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Difference between revisions of "Orion/Server admin guide"

(Operating the server)
(Examples)
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=== Examples ===
 
=== Examples ===
'''Example 1.''' Make all of <code>*.example.org</code> available for allocation. Hosted sites will be assigned to subdomains, for example <code>site1.example.org</code>, <code>site2.example.org</code>, etc.
+
'''Example 1: Subdomain.''' Makes all of <code>*.example.org</code> available for allocation. Hosted sites will be assigned to subdomains, for example <code>site1.example.org</code>, <code>site2.example.org</code>, etc. Since we haven't specified a URL scheme (http, https), Orion will give out URLs to clients by inferring the scheme and port that the server is receiving requests on. If the server is running behind a proxy, these URLs may be wrong (see Example 2 for the solution).
 
<source lang="properties">orion.site.virtualHosts=*.example.org</source>  
 
<source lang="properties">orion.site.virtualHosts=*.example.org</source>  
  
'''Example 2.''' Make all of <code>*.example.org</code> available for allocation. This is similar to the previous example, except site URLs given out to clients will have the form <code>https://*.example.org:9443</code>. This is useful if the Orion server is running behind a proxy where the client-facing scheme/port do not match the internal scheme/port the server is listening on.
+
'''Example 2. Subdomain, server behind proxy.''' This is similar to the previous example, except that site URLs given out to clients will have the form <code>https://*.example.org</code> rather than allowing Orion to guess the scheme and port. This is important when the Orion server is running behind a proxy, as the client-facing scheme/port will be different from the internal scheme/port the server is listening on.
<source lang="properties">orion.site.virtualHosts=https://*.example.org:9443</source>  
+
<source lang="properties">orion.site.virtualHosts=https://*.example.org</source>
 +
Or, equivalently:
 +
<source lang="properties">orion.site.virtualHosts=https://*.example.org:443</source>
  
'''Example 3.''' Make 1 host name, <code>site.example.org</code>, available for allocation as a virtual host name.
+
'''Example 3: Single domain.''' Make 1 host name, <code>site.example.org</code>, available for allocation as a virtual host name.
 
<source lang="properties">orion.site.virtualHosts=site.example.org</source>
 
<source lang="properties">orion.site.virtualHosts=site.example.org</source>
  
'''Example 4.''' Make the 2 IP addresses available as virtual host names. Since they happen to be loopback addresses, any hosted site assigned to them will only be reachable from the local machine. (See [[#Hosting_locally|Hosting locally]]):
+
'''Example 4: Hosting locally.''' Make the 2 IP addresses available as virtual host names. Since they happen to be loopback addresses, any hosted site assigned to them will only be reachable from the local machine. (See [[#Hosting_locally|Hosting locally]]):
 
<source lang="properties">orion.site.virtualHosts=127.0.0.2,127.0.0.3</source>  
 
<source lang="properties">orion.site.virtualHosts=127.0.0.2,127.0.0.3</source>  
  
'''Example 5.''' Make 1 domain and 1 wildcard domain available. They will be allocated in the order provided. That is, <code>foo.example.org</code> will be assigned to the first hosted site that is launched, and subsequent launches will be assigned subdomains of <code>example.org</code>.
+
'''Example 5: Mixed.''' Make 1 domain and 1 wildcard domain available. They will be allocated in the order provided. That is, <code>foo.example.org</code> will be assigned to the first hosted site that is launched, and subsequent launches will be assigned subdomains of <code>example.org</code>.
 
<source lang="properties">orion.site.virtualHosts=foo.example.org,*.example.org</source>
 
<source lang="properties">orion.site.virtualHosts=foo.example.org,*.example.org</source>
  

Revision as of 11:36, 31 January 2014

This guide contains information on managing an Orion server.

