System and method for an administration server

• US 6,493,749 B2
• Filed: 08/17/1998
• Issued: 12/10/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Paxhia, Frank V., Streifert, Kurt A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dinh, Dung C.
• Assistant Examiner(s): EDELMAN, BRADLEY E
• Application Number:
  US09/135,147
• Publication Number:
  US 20020052935A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,576 Days
• Field of Search: 709/220, 709/221, 709/222, 709/223, 709/226, 345/735-6
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

System and method for serving HTML pages to web browsers for the purpose of administration and configuration. A plurality of instances of WWW servers is provided, with one such instance including a configuration file which is restricted in usage and not alterable by way of any HTML configuration or administration forms. This plurality of instances of internet connection servers is managed by way of a web browser which displays and interacts with a plurality of HTML forms and corresponding common gateway interface binary programs which are provided selectively for creating and deleting instances of servers, associating a configuration file with a server instance, changing server instance start up parameters, and starting, ending, and restarting server instances.

Claims

1. Method for serving administration and configuration pages to a web browser, comprising the steps of:

providing a plurality of instances of servers on a single host system; and

one of said servers being an administration server including a hardened configuration file which is not alterable by way of configuration or administration forms by storing administration and configuration directives in a plurality of files including a read-write configuration file member and serving to said web brower contents of said read-only configuration file member before serving contents of said read-write configuration file.

2. A server system, comprising:

a first server instance;

a second server instance;

said first server instance and said second server instance being resident on a single host system;

said first server instance including a first configuration file; and

said second server instance being an administration server including a second configuration file, said second configuration file being a hardened file not alterable by way of configuration or administration forms by storing administration and configuration directives in a plurality of files including a read-write configuration file member and a read-only configuration file member and serving to said web browser contents of said read-only configuration file member before serving contents of said read-write configuration file.

3. A server system, comprising:

an administration server instance;

a global attributes file having one member used by all server instances on a single host server system;

one or more configuration files, with each server on said single host server system using a particular configuration file member;

one or more instance files, with a unique instance file member for each server instance on said single host server system;

contents of said instance file overriding the contents of said configuration file, and contents of said confifuration file overriding contents of said global attributes file; and

a configuration file for said administration server instance on said single host server system being a hardened file not alterable by way of configuration or adminstration forms by storing administration and configuration directives in a plurality of files including a read-write configuration file member and a read-only configuration file member and serving contents of said read-only configuration file member before serving contents of said read-write configuration file.

4. The server system of claim 3, further comprising:

a browser;

said administration server being operable to serve pages to said browser for configuring and managing browser configurable products;

said configuration file for said administration server instance restricting usage of said administration server instance to authorized individuals; and

said read-only configuration file member being hardened against alteration by any of said pages.

5. The server system of claim 4, said read-only configuration file member comprising protect, map, pass, and exec directives which cannot be overridden by directives in said read-write configuration file member.

6. The server system of claim 5, the instance file for said administration file member comprising selected directives, including an autostart directive, which may override directives in said read-only configuration file.

7. The server system of claim 6, said instance file further including number of server jobs, coded character set identifier, server mapping tables, access log file name, error log file name, non-secure port, and secure port directives which may override corresponding directives in said read-only configuration file member.

8. The server system of claim 7, said global attributes file comprising autostart, minjob, maxjob, ccsid, out ccsid, and in ccsid directives.

9. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform method steps for serving administration and configuration pages to a web browser, said method steps comprising:

providing a plurality of instances of servers on a single host system; and

one of said servers being an administration server including a configuration file which is not alterable by way of configuration file which is not alterable by way of configuration or administration forms by storing administration and configuration directives in a plurality of files including a read-write configuration file member and a read-only configuration file member and serving to said web browser contents of said read-only condiguration file member before serving contents of said read-write configuration file.

10. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for serving administration and configuration pages to a web browser, the computer readable program means in said article of manufacture comprising;

computer readable program code means for causing a computer toeffect providing a plurality of instances of servers on a single host system, one of said servers being an administration server; and

computer readable program code for causing a computer to effect providing for said administration server a configuration file which is not alterable by way of configuration or administration forms by storing administration and configuration directives in a plurality of files including a read-write configuration file member and a read-only configuratio file member and serving to said web browser contents of said read-only configuration file member befor serving contents of said read-write configuration file.

11. Method for serving administration and configuration pages to a web browser, comprising the steps of:

storing administration and configuration directives in a plurality of files, said files including a global attributes file, a read-write configuration file member, a read-only configuration file member, and an instance file;

serving to said web browser the contents of said read-only configuration file member before serving the contents of said read-write configuration file member; and

using a first encountered directive for controlling a selected web activity;

whereby a directive for a particular web activity stored in said read-write configuration file member cannot override a corresponding directive stored in said read-only configuration file member.

12. A server system, comprising:

an administration server instance;

a global attributes file having one member used by all server instances on said server system;

one or more configuration files, with each server on said server system using a particular configuration file member;

one or more instance files, with unique instance file member for each server instance on said server system;

the contents of said instance file overriding the contents of said configuration file, and the contents of said configuratio file overriding the contents of said global attributes file;

the configuration file for said administration server instance including a read-only member and a read-write member;

a browser;

said administration server being operable to serve pages to said browser for configuring and managing browser configurable products;

said configuration file for said administration server instance restricting usage of said administration server instance to authorized individuals;

said read-only configuration file member being hardened against alteration by any of said pages; and

said read-only configuration file member comprising protect, map, pass, and exec directives which cannot be overridden by directives in said read-write congfiguration file member.

13. The server system of claim 12, the instance file for said administration file member comprising selected directives, including an autostart directive, which may override directives in said read-only configuration file.

14. The server system of claim 13, said instance file further including number of server jobs, coded character set idenitfier, server mapping tables, access log file name, error log file name, non-secure port, and secure port directives which may override corresponding directives in said read-only configuration file member.

15. The server system of claim 14, said global attributes file comprising autostart, minjob, maxjob, ccsid, out ccsid, and in ccsid dirctives.