First of all, Im' a total newbie to linux, however, let me go ahead and give you a bit of information.

I'm a "student lab administrator" at my school. Anyway, we have a linux RH webserver (i think it's version 5 of linux... can't remember) setup that was done about 3-4 years ago by a previous lab admin. Anyway, here's the details on the problem:

I can ping the server address with no problem. However, i think something with apache is down or something. When we restart the server it still won't fix the actual web server portion. Can anyone give me any commands that might restart the apache server or anything else I can use via SSH to possibly fix the problem? I mean since we can ping it, i'm pretty sure it's only dealing with the apache or whatever it might be with the web server.

I know there's not much info given and please don't treat me "bad" or whatever since I'm so new to linux, but no one at my school knows how to fix it, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Cheers, JBF.

JBF,

You can ssh in right? You are just not getting the webserver?

I'm pretty sure that there is an init script for apache. Try looking in /etc/init.d/ for apache (or maybe httpd). Try running that.

To see what the error is, look in the /var/log/ directory (I mean 'cd' over to it. There maybe an apache or httpd file. It may be in a subdirectory. If not, try 'grep -i http *' to search for the file with the apache error messages. Open it with 'less' (or 'more') and hopefully you will be able to see what is going wrong.

Good Luck,
chris

PS Redhat 5 is pretty old, so I don't remember much about it.

If this is RH 5, you want to upgrade immediately. Better, make a backup of important stuff, like the website it might host), and do a completely fresh install of a recent distro, say RH 8 or 9. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since RH 5, and you're looking at the equivalent of a completely unpatched windows machine. It's a tiimebomb, and it may already have been cracked.

As for the webserver, yes, you will probably start it with /etc/init.d/httpd, and you'll find the logfiles in /var/log/httpd.

If this is RH 5, you want to upgrade immediately.
Even tho RH5 can be secured quite considerably, I agree upgrading and properly hardening the box should be a priority 1 issue.

Hey JBF, look at it from the bright side.
Since you're the only one doing something with that machine, chances are there's not all that much important on it. (Better check, of course)
Which means you've got a nice (well, perhaps a bit old) to play with! An excellent ehm, learning vehicle :-)

Oh, there's quite a bit on the box. It was totally setup as a webserver and contains the school webpage and quite a bit of other stuff. Its been pretty hardened from what I understand. But yeah, I've gotta get it upgraded, however you know how it is with school district officials... They won't listen to a kid. And they'll do only what they want to.

Anyway, thanks. I'll talk to the "technology technician" about getting it up to date, etc.

Hmm,

Didn't this thread start with a webserver not coming up? Perhaps you could ask the "technology technician" (love that word, know how you feel) about that little problem (oh, he was the one who asked you about it? oops.) and while you ask him, ask him about the schools backup policy too.

Meanwhile, there's a webserver to bring up. You'll find some files in (probably) in /var/log/httpd. Normal logfiles and error logfiles. Try to start the webserver (probably the command /etc/init.d/httpd start), and take a look at the end of these files (the ones with error in the name should be interesting). Use the tail command to look at just the end. Tail -f will show you the lines as they're written to the file. Tip: open two terminals, use one to try to start the webserver, use the other one to run tail -f /var/log/httpd/whateverlogfile you're interested in.
Good luck, and let me know if you come across something interesting.

cheerio,

René

Ok, got the server up and running again.

Here's my next dilemma(sp?)...

In front page, when people try to 'Open Web' (They have to use frontpage to edit the site for one of the 'tech' classes.) you add the ftp address, username, and password and then once you login it takes you to nothing but the mail directory.

I have no idea how to change it so that it takes you to the main HS directory or see any of the other folders at all. I don't know what the deal is or if the login has different permissions that's keeping you from seeing the right folder. I know everything is still where it's suppoed to be, as the older computers that we have can still login fine... it's just on the new machines we got this summer that cannot login properly.

Any clue as to what might be causing it to direct the webmaster login only to the mail directory and not the others?

The other thing about this is that if I try to login say using ftp://serveraddresshere/directoryforhighschool then it says it can't find it, however it is still there when you view it via HTTP instead of FTP.

The guy who setup the server has graduated from college and there's no way for me to get ahold of him at all... Soo... i don't know.

Haha, i was mistaken. It's running Linux 7.2 or something similar. Haha. I feel stupid.

7.2? Well, that's maintainable. So we can stopp the RH5 rant now :-) Good to hear it's up.
So from the sound of it, the ftp server treats some computers differently than others, huh? Well, that''s a trail. Go hunt for the ftp or ftpd (d stands for daemon, the server process) config files in the /etc directory, and see if it mentions any computers by name or number. If you find the spot where specific computers are given this treatment (ie: a different directory), act according to findings.

Happy hunting!

Old computers with front page? win95 maybe win98
new computers using win2k and above.
I am no Frontpage expert here but I believe there is a new set of Frontpage extensions that need to be installed.

Hell yes. Why didn't I think of that. Argh.

It kinda of makes sense for the new extensions, as there's a folder once I log into the server, etc there's a folder named frontpage-apache. And it's got a load of... i guess binaries for apache with frontpage, etc.

So, what do I need to install and how do I do it, etc? Think you can help?

Oh, btw... when I use the 'less' command to view a file, etc it'll show the words 'end' in the SSH window. I can't type after that or at least it'll let me mark and do a few other things with the file. So, what I'm wondering is how do you like exit out of the file once using the 'less' command or whatever?

Again, sorry for all the questions. Heh. I appreciate it though.

use :q
all I know is there are extensions and howto at apache.org.
Like I said I don't use a lame program like Frontpage.
No Offense

Hey, that's fine. Know nothing about frontpage extensions though. But that all should be findable.
Getting out of more or less is done with the letter q. Do a man less for more nice things. Oh, and getting out of tail -f is done with ctrl-c

cheerio!

René