Operating the server

Starting the server

The server is started by simply invoking the "orion" executable (orion.exe on Windows, "orion" on Unix platforms). Starting the OSGI console by passing the "-console" argument is also recommended:

% orion -console

Stopping the server

To stop the server, go to the OSGi console and type "close". You can also simply kill the server process, but an orderly shutdown is always recommended to ensure all data is correctly persisted.

Running disconnected from a shell on Unix

On a headless Linux server it is desirable to not have to keep a shell running with OSGI console. You can start an Orion server using the nohup command in this case.

% nohup orion -console 4444 > orion.log &
nohup: ignoring input and redirecting stderr to stdout

We have specified the log file orion.log that will capture the console output. You may look at the log to see that the server started and there are no errors.

We have also set the console to listen to port 4444. You can telnet to port 4444 to issue the close command to stop the server.

% telnet localhost 4444
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
osgi> close
Really want to stop Equinox? (y/n; default=y)  y
osgi> Connection closed by foreign host.

Configuring the server

Server configuration file

Many Orion server settings are found in the Orion server configuration file. By default Orion looks for this file in the current working directory of the Orion server process in a file called orion.conf. For example you can place this file in the root of your Orion install, then launch Orion from there.

Note: On Mac OS X, if you're launching Orion by double-clicking Orion.app, the working directory is orion.app/Contents/MacOS, so you must put the orion.conf file in that directory. (To drill into orion.app, Ctrl+click it and choose "Show Package Contents".)

If the configuration file is not in the working directory, Orion will check the platform instance location - the location specified by the -data command line argument. By default this is a directory called "serverworkspace". Alternatively, the location of the configuration file can be specified via the system property orion.core.configFile. For example add this line to orion.ini:

-Dorion.core.configFile=/home/fran/orion.conf

The file is a simple text properties file with key/value pairs delimited by '=' character. Lines starting with '#' are treated as comments and ignored.

Note: For those developing Orion, the server configuration file can be specified in your Eclipse launch configuration. The launch configuration file included in the bundle org.eclipse.orion.client.core will automatically use the configuration file web-ide.conf in the same bundle.

Changing the port

By default Orion will run on port 8080. To change the port, edit the file orion.ini, and change the value of the "org.eclipse.equinox.http.jetty.http.port" system property.

Safely running on port 80

Running a server on port 80 usually requires running the application as the root user. For security reasons, running the Orion server as root is not recommended. Instead, you can run a basic Apache server as root, with the following entries in the Apache virtual host configuration file:

RewriteEngine On
ProxyPreserveHost On
RewriteRule ^/(.*) http://localhost:8080/$1 [P,L]

Also, for the wildcard hosting, this is used as well (in addition to a wildcard DNS entry):

ServerName orion.eclipse.org
ServerAlias *.orion.eclipse.org

Configuring to run over SSL

The Orion server can be configured to run over the secure https protocol. In order to do it you need to generate or obtain a public/private key pair and x509 certificate and set the Orion configuration as described below..

Creating a private/public key pair and a certificate

Use the keytool from Java SDK:

keytool -keystore keystore -alias jetty -genkey -keyalg RSA

You will be prompted for information about the certificate and passwords for protecting the keystore and keys in it. Once it is done a file named keystore is created in the current working directory and you may proceed to Setting the Orion configuration

Getting the certificate from a known authority

The keys and certificate generated in the previous step are sufficient to run Orion over https however will not be trusted by the browser what will end up with a prompt on accessing Orion pages. You may request a well known certificate authority like Thawte, VISA, ValiCert, Verisign etc. to sign your key and certificate.

