Using Avalon, the UNO Campus Web Server

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Dean Hayes/FACSTAFF/UNO/UNEBR
04/02/2004 09:25 AM

Subject:	Using Avalon, the UNO Campus Web Server
Category:	Avalon (Campus Web Server)

Originator	Reviewers	Review Options
Dean Hayes/FACSTAFF/UNO/UNEBR		Type of review: One reviewer at a time
		Time Limit Options: No time limit for each review
Notify originator after: final reviewer

This document presents information on using the Avalon Web Server. Included are sections on accessing your account, database applications, home directories and pages, file and folder permissions, statistics, and quotas.

Introduction

UNO's webserver is named ‘avalon.unomaha.edu’ and assumes the ‘www.unomaha.edu’ alias.

Significant items of interest include:

1. Individual home pages are not supported on the Avalon Web server.
2. Generic organization logins are not needed. Users will log in with their UNO NetID username and password to access their organization's Web directory.
3. You will not need to use a '~' (tilde) in your URL. For example, http://www.unomaha.edu/~its on the current server will become http://www.unomaha.edu/its on the new server. The tilde will still work - it just won't be necessary.

Contact the helpdesk at 554-4357 or email the ITS Customer Service office for support.

Accessing your Avalon account

There are several ways to access your account on Avalon.

1. Use PuTTY, WinSCP, MACSSH, CyberDuck, or Fugu as a secure method of logging in and to copy/transfer files and programs. You can download these from http://install.unomaha.edu. Be sure to download instructions for each program as well.
2. Use webdav – a web-based protocol that maps a drive from your computer to the server, such as through Internet Explorer or webfolders.
3. Linux Users: we recommend you use the K Desktop Environment (version 3.2) and Konqueror, a file and web browser, to access Avalon.

webdavs://myfolder.unomaha.edu/usr/<unonetid>

Transfering files from your local drive to avalon.unomaha.edu
1. Open a file transfer utility
2. The applicable host name is 'avalon.unomaha.edu'; the standard port is 22; Protocol=SSH
3. Connect to the host
4. Highlight the files you wish to transfer from your local directory.
5. Drag and drop them to your organization’s directory on the Avalon server
6. End the session

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Using WebDAV to transfer your files
WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) is a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol that facilitates collaborative authoring among remote users. WebDAV allows users to create, delete, copy, rename, upload and download files. Windows and Mac users can both use WebDAV extensions.

1. Windows Clients: In Windows 2000 or Windows XP, use Internet Explorer or Webfolders to map a drive to your organization directory:

Internet Explorer 6+

Open IE browser

Click on ‘File>Open'

Enter the appropriate URL (e.g., ‘https://avalon.unomaha.edu/its’)

Click ‘Open as Web Folder’, then ‘OK’

Your files will appear in the Explorer window (this may take a while)

To end the session, Click ‘Tools>‘Disconnect Network Drive’

Select the drive mapping to disconnect from, then click ‘OK’

Webfolders (Windows)

Click on the Windows ‘Start’ Button, then ‘My Network Places’. If you don't see the 'My Network Places' icon when you do this, open the Control Panel, click on 'Network Connections.' 'My Network Places' should be a choice in the 'Other Places' box.
Click on ‘Add a Network Place’
In the Network Place Wizard click 'Next'
Click ‘Choose another network location’, then ‘Next’
Enter the appropriate URL (e.g., ‘https://avalon.unomaha.edu/its’) for ‘Internet or network address’
Enter your UNO NetID username for ‘User name’, and UNO NetID password for ‘Password’
Click ‘OK’
Enter your choice for a network name or accept the default, then click ‘Next’
Click on ‘Open this network place when I click Finish’, then click ‘Finish’
To end the session, Click ‘Tools’, ‘Disconnect Network Drive’
Select the drive mapping to disconnect from, then click ‘OK’

2. Macintosh Clients: Use 'Goliath', 'CyberDuck' or 'Fugu' to attach to the Avalon server. Downloads for CyberDuck and Fugu are available on the Install server (install.unomaha.edu).

Download and install instructions for Goliath are from http://www.webdav.org/goliath/.

Double-click on the Goliath icon to open the application.

Enter your web site’s URL, your UNO NetID username, your UNO NetID password, and click ‘OK’.

