6.3 Planning a Calendar Publishing Host

Use the GroupWise Calendar Publishing Host Installation Worksheet to record your decisions about how to install and configure the Calendar Publishing Host Application. The topics in this section present the required information in a convenient planning sequence. The Installation Worksheet organizes the information in the order in which you need it during installation and configuration.

For additional assistance in planning your GroupWise installation, visit the GroupWise Best Practices Wiki.

6.3.1 Selecting the Calendar Publishing Host Application Platform

The GroupWise Calendar Publishing Host can be installed to a Web server on Linux or Windows. See Section 6.2, Calendar Publishing Host System Requirements for supported Web servers.

GROUPWISE CALENDAR PUBLISHING HOST INSTALLATION WORKSHEET

Under Web Server Platform, mark whether you plan to install the Calendar Publishing Host Application to a Linux or Windows Web server

6.3.2 Gathering Web Server Information

The Calendar Publishing Host Application integrates with your Web server to pass calendar information gathered by the Post Office Agent to your Web browser for display. The location of the Calendar Publishing Application files that are installed depends on the Web server that it is being integrated with. The default Web server paths vary by platform:

  • Apache Web Server on OES 11:
  • Tomcat on OES 11:
  • Apache Web Server on OES 2 Linux:
  • Tomcat on OES 2 Linux:
  • Apache Web Server on SLES 11:
  • Tomcat on SLES 11:
  • Apache Web Server on SLES 10:
  • Tomcat on SLES 10:
  • Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) on Windows:
  • Tomcat on Windows:

GROUPWISE CALENDAR PUBLISHING HOST INSTALLATION WORKSHEET

Under Web Server Information, mark the Web server you are using and specify the path to its root directory. The default path is usually appropriate.

On Windows, if the Internet Information Server services more than one Web site, specify the Web site where you want to install the Calendar Publishing Host.

6.3.3 Determining the Configuration of the Calendar Publishing Host

In ConsoleOne, the Calendar Publishing Host is identified by a unique name. The name might include the platform or location of the Calendar Publishing Host, or perhaps the users it serves. You specify this name when you install the Calendar Publishing Host Application and when you configure it in ConsoleOne. The name must be specified identically in both places, including spacing and capitalization.

IMPORTANT:Do not use any double-byte characters in the name.

The Calendar Publishing Host name is stored in the calhost.cfg file, located in the following directories

Linux:

 
/var/opt/novell/groupwise/calhost

Windows:

 
c:\novell\groupwise\calhost

You typically need only one Calendar Publishing Host. However, depending on the size of your GroupWise system and the locations of your GroupWise users, you might need several in different locations if some users experience slowness when accessing the initial location. You specify the name of the Calendar Publishing Host during installation and in ConsoleOne. The name must match in both places.

The Calendar Publishing Host uses the DNS hostname of the Web server as part of its base URL.

http://web_server_address:port/gwcal

Replace web_server_address with the DNS hostname of the Web server and port is the port number on which the Calendar Publishing Host communicates with the Web server. The default port number is 80; it does not need to be specified if your Web server uses that default.

IMPORTANT:Select the URL carefully. This URL is disseminated by GroupWise users to their Internet colleagues when they publish their personal calendars and free/busy information. If you change the URL later, GroupWise users need to send updated information to Internet colleagues.

Create a generic URL, such as http://gwcal.novell.com/gwcal, then configure your network to redirect incoming traffic to any of multiple Calendar Publishing Host servers

The Calendar Publishing Host also needs the IP address and TCP port number of the Web server so that they can communicate.

GROUPWISE CALENDAR PUBLISHING HOST INSTALLATION WORKSHEET

Under Calendar Publishing Host Name, specify a unique name for this Calendar Publishing Host.

Under Calendar Publishing Host Configuration, list the name for the Calendar Publishing Host name again, along with its base URL (http://web_server_address/gwcal), the IP address of the Web server, and the Web server port number (by default, 80). Make sure that the names are specified identically.

For a complete list of default port numbers used by the GroupWise agents, refer to GroupWise Port Numbers in the GroupWise 2012 Administration Guide.

6.3.4 Connecting the Calendar Publishing Host to a POA

The Calendar Publishing Host connects to your GroupWise system through the POA of a post office. For initial installation, you enable one POA for calendar publishing. As you roll out calendar publishing to your GroupWise users, you must enable calendar publishing for the POA of every post office where users publish calendars and free/busy information.

The initially selected POA must be configured to communicate with the Calendar Publishing Host. The POA server’s IP address or DNS hostname is required, along with a calendar publishing port (7171 by default). Use the default port number unless it is already in use by another program on the server where you plan to install the Calendar Publishing Host.