Setting the Orion configuration

Now set the following properties in the server configuration file:

jetty.https.enabled = true
jetty.https.port = 8443
jetty.ssl.keystore = [the keystore location]
jetty.ssl.password =  [password]
jetty.ssl.keypassword = [password]
jetty.ssl.protocol = SSLv3

Configuring paths where users can store files

By default all files created by users are stored in the Orion "server workspace". This is the location specified by the "-data" argument when launching the server. By default this workspace is stored at eclipse/serverworkspace/. To allow users to link files in other locations to their workspace, the orion.file.allowedPaths property can be set in the server configuration file. The property value is a comma-separated list of absolute file system paths. Users will be allowed to link to and edit files in any of those locations. This line in the server configuration file will enable storing of files in /home/orion on the server, or in any sub-directory thereof.

orion.file.allowedPaths=/home/orion

On Windows two backslashes must be used to separate path entries:

orion.file.allowedPaths=C:\\Users\\orion

Configuring project layout

By default, projects are stored in the server workspace in a flat layout at the root of the workspace directory. This layout works well for single-user or small team installs. However in a large installation with hundreds or thousands of users, you may hit limits on the number of entries that can be stored in a directory. The layout can be changed to a hierarchy tree of projects organized by user id with the following property in the server configuration file:

orion.file.layout=userTree

To use the default flat directory structure, you can either omit the property entirely, or specify:

orion.file.layout=flat

Authentication type

To configure the kind of authentication used by the server, set the orion.auth.name property in the server configuration file. For example, the following line will configure the server to use simple form-based authentication:

orion.auth.name=FORM+OpenID

Valid values for this property are:

  • Basic: Basic HTTP authentication (not secure unless running on https)
  • FORM+OpenID: User can select form-based authentication or OpenID authentication

Configuring Mozilla Persona authentication

Orion supports login using Mozilla Persona. To log in with Persona, a user must sign in with Persona using the same email address that is associated to their Orion account.

Setting the authentication host

Mozilla Persona credentials supplied by a user are verified against an "audience" parameter, which identifies the server (scheme + domain + port) they're trying to log in to. The following property sets the audience parameter that your server expects. The value of this property should exactly match the client-facing URL of your website. For example, here is what an entry for orionhub.org would look like:

orion.auth.host=http://orionhub.org:80

If this property is not set, Orion will only allow Persona logins from a local loopback device (localhost, 127.0.0.1, etc.). All other attempts attempts to log in with Persona will fail with a message like this:

Error logging in: Authentication host not configured. Contact your system administrator for assistance.

Setting the verifier

When logging in with Mozilla Persona credentials, the user's information is verified using a third-party web service. The following property specifies the URL of the service to be used:

orion.auth.persona.verifier=https://verifier.login.persona.org/verify

If this property is not set, https://verifier.login.persona.org/verify is used by default.

Password storage

The Orion server stores passwords on disk using the Equinox secure storage mechanism. This storage facility is locked by a master password. You can set a master password by setting the following system property in the server's orion.ini file (please use a more creative password):

-Dorion.storage.password=abracadabra

Enabling anonymous read access

By default, each user can only read and write projects they created. When self-hosting or in small team installations, it may be useful to enable users to access each other's projects in a read-only fashion. This can be done by setting the following property in the server configuration file:

orion.file.anonymous.read=true

Email configuration

Orion allows to users to add their email account in profile, that will be later used to send email notifications, for instance resetting the password. This option is however only available if email and SMTP server configuration is present in the server configuration file:

SMTP host that will send email:

 mail.smtp.host=[smtp_host]

Port, if different than 25 (default):

 mail.smtp.port=25

Information, if authentication to SMTP server is needed:

 mail.smtp.auth=true

SMTP server user name, if authentication to SMTP server is needed:

 mail.smtp.user=[smtp_user]

SMTP server password, if authentication to SMTP server is needed:

 mail.smtp.password=[password]

Email that messages will come from (for instance webmaster@orion.eclipse.org):

 mail.from=[sender_of_mails]

Automatic git projects

There is a server configuration property to automatically create a git repository for each created project. This allows a user to stage/commit changes, compare with committed changes, etc. This repository cannot currently be synchronized with a remote replica. To enable this setting, the following property must be specified in the server configuration file:

orion.file.defaultSCM=git

Custom page footer

Installations of Orion can use a hook for providing a custom footer at the bottom of every page. This area is useful for adding copyright notices, legal disclaimers, etc.

