Setting Up Nodes

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A node is the CorporateTime database containing all user and resource information and agendas. A node network is a series of two or more connected nodes. More than one node can be placed on a CorporateTime host. This situation is commonly encountered when a group of users requires a different time zone, or when there is a logical division that the administrator wants to maintain within a group of users in the same time zone. For example, a company may have a small but growing branch office in San Diego while all servers and IT staff are located at the central office in Los Angeles. The CorporateTime administrator in Los Angeles may create a separate node on his CorporateTime server for all San Diego employees in anticipation of eventually moving the node to a separate server in the San Diego office. If the node is moved closer to its user community in San Diego, network latencies will be minimized and the maximum number of potential users will increase if the node is on its own server.

This chapter will cover the following topics:

• Creating a node
• Deleting a node

Creating a node

To create a CorporateTime node:

Cmd line

1. Use the unistop command introduced in the chapter "Server Administration" to bring down the CorporateTime Server. The CorporateTime Server must be down in order to successfully create a node. For the syntax and proper use of this utility, see the unistop documentation in Appendix G.
2. Run the uniaddnode command. For the full syntax and proper use of this utility, see the uniaddnode documentation in Appendix G. Determine values for the following fields before executing the command.

   Node-ID: CS&T's recommended node-ID ranges are:

   Table 3.1 · Recommended node-ID ranges

   1-5	Evaluation Node-IDs
   6-100	Test Node-IDs
   101-9999	PERMANENT Node-IDs
   10000-59999	Future Use
   60000+	Reserved by CS&T

   When setting up a node, it is important to note that the node-ID cannot be changed once the node has been created. Furthermore, an existing local node will be deleted if a new local node is given a node-ID currently in use on the same computer. A warning prompt will be issued before this action is taken. Node-IDs must be unique not only locally, but also across the node network. If two nodes in a network are assigned the same node-ID, connection between the two nodes will not be possible.

   Name: This name is for internal use and is used as the directory name for each separate node (/users/unison/db/nodes/<name>). Standard convention is to use a letter and number combination, for example "N1", "N2" etc. The name is automatically generated when a node is created using the uniaddnode command.

   Version: The version number applies to CorporateTime's internal database, not to the version number for the CorporateTime Server. The version number for each node should be exactly the same as that in the sample [YOURNODEID] section in the /users/unison/misc/unison.ini file. The version is automatically inserted when a node is created using the uniaddnode command.

   Node Alias: A descriptive word of up to 32 characters containing no spaces. When multiple nodes are configured on a server, users need to indicate which node they want to connect to. Since, in general, a name is easier to remember than a numeric node-ID, aliases can be configured. If more than one alias is set, they must be separated by a comma. There is no default.

   Node Time Zone: The time zone for this node. See Appendix F for a complete list of countries with their corresponding time zone notation. The default value for this field is the time zone set during installation of the CorporateTime Server.

   SYSOP Password: Previously set, up to 15 alphanumeric characters in length.

   Directory Manager Password: The password for the SuperUserDN (value set by the parameter mgrdn in the unison.ini file), required only in the external directory context.

Example

% uniaddnode -n 144 -a admin

uniaddnode: Please enter a SYSOP password for node 144:

uniaddnode: Please enter the SYSOP password again:

uniaddnode: unicheck working, please wait...

uniaddnode: unicheck done

uniaddnode: unidsndini working, please wait...

Enter Manager dn password:

unidsndini: working, please wait ...

Creation of reserved users successful.

Creation of Administrators group successful.

uniaddnode: unidsndini done

uniaddnode: working, please wait...

uniaddnode: initialization of node-ID [144] completed

An entry similar to the following would now exist in the /users/unison/misc/unison.ini file.

[144]

name = N2

version = A.02.50

aliases = admin

timezone = EST5EDT

3. Use the unistart command to restart the CorporateTime Server. For the syntax and proper use of this utility, see the unistart documentation in Appendix G.

Admin GUI

The CorporateTime Server Administrator is used to create nodes on a local host only.

1. Stop the CorporateTime Server using one of the methods explained in Chapter 2 "Starting and stopping CorporateTime Server".
2. Run CorporateTime Server Administrator.
3. Select Node | Add Local Node to open the Add Local Node dialogue box.
4. Enter values for the Node-ID, Alias and Time Zone fields, all described above. If you know the time zone notation for your area, select this value from the Time Zone drop-down list box. If not, select your region in the Region list box and the appropriate time zone will be displayed in the Time Zone box.
5. Activate the Password tab.
6. Enter a new password for the node administrator (also known as the SYSOP) in the first box and confirm this in the second box.
7. Enter the Directory Server Superuser's password in the third box. This is the root DN password and is required to bind to the Directory Server.
8. Click OK.
9. Start the CorporateTime Server from the prompt following the successful addition of a node, or use one of the methods explained in Chapter 2 "Starting and stopping CorporateTime Server".

Deleting a node

Deleting a CorporateTime node manually requires an advanced knowledge of the CorporateTime Server. Before attempting to remove a node, you should familiarize yourself with the contents of the specified chapters.

To delete a node manually:

1. Before deleting the node, you may wish to archive any or all of the information in the node by making a backup. See Chapter 8, "Node Maintenance" for complete instructions.
2. Delete all node connections involving the node to be removed in the /users/unison/misc/nodes.ini file. For more information on the structure and syntax of this file, see Chapter 6, "Managing a Node Network."
3. Shut down the CorporateTime Server.
4. From the command line, delete the directory and everything below /users/unison/db/nodes/<name> where <name> is the key value in the node section being deleted.
5. Delete the corresponding node section in /users/unison/misc/unison.ini. See Chapter 7, "Server Configuration" for a discussion of the contents of this file and the specific location of the information to be deleted.
6. Use ldapmodify to delete all references to the 6 reserved calendar users for each node scheduled for deletion.
7. Shut down the directory server.
8. Generate an LDIF file from the contents of your LDAP directory server.
9. Edit the LDIF file to delete all references to the 6 reserved calendar users for each node scheduled for deletion.
10. Import the modified LDIF file back into your directory server.
11. Run unidbfix -import -n all
12. Start the directory server.
13. Start the CorporateTime Server.
14. Run unireqdump -delete on the CorporateTime Server to remove all requests related to the deleted node from the CWS queue.