User`s guide

Chapter 1, Before You Install 15
Other Technical Requirements
• A Linux user and group that have the appropriate permissions for running
iPlanet Web Server. This user is different from the user that runs the
Administration Server. Often people use the user nobody and group
nobody for this purpose, but you can also create a specific user and group.
• A Java Development Kit (JDK) installed on your system if you plan to use
Java Server Pages (JSPs). For more information on the required version and
where to obtain it, see “Installing a Java Developer’s Kit” on page 23.
Other Technical Requirements
Once you have the proper hardware and software necessary to install iPlanet
Web Server, you should make sure that you meet the following requirements:
• You know the host name and IP address of your server computer.
• Your server has a DNS alias. For information on creating a DNS alias for
your server, see “Creating a DNS Alias for the Server” on page 15.
• You server has a user account on Unix, Linux, or NT. See “Unix and Linux
User Accounts for the Server” on page 16 or “Windows NT User Accounts
for the Server” on page 17 for more information.
• You have two port numbers - one for the Administration Server and the
other for the first iPlanet Web Server server instance. For information on
choosing port numbers for your server, see “Choosing Unique Port
Numbers” on page 17.
Creating a DNS Alias for the Server
If your server will run on one machine among many in a network, you or your
system administrator should set up a DNS CNAME record or an alias that points
to the actual server machine. Later, you can change the actual hostname or IP
address of the server machine without having to change all URLs that point to
the server machine.
For example, you might call the server
my_server.my_company .com and
then use an alias like www.
my_company .com. So the URLs to documents on
your server would always use the www alias instead of
my_server .