We wrote a Simple AOLserver Installation Guide ( simple-aolserver-install.html). For other instrtuctions, see the AOLserver docs.
It was verified that AOLserver has problems compiling with pgcc (used by GNU/Linux distributions such as Mandrake and Stampede). I could only get AOLserver 3 to compile once I got rid of pgcc in my Mandrake 6.1 box and loaded egcs (standard in Red Hat.)
You must create a user that AOLserver is going to run as, since it will not run as root. I usually use nsadmin or ns (for NaviServer, AOLserver's original name).
"All ArsDigita software packages, including the ACS, rely on a basket of utility procedures that are generally part of the AOLserver installation. This used to be distributed separately and put in the shared Tcl directory (/home/aolserver/modules/tcl), but is now a part of the ACS and exists in [acsdir]/tcl/00-ad-utilities.tcl. Note that many other files in the tcl directory depend on utility functions defined in this file, which is why it is named as it is, so that it will be loaded before any of the other files."[1]
"Note that these procedures will now be available to all running AOLservers on your machine. If you update the file to our latest version, you will only have to do this in one place. "[1]
Note: AOLserver 3 can use both .ini and .tcl files for initialization. We are dropping support for old .ini files because .tcl files are much more flexible. Those who are used to .ini files and want to use them will know what to do :-)
We are including a sample working nsd.tcl file as reference that you can use, but you must configure it for your own needs. Just moving it to your AOLserver directory and running AOLserver will not work. The file is well commented so you should be able to understand it. Look at the AOLserver docs for other parameters you could have.
Pay special attention to the following sections in the nsd.tcl file:
ns_section "ns/db/drivers"
ns_section "ns/db/pools"
ns_section "ns/server/${server}/tcl"
ns_section "ns/server/${server}"
You can only have one ArsDigita Community System running from a single nsd process (though you can have as many ACS servers as you like on a physical machine; each just needs its own process).The reason reason for this is that each ACS installation needs to source its own parameter file (see second to last line in the nsd.tcl file).
In the ns/server/${server} section, if you want to use our fancy custom error responses and such, uncomment the lines
ns_param NotFoundResponse "/global/file-not-found.html"
ns_param ServerBusyResponse "/global/busy.html"
ns_param ServerInternalErrorResponse "/global/error.html "
ns_param ForbiddenResponse "/global/forbidden.html"
ns_param UnauthorizedResponse "/global/unauthorized.html"
then go into the www/global/ directory and edit these files to suit. " [1]
You can find well-commented, almost ready nsd.tcl file right here. Rename it to nsd.tcl, chown it to your AOLserver user and edit to your needs. There are only a few things that need changes. Read the comments.