Forum OpenACS Q&A: Unable to run aolserver

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1: Unable to run aolserver
Posted by Marie-Helene Ng on 03/19/03 05:46 PM
We are trying to install dotLRN on one of our servers.  We have installed AOLserver but we cannot run it.  We keep getting an error message on the browser relating to ns_db although the nsd process seems to be running.  nsd-postgres seems to be reading the config file alright.  The error log shows no fatal errors.  The only lines we get is closing access.log and opening access.log.  I was wondering whether this is a common problem and how this can be solved.
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2: Re: Unable to run aolserver (response to 1)
Posted by Ola Hansson on 03/19/03 05:58 PM
Did you edit the pg-driver Makefile so that all the paths were correct before you compiled it?

What version of AOLserver are you running?

Please post the relevant parts of the error log wrapped in <pre> tags (and choose html format when posting) ...

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3: Re: Unable to run aolserver (response to 1)
Posted by Peter Marklund on 03/19/03 06:10 PM
Marie-Helene,
have you read the AOLServer installation instructions that we have for OpenACS?
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4: Re: Unable to run aolserver (response to 1)
Posted by Lars Pind on 03/19/03 06:18 PM
Another option is Joel Aufrecht's "instant gratification guide":

http://aufrecht.org/openacs-4.5-quick-guide/install.html

I don't know which is the best to follow currently. Does anybody else know?

/Lars

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5: Re: Unable to run aolserver (response to 1)
Posted by Joel Aufrecht on 03/19/03 07:27 PM
The most complete, current installation guide is the draft of the 4.6.x install docs. It incorporates everything from my Instant Gratification guide into the style and format of the official docs.

It sounds like the original poster's problem is that AOLsrver can't talk to the database. You may be running with a database-dependent config file before you have set up the database, or your database might not be up. Could you post the contents of the browser error?

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6: Re: Unable to run aolserver (response to 1)
Posted by Jim Lynch on 03/19/03 10:45 PM
It's possible that Ms. Ng is trying to run aolserver-4.x with config files meant for 3.x?

If not, maybe she hasn't installed postgres, hasn't added her nsadmin user as a postgres user, hasn't installed aolserver's postgres db driver or hasn't created the postgres database for her web service?

But if so...

This is not as bad as it sounds; all she would have to do is arrange to load the nsdb module, and that's a matter of adding one line to the config file.

Here's a snippet: 

# 
# Modules to load 
# 
ns_section ns/server/${server}/modules 
ns_param   nssock          ${bindir}/nssock.so 
ns_param   nslog           ${bindir}/nslog.so 

(and more of these ns_param lines)

Add this line: 

ns_param   nsdb            ${bindir}/nsdb.so
maybe near the top; mine looks like this: 
# 
# Modules to load 
# 
ns_section ns/server/${server}/modules 
ns_param   nsdb            ${bindir}/nsdb.so   # added line
ns_param   nssock          ${bindir}/nssock.so 
ns_param   nslog           ${bindir}/nslog.so 

(and more of these ns_param lines)

Explanation... in aolserver-4.x the db functionality has been factored out of nsd into its own module; thanks to Jeff Davis for cluing me in to this one for the benefit of my testing of aolserver-4*.