[freeside] freeside setup questions

[Ivan Kohler]

On Wed, Nov 03, 1999 at 04:38:19PM -0800, James Lum wrote:
> Ivan,
> Freeside 2.1.1 has been installed on a Redhat Linux box with mysql 
> and apache and fs-setup ran without errors ... finally...:-)
> Some questions and problems(?):

Presumably you mean 1.2.2, since 2.1.1 hasn't been released yet.  ;)

> A. database
>    1. How do I completely uninstall a Freeside db that I initially
>       set up for testing?  ....so that I can run fs-setup again?
>       Need to know what files to rm?  and any other things Freeside
>       saves between sessions about the DB. 

As a previous poster stated, you can simply drop and recreate the database
in your backend database engine. 

If you want to reset all the counters, you can remove the contents of the
/usr/local/etc/freeside/counters.<datasrc> directory, but you shouln't
have any problems if you don't do this. 

>    2. Will Freeside software support mulitple data bases?
>       For example, one for testing and another for production,
>       and another for "new features"?

Yes.  Since the files and directories in /usr/local/etc/freeside include
the DBI datasource, you can run multiple concurrent Freeside instances on
a single machine. 

>       Do I need to setup multiple accounts or can I do this 
>       under one freeside account?

You should use a single _system_ account, but multiple entries in Apache
authentication and /usr/local/etc/freeside/mapsecrets.  

See <http://www.sisd.com/freeside/list-archive/msg00546.html>.

> B. Configuration setup prior to running fs-setup:
>    1. What is an erpcdmachines?  I've only seen the referenced files
>       on a Bay Area radius box.

A machine running the legacy authentication protocol/program ERPCD, a
depriciated RADIUS alternative.

>    2. Don't I have to copy the existing passwd, shadow, radius users,
>       sendmail.cw, etc files from our shell, radius, account servers
>       to our freeside server?  ...so that the current files are not
>       overlaid when a new account/domain is added?  ...especially
>       during testing.

Yes, see <htdocs/docs/legacy.html>.

You probably shoudln't export the files from your freeside machine to your
production machines during testing.

>    3. SUGGESTION:  Merge all of the Conf.* files into one
>       perl file that is "required" by the Freeside perl code.
>       That way, comments can be provided to show what should be
>       filled in and what the defaults could be.  Doing a "vi Conf.*"
>       doesn't allow me to scroll back to the previous file...:-(

Interesting suggestion.  Of course, a patch is far more likely to result
in the desired change.  :)

Retreiving configuration values is abstracted out into FS::Conf, so you
would only need to modify Conf.pm.  (see the FS::Conf manpage)

> C. Administration:
>    1. Adding services:  Really needs some examples!

Use the test/cgi-test program to create sample data, or setup an account
in the web demo.

>       - What does on/off mean?

An "Off" selection means there is no default nor fixed value for this
field. 

>       - What is the default?  ...examples are really needed.

There is no default for each field, unless you set one.

>       - SUGGESTION: hyper-link to pop-up html windows that contain
>                     help and examples for each category.

See above about suggestions and patches.  :)

>       - When I add a "new service", then click "view all services",
>         the services are not "shown" until I "reload" the web page.
>         Is this normal?

I set the HTTP expire time on all dynamic pages to "now", to avoid this
type of problem.

Make sure your browser is configured to check for newer copies of
documents every time they're loaded.  In Netscape, I set "Document in
cache is compared to document on network" to "every time" rather than
"once per session" or "never". 

Make sure your web server, or a cache in front of it, isn't caching the
document or munging the expiration time.  Since you're dealing with
sensitive customer information, you should use an SSL-enabled server. 

>       - we offer a static IP option for personal accounts.
>         How/when do we specify the actual static IP?

When you create the customer's account (not when you create service
definitions).

>       - Our domain customers can have personal accounts based in
>         their domain /homev account structure; /homev/domain/homep/user
>         This handles employees of a company's domain account and
>         allows us to move them as a unit from one server to another.
>         The domain has its own unique GID and the employee's account
>         has the same GID as their parent domain.  This allows us to
>         find them easily in the passwd file since they all share the
>         same GID.
>         Hummm...how do we define this service?

You can define a fixed GID in a service definition.  Since this means
one service definition per domain, that may not work for you, and you will
probably to modify the source to implement this scheme.

You'll also probably need to modify the source to implement your
particular home directory structure. 

>       - How do we delete a service?  

Directly from the part_svc table in the database, with a program such as
dbish, dbimon, mysql, pgaccess, xmysql, gtksql, etc.  Ensure that no
package defintions include this service (pkg_svc), and that no customers
have services of this type (cust_svc). 

>    2. Adding packages: 
>       - SUGGESTION: Display an error message if no services were defined.

Patches gladly accepted.  ;>

>       - When I make changes, do an "apply", I have to reload the web
>         page to see the changes.  Is something wrong with my browser?

See above about HTTP expire times.

-- 
Ivan Kohler <ivan at sisd.com> - finger for PGP key - <moc.dsis at navi> Relhok Navi
Open-source billing and administration for ISPs - http://www.sisd.com/freeside
20 4,16 * * * saytime # please don't be surprised if you find me dreaming too