown properly before the power is shut down. Generally this is done with the command shutdown -h now, but a special trick is required to shut down the servers without a monitor ("running headless").

Overview

In general, log on to the server with a monitor and keyboard (church100), telnet to the server without a monitor, log in, su to root, issue the shutdown command, wait about 3 minutes before shutting off the power (on the remote server). Don't forget to shutdown this server also before powering off -- and beware, there are some gotchas (like, when you shut down a remote server, the console you used will freeze).

BTW: The reason to log in on the remote computer first as yourself is that many *nixes will not let you log in remotely as root.

Details

Work at the "console" (keyboard, monitor, mouse) of church100.sch (192.168.0.100). Work from a console, xterm, or virtual terminal on that "console". One way to get a virtual terminal is to press <ctrl><alt> and any of F1 thru F6, but F1 may be more confusing.

• login as yourself (e.g., val) you are now logging in to church100

• type "telnet 192.168.0.101"

• login as yourself (e.g., val) you are now logging in to church101!!

• type "su" to switch user to "root"

• enter your or root's password?? (Need to check.)

• type "shutdown -h now" you are now shutting down church101, not the computer you are sitting at

• watch for "acknowledgement" after you see it your terminal will be frozen (unresponsive) -- you still have work to do, you must still perform an orderly shut down on the computer you are sitting at -- read on

Also, you can't really tell when it's OK to shut the power off on church101, so keep reading.

• switch to a different virtual terminal or console (like <ctrl><alt> and any of F1 thru F6, except the one you used the first time).

• login as yourself (e.g., val) you are now logging in to church100

• type "su" to switch user to "root"

• enter your or root's password?? (Need to check.)

• type "shutdown -h now" you are now shutting down church100

• watch for "power down" (?? recheck the words)

When you see the power down indication for church100, shut the power off on it (and it's monitor). At that time, you can be fairly confident that it's OK to turn the power off on church101.

• Pull the power plug out of the hub, also (there is no switch).

• Make sure all the other computers have been shut down and powered off, including their monitors and speakers (let's not kill the batteries on those that have them)

Troubleshooting

Network Problems

I've found sometimes the problem with not being able to get on the network is a loose connection. Learn how to use the lights on the hub to tell when you have a connection. (With the client up and the Ethernet card powered up, you should have a green light on the hub.) I've added a column to the table above to indicate which port handles which client -- need to collect the data.

Make sure the hub power cord is plugged in.

Try pinging from one machine to another. ping <ip_address>, e.g., ping 192.168.0.101. (Try this from a windows machine (dos prompt and a Linux box while the network is working OK so you get an idea what to expect.) For machines that have an entry in hosts, you can ping by name (from the machine that has the machine name in the hosts file).

Try browsing the web server, then the twiki <more later>

For email, learn how to send an email from the server, and how to check the user's mail spools on the server.

Miscellaneous Windows Problems

There will be an image on each machine to make it fairly easy to reinstall Windows. <more later>

Setup of the Clients

Each client has:

• at least 32 MB of RAM (??)
• a hard drive (1 GB or more)
• 90 to 166 MHz CPU
• a CD-Rom
• a NIC (trying to standardize on 3Com509s so they are all the same)
• a soundcard (again, trying to standardize)

We've installed:

• Windows 95
• Office 97: Word (without findfast), Excel, (Access??) (with the special office toolbar thingie, which I would never install for myself)
• Powerpoint (from Office97)
• Netscape 3.04
• WinZip 8.0
• various screensavers, files, etc.

Customizations:

• Each client is named after a letter of the alphabet (see table)
• The workgroup is "church"
• Set up the c:\windows\hosts file (no extension), like:

127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.0.100 church100.sch
192.168.0.101 church101.sch
192.168.0.102 church102.sch

• Lexmark __ printers are attached to some of the computers (add another column to the table, or start a new one here). The other clients can print by directing their print jobs to one of those computers.

Oops, have to look into this a little more -- clients that have a computer must share them -- are the shares set up automatically on a restore from the image? and what share name did we use?

_And, we can apparently only set up a network printer if the computer it is attached to and the network is set up and running.

The following is almost a duplicate of earlier information -- should consider deleting.

Client	Printer, or use
A	*lexmark2
B	\\Workstation_A\lexmark2
C	\\Workstation_A\lexmark2
D	*lexmark1
E	\\Workstation_D\lexmark1
F	\\Workstation_D\lexmark1
G	\\Workstation_D\lexmark1
H	\\Workstation_J\lexmark4
I	<server 100 sits here>
J	*lexmark4
K	\\Workstation_J\lexmark4
L	\\Workstation_J\lexmark4
M	\\Workstation_O\lexmark3
N	\\Workstation_O\lexmark3
O	*lexmark3

• Set Windows Explorer to view extensions and hidden files

• Set browsers so their home page is either twiki on church100 or church101 (split the load) (http://church101.sch/twiki/bin/view/Wikilearn/CSICOutline)

Contributors

• () RandyKramer - 10 Mar 2003
• <If you edit this page: add your name here; move this to the next line; and include your comment marker (initials), if you have created one, in parenthesis before your WikiName.>

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