Documentation Mailing Lists FAQ Frequently Asked Questions v2

How to setup Cross server networking (CSN) Author: Honza Malik actionapps@ecn.cz

Related Categories: Slice Administrator   Comments :1192 Add Comment

CSN is a feature which allows item exchange between two servers.

Developers note: The implementation is based on Moritz Both's specification:
http://plus.aldebaran.de/apc-aa/csn.html
http://plus.aldebaran.de/apc-aa/csnspec.html

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A. Installation

Node = one installation of ActionApps.

Assume there are two nodes, which want to exchange items

Step 1 Set up the node details,
- must be done by sysdadmins, with shell access on both nodes, but they only have to be done once, no matter how many slices and how many nodes are configured, normally it will have be done when ActionApps was installed.

Set the ORG_NAME in config.php3 file to the name of your organization, e.g.:
define ("ORG_NAME","Econnect");

Step 2 Set the information about the collaborating nodes.
- must be done by a Superadmin on both nodes, once for each node that it imports or exports to.

• Slice Admin -> Content Pooling -> Nodes
• Set the Node name to the ORG_NAME of the remote node. (You can ask the superadmin of the other node to get their ORG_NAME by looking at their "Nodes" page).
• Set the "URL of getxml.php3" to the url of the script on the remote host. For example if the other nodes admin pages are at http://foo.com/apc-aa/admin then their getxml.php3 is http://foo.com/apc-aa/admion/getxml.php3. (You can ask the other superadmin to look at their Nodes page and tell you their value).
• Agree a password with the other superadmin, and fill it in on both nodes.
• 'Submit' the form.

Step 3 Setting import and export
- this can be done by the Slice Admin

3.1 On the exporting node,

There you can set the permissions for remote users, who will have the rights to get items from the current slice.

• Go to the slice which you want to export,
• Go to 'Slie Admin-> Content Pooling -> 'Inter Node Export'
• Select the node from the list of remote nodes. If you do not select any node, the item exchange is permitted to all nodes!
• Fill the user id of the user who has admin permissions on the slice where the input is happening and will set this up. This id you will get from remote node administrator. It can be an LDAP id (like uid=peter,ou=People,ou=AA), or the SQL user number of the user (like 31) (well, it is not easy to get it - you can look into database, or you can display the edited_by....... field in Item Manager). If you do not fill the user, then item exchange can be setup by any remote node slice admin.
• 'Submit' the form.

3.2 On the importing node,

There you can set, from which remote nodes and slices will items be fed.

• Go to the slice where you want the import
• Go to 'Slice Admin->Content Pooling -> 'Inter Node Import'.
• Select the node from list and click on 'Create new feed from node'.
• This will get the list of slices available for you from the remote server.
• On this page select the slice and click 'Select slice'

3.3. Set the filters and mapping on the importing node

Filters and mapping you can set exactly the same way as for local feeding. See 'Slice Admin -> Filters' and 'Admin -> Mapping'

Step 4. Set the cron
ActionApps adds the task for CSN to the AA Cron on its setup. If you are superadmin, you can check it on AA -> Misc - Cron page. There should be task defined as:

 * 8,23,38,53 * * *   admin/xmlclient.php3 

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B. Installation Example

Let's have two AA installations:
- GreenNet (GN) on http://aa.gn.apc.org/apc-aa
- Econnect (Ecn) on adrese http://www.ecn.cz/apc-aa

We have to set cross server item exchange between GN slice 'News' and Ecn slice 'Zpravy', so Ecn wants to have GN's news. (GN -> Ecn)

Let's have user two slice administrators:
uid=honza,ou=People,ou=AA - Ecn's 'Zpravy' slice administrator
uid=phil,ou=People,ou=AA - GN's 'News' slice administrator

1a. Ecn sysadmin:

config.php3 set:
define ("ORG_NAME","Econnect");

1b. GN sysadmin:

config.php3 set:
define ("ORG_NAME","GreenNet");

2a: Ecn Superadmin 'Slice Admin -> Content Pooling -> Nodes'

node name: GreenNet

URL of getxml.php3: http://aa.gn.apc.org/apc-aa/admin/getxml.php3

Password: xyxyxyxy

2b Gn Superadmin

'Admin - Nodes'

Node name: Econnect

URL of getxml.php3:
http://www.ecn.cz/apc-aa/admin/getxml.php3

Password: xyxyxyxy

3a. admistrator of slice 'News' in GN (uid=phil,ou=People,ou=AA):

'Slice Admin-> Inter Node Export'.
select Econnect from node list
set user to: uid=honza,ou=People,ou=AA

3b: administrator of slice 'Zpravy' in Ecn (uid=honza,ou=People,ou=AA)

'Slice Admin->Inter Node Import'.
select GreenNet from node list
go to next page by 'Create new feed from node' button click
select slice 'News' and submit

Set the Filters and Mapping. The same as for local item feeding.

4. Ecn superadmin:

Make sure AA cron is configured and the line

 * 8,23,38,53 * * *   admin/xmlclient.php3 

Last Edit: Nov 4 2026

<aafaq id=1750> ~ToDo: 1750 How to setup Cross server networking (CSN) </aafaq> 

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