The HTML fragment is defined as bottomHTMLFragment in org.eclipse.orion.client.core/static/js/globalCommands.js. The div containing this fragment is assigned a class "footer" and this class is defined in ide.css

Configuring virtual host names for launching sites

In Orion, users can select files and folders from their workspace and launch them as a stand-alone website. For this to work, the server administrator (you) must tell the Orion server what virtual host names the server should give out to clients. This is done by setting the orion.site.virtualHosts property in the server configuration file:

orion.site.virtualHosts=*.planetorion.org

The value after the = sign is a comma-separated list of domains or URL patterns. Each entry can take one of the following forms:

  • A domain including wildcards. Example: *.example.org, or https://*.example.org.
  • A valid domain name. Example: foo.example.org.
  • A valid IP address. Example: 127.0.0.1.

The values from the list will be allocated, in the order they are listed, to hosted sites as virtual host names that clients can access. Because these values will be given out to clients, you must ensure that they are client-accessible aliases for the Orion server. The Orion server listens to incoming requests for these hosts (based on the HTTP "Host" header provided by clients), and serves up the appropriate site.

In a multi-user environment, you'll most likely want to supply a wildcard domain pattern that matches your wildcard DNS record, like *.example.org if your server is running at example.org. By contrast, if you're running the Orion server for yourself on your local machine, you can simply pass a list of aliases for localhost (see Hosting locally below).

Defaults

If you don't supply the orion.site.virtualHosts property, Orion will use a default setting. On Windows and Linux, the default assigns up to 16 addresses in the range 127.0.0.2 to 127.0.0.254. On Mac OS X, there are no default addresses, so you will receive an error ("No more hosts available") when you attempt to start a site.

Examples

Example 1: Subdomain. Makes all of *.example.org available for allocation. Hosted sites will be assigned to subdomains, for example site1.example.org, site2.example.org, etc. Since we haven't specified a URL scheme (http, https), Orion will give out URLs to clients by inferring the scheme and port that the server is receiving requests on. If the server is running behind a proxy, these URLs may be wrong (see Example 2 for the solution).

orion.site.virtualHosts=*.example.org

Example 2. Subdomain, server behind proxy. This is similar to the previous example, except that site URLs given out to clients will have the form https://*.example.org rather than allowing Orion to guess the scheme and port. This is important when the Orion server is running behind a proxy, as the client-facing scheme/port will be different from the internal scheme/port the server is listening on.

orion.site.virtualHosts=https://*.example.org

Or, equivalently:

orion.site.virtualHosts=https://*.example.org:443

Example 3: Single domain. Make 1 host name, site.example.org, available for allocation as a virtual host name.

orion.site.virtualHosts=site.example.org

Example 4: Hosting locally. Make the 2 IP addresses available as virtual host names. Since they happen to be loopback addresses, any hosted site assigned to them will only be reachable from the local machine. (See Hosting locally):

orion.site.virtualHosts=127.0.0.2,127.0.0.3

Example 5: Mixed. Make 1 domain and 1 wildcard domain available. They will be allocated in the order provided. That is, foo.example.org will be assigned to the first hosted site that is launched, and subsequent launches will be assigned subdomains of example.org.

orion.site.virtualHosts=foo.example.org,*.example.org

Hosting locally

When you are the only user of your Orion server, you can just use some aliases for localhost to host on. On most platforms, any 127.x.x.x address will work, so you can do this:

orion.site.virtualHosts=127.0.0.2,127.0.0.3

The above example would give you 2 IP addresses available for virtual hosts: 127.0.0.2 and 127.0.0.3.