When successfully logged in, a window will appear listing your group directory’s contents.

Click on ’Close’ in the ‘File’ menu to end your session.

Limitations and Cautions
- WebDAV does not permit file overwrites. To modify an existing file, download the file and modify it. When you are ready to publish the modifications, rename or delete the existing file and upload the file as the old filename.
- Do not use WebDAV on shared computers. Unless you explicitly disconnect from the host, your connection will persist after you have left the computer, which would allow others access to your files.

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Database Applications

There are no database servers on Avalon, and currently no plans for installing one. You may have database front-end applications on Avalon that point to external database servers.

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Home Directories

Each user has a home directory (/home/your UNO NetID). When you log on to Avalon you are dropped into this home directory. Your 'home' directory does not have web page services. Personal web pages are not supported on Avalon.

Each user belongs to at least one organizational account. To go to your organizational directory, you must change the directory to /web/organization_name. With proper permissions, files contained in this directory are viewable on the internet.

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Home Pages

Your URL will be http://www.unomaha.edu/organization. When you go to a website, such as http://www.unomaha.edu the file that is displayed is called ‘index.html’. It is understood by the server to be the site’s home page, and your home page also should be named ‘index.html’. Some webservers do not require the existence of such a file, and instead will list the contents of the directory, which might be regarded as a security risk. On our webserver, a missing 'index.html' file will produce a browser error.

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File and Folder Permissions

Unix associates files with ownership and permissions. There are three types of owner: user, group, and world. For each owner type, there are three types of permissions: read, write, and execute. The most common file types are regular files (simply, ‘files’) and directories.

Owners:
u = user owner: the user that created the file
g = group owner: the group the user owner belongs to
o = other or ‘world’; everyone else

File types:
“-“ = regular file, such as a text file
d = directory, equivalent to Windows or Mac folders

Permissions:
r = read: file – view contents of file
directory – view listing of files in the directory
w = write: file – modify or delete file
directory – create or delete files within the directory
x = execute: file – run the file
directory – access/search the directory
“-“ = no: in place of an above bit indicates that permission denied

You may view file or directory permissions by typing ‘ls –l file or directory name’ on the command line. Permissions are displayed in the string of 10 characters appearing at the beginning of the line. The first character indicates the file type. The next 9 characters comprise the permissions in sets of three (ordered r,w,x) for each owner in order of user, group, and world.

For example,
$ ls –l index.html
-rwxr-xr-x 1 joeuser joegroup 5324 Feb 15 13:22 index.html

type	permissions	links	userowner	groupowner	file size (bytes)	date/time last modified	filename
-	rwxr-x--x	1	joeuser	joegroup	5324	Feb 15 13:22	index.html

The file 'index.html' is owned by user 'joeuser', group 'joegroup', is 5324 bytes in size and was created or last modified at 1:22 pm on Feb 15. (‘Links’ is usually 1 for a file and at least 2 for a directory but is beyond the scope of this topic.)

Breaking down the permissions:

Permissions	User owner	Group owner	Other/World
rwxr-x--x	rwx	r-x	--x
	read; write; execute	read; no write; execute	no read; no write; execute

Setting Permissions
A unix command called ‘chmod’, for ‘change mode’, is used to change permissions. Only the user owner may change a file’s permissions.

Chmod usage is: chmod <owner><+/-><privileges> filename

Joeuser may change the permissions of index.html above to allow world to read the file by typing:

$ chmod o+r index.html

or remove read and execute privileges from group joeuser with

$ chmod g-rx index.html

The graphical ssh client you use also may allow you to view and click and change the permissions.

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Site Statistics

Hits and other statistics are located under http://avalon.unomaha.edu/usage/.

To view your site’s stats go to http://avalon.unomaha.edu/usage/organization

Stats are updated nightly.

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Quotas

An organization has 200MB of space which can hold up to 3000 files for their Web site.

To check your user and organization's quotas, go to:

https://avalon.unomaha.edu/tools/secure/quotacheck.php

This will display the disk and file quotas for all accounts which you own as a user and as a member of an organization. You will be required to enter your UNO NetID and password.

If you wish to check your quota on the unix command line, type:
$ quota
to check your user quota, or
$ quota –g organization
to check your organization’s quota.

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