GROUPWISE CALENDAR PUBLISHING HOST INSTALLATION WORKSHEET

Under Calendar Publishing Post Office, specify the name of the post office you have chosen to enable for calendar publishing during initial installation (for example, the POA for your own post office). Specify the IP address or DNS hostname of the POA that services the post office, along with the calendar publishing port number. The default port number is 7171.

Under Post Office Agent Information, transfer the IP address or DNS hostname and the calendar publishing port. You need this information when you install the Calendar Publishing Host.

For a complete list of default port numbers used by the GroupWise agents, refer to GroupWise Port Numbers in the GroupWise 2012 Administration Guide.

6.3.5 Designing Your Calendar Browse List

The Calendar Publishing Host collects a list of published calendars for Internet users to browse and select from at the following URL:

http://web_server_address/gwcal/calendar

However, by default, no calendars are displayed in the calendar browse list. You can handle the calendar browse list in three different ways:

  • Do not provide a calendar browse list, so that users need to notify Internet colleagues by email of the URL to access their published calendars.

  • Use the calendar browse list only for calendars of general corporate interest. If you want to have such a corporate browse list, you restrict which users can list calendars on the browse list, by allowing only a few specific users who manage the corporate calendars to publish to the calendar browse list.

  • Allow most, if not all, users to publish their personal calendars on the calendar browse list. This open approach to the calendar browse list makes users’ published calendars easily accessible to anyone who knows the URL of the calendar browse list for your GroupWise system.

GROUPWISE CALENDAR PUBLISHING HOST INSTALLATION WORKSHEET

Under Calendar Browse List, mark whether you want to enable the calendar browse list, and if so, what kind (corporate or open).

6.3.6 Selecting Calendar Publishing Settings

After you have set up the Calendar Publishing Host, you can configure how you want it to work for your GroupWise users. The following settings are available in ConsoleOne:

  • Enable Calendar Publishing: Select this option to let users publish personal GroupWise calendars on the Internet. Calendar publishing is disabled by default. When you enable it, users of the GroupWise Windows client and GroupWise WebAccess can right-click a personal calendar, then click Publish to select options for publishing the personal calendar.

  • Enable Rules to Move Items to a Published Calendar: Select this option so that users can create rules to automatically transfer certain types of calendar items to specific personal calendars that are published. Using rules is disabled by default.

  • Enable Subscribe to Calendar: Select this option to allow users to subscribe to Internet calendars that are updated on a regular basis, such as calendars for sporting events. Calendar subscription is disabled by default.

  • Enable Publish Free/Busy Search: Select this option to allow users to make their appointment information available to external users, so that external users can perform free/busy searches on users’ GroupWise calendars. Free/busy searching is disabled by default.

GROUPWISE CALENDAR PUBLISHING HOST INSTALLATION WORKSHEET

Under Calendar Publishing Options, mark the options you want to enable for the Calendar Publishing Host.

6.3.7 Configuring Authentication to the Administration Web Console

An Administration Web console is provided for additional configuration of the Calendar Publishing Host. To protect that Administration Web console, you must create or select at least one calendar publishing administrator user and an administrative group for that user to belong to. For example, you might create a user named CalPubAdmin and a group named CalPubAdminGrp. You could also select an existing user and add this user to the administrative group. This user does not need any special administrative rights. It does not need a GroupWise mailbox.

You can have the User object and the Group object in any convenient eDirectory container. The container must exist before you install the Calendar Publishing Host. Because you specify the container context during installation, you do not need to specify it each time you log in to the Administration Web console.

GROUPWISE CALENDAR PUBLISHING HOST INSTALLATION WORKSHEET

Under Authentication Information, specify the name of the Calendar Publishing Host administrator user (for example, CalPubAdmin), the context of the administrator User object (for example, ou=Users,o=yourcompanyname), and the name of the administrative group (for example, CalPubAdminGrp). You specify the context of the user and the group when you install the Calendar Publishing Host. You set up the User and Group objects in ConsoleOne.

As an administrator, you use the Calendar Publishing Host Administration Web console to manage the Calendar Publishing Host. The Calendar Publishing Host uses LDAP authentication to allow you to log in to the Administration Web console. For secure logins, configure the Calendar Publishing Host to use SSL for the LDAP connection. During Calendar Publishing Host installation, you must specify a trusted root certificate file that is used to establish the LDAP SSL connection. For more information about LDAP SSL, see Trusted Root Certificates and LDAP Authentication in Security Administration in the GroupWise 2012 Administration Guide.

GROUPWISE CALENDAR PUBLISHING HOST INSTALLATION WORKSHEET

Under LDAP Server Information, specify the IP address or DNS hostname of a server where LDAP is enabled. Also specify the LDAP port. The default secure port is 636. Specify the full path to the SSL root certificate file.

For information about using the Administration Web console for ongoing administration, see Configuring the Calendar Publishing Host in Calendar Publishing Host in the GroupWise 2012 Administration Guide.