4. Configuring and Setting up the
WebDAV services
Now for the easy part. In this section we will WebDAV enable a
directory under Apache root.
4.1. Modifications to the
/usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf
Please verify that the following Apache directive appears in the
/usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf :
If it does not please add it. This directive informs Apache
about DAV capability. The directive must be placed outside any
container.
Next we must specify where Apache should store
the DAVLockDB file. DAVLockDB is a lock database for the WebDAV.
This directory should be writable by the httpd process.
I store the DAVLock file under /usr/local/apache/var.
I use this directory for other purposes as well. Please add the
following line to your
/usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf to specify
that the DAVLockDB file will be under
/usr/local/apache/var :
DAVLockDB /usr/local/apache/var/DAVLock
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The directive must be placed outside any container.
4.2. Creating a directory for DAVLockDB
As mentioned above a directory must be created for DAVLockDB
that can be written by the web server process. Usually web server
process runs under the user 'nobody' . Please
verify this for your system using the command:
Under
/usr/local/apache create
the directory and set the permissions on it using the following
commands:
# cd /usr/local/apache
# mkdir var
# chmod -R 755 var/
# chown -R nobody var/
# chgrp -R nobody var/
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4.3. Enabling DAV
Enabling DAV is a trivial task. To enable DAV for a directory
under Apache root, just add the following directive in the container
for that particular directory:
This directive will enable DAV for the directory and its
sub-directories.
The following is a sample configuration that will enable WebDAV
and LDAP authentication on
/usr/local/apache/htdocs/DAVtest. Place this in
the /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf file.
DavLockDB /tmp/DavLock
<Directory "/usr/local/apache2/htdocs/DAVtest">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride None
order allow,deny
allow from all
AuthName "SMA Development server"
AuthType Basic
LDAP_Debug On
#LDAP_Protocol_Version 3
#LDAP_Deref NEVER
#LDAP_StartTLS On
LDAP_Server you.ldap.server.com
#LDAP_Port 389
# If SSL is on, must specify the LDAP SSL port, usually 636
LDAP_Port 636
LDAP_CertDbDir /usr/local/apache2/sslcert
Base_DN "o=SDS"
UID_Attr uid
DAV On
#require valid-user
require valid-user
#require roomnumber "123 Center Building"
#require filter "(&(telephonenumber=1234)(roomnumber=123))"
#require group cn=rcs,ou=Groups
</Directory>
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4.4. Create a Directory called DAVtest
As mentioned in a earlier section, all DAV directories have to
be writable by the WebServer process. In this example we assume
WebServer is running under username 'nobody'.
This is usually the case. To check httpd is running under what user,
please use:
Create a test directory called 'DAVtest'
under /usr/local/apache2/htdocs :
# mkdir /usr/local/apache/htdocs/DAVtest
Change the permissions on the directory to make it is
read-writable by the httpd process. Assuming the httpd is running
under username 'nobody', use the following
commands:
# cd /usr/local/apache/htdocs
# chmod -R 755 DAVtest/
# chown -R nobody DAVtest/
# chgrp -R nobody DAVtest/
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4.5. Restart Apache
Finally you must run the configuration test routine that comes
with Apache to verify the syntax in httpd.conf :
# /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl configtest |
If you get error messages please verify that you followed all of
the above mentioned steps correctly. If you can not figure out the
error message feel free to email me with the error message
(saqib@seagate.com).
If the configtest is successful start the apache web-server:
# /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl restart
Now you have WebDAV enabled Apache Server with LDAP
authentication and SSL encryption.
4.6. WebDAV server protocol compliance testing
It is very important that the WebDAV that we just implemented be fully complaint with the WebDAV-2 protocol. If it is not
fully compatible, the client side WebDAV applications will not function properly.
To test the complaince we will use a tool called Litmus. Litmus is a WebDAV server protocol compliance test suite,
which aims to test whether a server is compliant with the WebDAV protocol as specified in RFC2518.
Please download the Litmus source code from http://www.webdav.org/neon/litmus/ and place it in the /tmp/downloads directory.
Then use gzip and tar to extract the files:
# cd /tmp/downloads
# gzip -d litmus-0.6.x.tar.gz
# tar -xvf litmus-0.6.x.tar
# cd litmus-0.6.x
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Compiling and installing Litmus is easy:
# ./configure
# make
# make install
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make install will install the Litmus binary files under /usr/local/bin and the help files under /usr/local/man
To the test the complaince of the WebDAV server that you just installed, please use the following command
# /usr/local/bin/litmus http://you.dav.server/DAVtest userid passwd
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