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May 13, 2008
The Web server upgrade happens May 19, 2008. Are you ready?
The main Case Web server, Aurora, will be upgraded on May 19th. If you're an end user you shouldn't notice a thing, but if you maintain a Web site on this server there are a few things you should prepare for. If you maintain a Case site and have not read about the upgrade in Case Daily and received email notifications from the Aurora managers, please read the following.
Who should prepare for the server upgrade?
Only people who maintain sites on the main Case Web server will be affected by the upgrade. If you maintain a Web site on http://blog.case.edu, http://filer.case.edu, a departmental server or through a Web hosting service this upgrade won't affect you.
I'm not sure which server I use. How can I tell?
Sites on the main server have urls similar to http://www.case.edu/division/department/sitename/. If your site has an address such as http://sitename.case.edu it is probably not on the main server. Another way to check which server you are using is to check the host to which you upload your files. If you upload files to your site by FTP'ing to wwwftp.case.edu, your site is on the main server.
Check to see that you are registered as the maintainer of record
Authentication to the new server will be done using the Central Authentication Service instead of account specific usernames and passwords. To access your account you will need to ensure that you are listed as the primary maintainer so that your Case user ID will be attached to the account.
Visit the Aurora Maintainer Contact List to verify that you are listed as the primary maintainer of your account(s). If you are not listed as the maintainer, you should fill out an Aurora Project Inclusion Request form and Fax it to 216.368.3165.
Uploading files to the new server.
The new server will use WebDAV rather than FTP to upload files. If you are currently using Dreamweaver to upload files this will require only minor modifications to your current settings. I'll provide further information about WebDAV later this week. Upload instructions are also available on the Case Wiki.
Including server side includes (ssi) files
Due to tightened security, users who include .ssi files using code such as <#include file="../filename.ssi"> will need to change "file" to "virtual" as illustrated here: <#include virtual="../filename.ssi"> . If you don't make this change users will see [an error occurred while processing this directive] instead of your included content. Note, this only applies to paths beginning with ../ paths such as <!--#include file="ssi/related.ssi" --> will continue to work as usual. SSI instructions are also available on the Case Wiki.
Controlling Access to Your Site's Content (Password protecting files and directories)
If you have been using A.P.A.S. utilities to configure access control for your site, you shouldn't need to change anything now. Your current restrictions will be transferred over to the new server. When adding or modifying such restrictions in the future you will use access rules defined within .htaccess, .htpasswd and .htgroup files as appropriate. This will provide more flexibility and is in keeping with common Web practices. I will blog more about access rules in the coming weeks. Access instructions are also available on the Case Wiki.
Conclusion
If you have read the above, ensured that you are registered as your site's maintainer, and checked your server side includes files you should be in good shape for the change. If you would like to see a preview of your site on the new server you may do so by changing www to w07 in the url for your site. For instance the home page can be viewed at http://w07.case.edu/. Additional information is available on the www.case.edu page on the Case Wiki.
Web Server Upgrade Resources
- Aurora server upgrade information on the Case Wiki
- Introduction to WebDAV (includes instructions for Macintosh)
- Uploading files with the WebDrive WebDAV client for Windows
- Uploading files with Dreamweaver (WebDAV)
Stumble It!
Posted by: Heidi Cool May 13, 2008 05:57 PM | Category: Announcements , Heidi's Entries , How-to , Server Side Includes
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Posted by: hac4 (Heidi Cool) May 13, 2008 05:57 PM | Comments (3) | Trackback
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Comments
Hello Heidi -
Do you know if the APAS and maintainer tools will be ready after upgrade? The "webmaster" position in our department is now a grad student job, but we'd like to keep the primary maintainer ability with a faculty member (i.e. someone who doesn't leave every two years). Any thoughts on when APAS is going to go up?
Thanks -
Jason,
I think the core tools should be ready next week, and additional features will be added over the summer. I'll doublecheck with the ITS Web group.
Thanks Heidi!