To use a more readable hostname instead of an IP address, you can edit the hosts file on your local machine and create an entry that maps friendlyHostname to 127.0.0.1. Then include the same hostname in the server configuration property, and Orion will use it:

orion.site.virtualHosts=friendlyHostname
Running on Mac OS X

You'll have to manually create the aliases by running these commands in Terminal.app:

$ sudo ifconfig lo0 alias 127.0.0.2 up
$ sudo ifconfig lo0 alias 127.0.0.3 up

Also ensure that your orion.conf file is located properly inside the orion.app. You will want to "Show Package Contents" in the Finder and then place the file in Contents/MacOS. Then try the example. If you restart your machine, you'll have to execute the sudo commands again.

Changing the backend metadata format

Orion 4.0 introduced a new simple format for backend storage of metadata (users, workspaces, and projects) on the server, intended to provide better scalability and easier administration. To use the new format, set the orion.core.metastore property to simple. In Orion 4.0, you should also set the orion.file.layout property, so the following should be in the orion.conf:

orion.core.metastore=simple
orion.file.layout=userTree

To use the old metadata format from Orion 3.0 and earlier, specify legacy:

orion.core.metastore=legacy

If the orion.core.metastore property is not provided, the legacy format is used by default.

Warning WARNING: Running the server with orion.core.metastore=simple against an existing pre-4.0 server workspace will migrate the workspace to the simple format. The migration is irreversible, so you should create a backup copy of the server workspace before attempting this. Consult the Metadata migration page for more details.

Administering users

Creating and deleting users

Users can be created and deleted by logging in as admin, and visiting the user management page at "/profile/user-list.html". For example a server on your own machine can be managed from http://localhost:8080/profile/user-list.html. Click the button New User to create a new user. To delete a user, click the Delete user button in the "Action" column next to the user to be deleted.

You can also create a user via the Orion server API. Use curl or another utility to send a POST request to "/users". The form requires the following parameters: "login" (user login id), "password" (initial password) and "passwordConf" (confirm password).

Changing passwords

To change a user's password, go to user-list.html. From there, click on a user to view that user's profile page. On the user profile page you can change the password, change the user's display name, etc. Each user can also change their password by selecting "Profile" from the drop-down menu in the top right corner of the Orion UI.

Allowing users to create accounts

By default, any user is allowed to create an account. To disallow anonymous account creation, you can specify what user ids are allowed to create accounts via the orion.auth.user.creation property in the server configuration file.

orion.auth.user.creation=admin

When this property is specified, account creation can only be performed on the user management page. This page is currently only accessible for the admin user.

Requiring users to add email while creating account

By default, user email is optional, however this may be changed via the orion.auth.user.creation.force.email property in the server configuration file.

orion.auth.user.creation.force.email=true

When this property is specified as true, users are required to provide an email address while creating the Orion account. Immediately after creating the user account an email will be sent to the provided address requesting confirmation. The account is confirmed by clicking on the generated link provided in the email. The user will be able to log in only after the given email address is confirmed. This option will only work correctly when email configuration is correctly set. See email configuration section for directions.

Creating an admin user

No accounts are built into the Orion server by default. This avoids a vulnerability caused by well-known users and passwords that administrators neglect to change. While a small-scale server might not require an admin user at all, it is useful to create an admin account for larger-scale user management (seeing list of all users, adding/deleting users, etc). To create an admin account, add following line to the server configuration file (but please use a more creative password):

orion.auth.admin.default.password=abracadabra

This will cause an administrator account to be created as the server starts up. The admin user name is "admin" and the password will be the value specified by the configuration property. Once the admin account has been created, the configuration property is no longer required on startup (the admin password can be changed later by logging in as the administrator and going to the profile management page).

Ongoing server management

Server Messages on Login Page

If you wish to display a message linked to a more detailed description of some server or service information you must modify the server-status.json file located in the web directory. By default this file contains an example which is not displayed. The example shows that a message must contain a title (not too long), a startdate (in YYYY/MM/DD format), an enddate and a longer textual description of the message. If the date the user connects to the server and is presented with the login page is between the startdate and enddate then the login page will show the title along with a link to a page with all the recent server messages.

Example contents of the server-status.json file:

  1. {
  2. "README.TXT" : "Each message needs to have a title, startdate, enddate and description field. Only the first message can be displayed on the login screen.",
  3. "messages" : [
  4.         {
  5.                 "title" : "Provide a short description of the message here",
  6.                 "startdate" : "2012/10/22",
  7.                 "enddate" : "2012/10/23",
  8.                 "description" : "This is the longer description of the message.  You can see that this message will be displayed from October 22nd until the end of October 23rd."
  9.         },
  10.         {
  11.                 "title" : "This is an older message",
  12.                 "startdate" : "2012/10/10",
  13.                 "enddate" : "2012/10/12",
  14.                 "description" : "This message will be display on the server messages page but not in the login page."
  15.         }
  16. ],
  17. "example-messages" : [
  18.         {
  19.                 "title" : "This is an older message never to be displayed",
  20.                 "startdate" : "2012/10/22",
  21.                 "enddate" : "2012/10/23",
  22.                 "description" : "This is the longer description of the message.  You can see that this message will be displayed from October 22nd until the end of October 23rd."
  23.         }
  24. ]
  25. }

Wiping server data

If you are deploying a demo server of Orion, you may want to periodically wipe out all user data, but preserve account names and passwords. This is done as follows:

  • Stop the server
  • Rename serverworkspace to serverworkspace.old
  • Reinstall or reimage the server if you want to be paranoid
  • Create a new clean serverworkspace directory
  • Copy the following two directories from the old server workspace to the new one:
.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.core.runtime (contains server configuration file)
.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.orion.server.user.securestore (contains user account information)
  • Start the server again
  1. #!/bin/bash
  2.  
  3. BASE_PATH=/home/admin
  4. ECLIPSE_PATH=eclipse-orion-0.2M6
  5.  
  6.  
  7. cd $BASE_PATH || die "Cannot access home directory"
  8.  
  9. kill $(ps aux | grep "[o]rg.eclipse.equinox.http.jetty.http.port=8080" | awk {'print $2'})
  10. rm -rf $ECLIPSE_PATH/serverworkspace.old
  11. mv $ECLIPSE_PATH/serverworkspace/ $ECLIPSE_PATH/serverworkspace.old
  12. mkdir $ECLIPSE_PATH/serverworkspace
  13. mkdir -p $ECLIPSE_PATH/serverworkspace/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/
  14. rsync -av $ECLIPSE_PATH/serverworkspace.old/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/ $ECLIPSE_PATH/serverworkspace/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/
  15. rsync -av $ECLIPSE_PATH/serverworkspace.old/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.orion.server.user.securestorage/ $ECLIPSE_PATH/serverworkspace/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.orion.server.user.securestorage/
  16.  
  17. $BASE_PATH/start_orion

Automating account creation with curl

To automate account creation with curl, you need to issue one curl command to log into the Orion server and capture the returned cookie. Subsequent curl calls must include the authentication cookie, and a POST payload, to create an account.

  1. #!/bin/bash
  2.  
  3. # Create accounts on Orion server
  4. CURL=/usr/bin/curl
  5. SERVER=localhost
  6.  
  7. # Log in
  8. $CURL -c curl_cookies.txt \ # Store cookies in this file
  9.       -d 'store=Orion'    \ # POST value: store type
  10.       -d 'login=admin'    \ # POST value: login
  11.       -d 'password=yourpass' http://$SERVER/login
  12.  
  13. # Create one account
  14. # Loop here to create multiple accounts
  15. $CURL -b curl_cookies.txt    \ # Use this cookies file
  16.       -H "Orion-Version:1"   \ # Specify Orion version as an HTTP header
  17.       -d 'login=someaccount' \ # POST value: create account called someaccount
  18.       -d 'password=abc123'   \ # POST value: password is abc123
  19.       http://$SERVER/users

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