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Last Updated: December 6, 2000

Interactive Manager (iManager)

The interactive web content manager and file browser, iManager, allows a virtual server administrator to use their favorite browser client (Netscape Navigator, MSIE, Mosaic, etc) to perform simple file manipulation tasks: uploading files, copying files, et al. The iManager "wizards" walk you through a step by step process for each task.

The iManager utility will allow you both root administrative access and access for each of your POP user accounts. However, your POP users are restricted to operate in the home directory that they are assigned. Thus each POP user is afforded the convenience of using the iManager wizard interface, and the administrator is assured that security is maintained.

The remote administrative utility, iRoot, which provides wizards for adding new POP accounts, removing POP accounts, adding and deleting Email aliases, as well as many other administrative tasks.


Installing iManager

  1. Run the command that matches your Virtual Server O/S.

    FreeBSD 
    iManager 2.0 % vinstall imanager2

    BSD/OS 
    iManager 2.0 % tar -xvf /usr/local/contrib/imanager2.tar

    NOTE: If your Virtual Server was ordered after December 1, 1999, you are likely running FreeBSD. To find out which O/S your Virtual Server is running, use the uname command:

    % uname
    

    If your Virtual Server is not already running FreeBSD, Upgrade to a New FreeBSD Virtual Server today!

    By default, iManager 2.0 is installed in your ~/www/htdocs/imanager directory.

  2. If you have previously installed iManager 1.0, you may have the following lines in your web server configuration files (~/www/conf/httpd.conf or ~/www/conf/srm.conf).

    
    
    Redirect /iroot http://YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/cgi-bin/admin/gateway.cgi
    Redirect /imanager http://YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/cgi-bin/admin/gateway.cgi
    

    These directives are not required for iManager 2.0, and may prevent access to the new version of iManager. Comment out both of these directives by adding a "#" at the beginning of each line.

Starting iManager
You can access iManager by entering the following URL into your web browser.

http://YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/imanager/

iManager Authentication

After you have installed iManager on your virtual server, open up the URL listed in the installation section. You will be asked to provide a valid login/password pair and some path information. The Login/Password pair can be one of any found in your "~/etc/passwd" file. Therefore you can either use your root or administrative login and password or one of your POP users can use his or her login/passwd pair to gain access to the iManager utilities.

The Path Specification is the directory or file that iManager will use as its current working directory or currently selected file (see Using iManager for an explanation of the Currently Selected File and the Current Working Directory). If a non-root login is specified, the Path Specification is checked against the home directory of the user (as listed in the ~/etc/passwd file). If the path specification is outside of the user's home directory, access is denied. Each non-root user is restricted access to the iManager utilities inside of his or her home directory. There is no such restriction placed on the root or administrative login.

To illustrate authentication with iManager consider the following examples:

  • Using your Administrator Login and Password
    Authenticate yourself with your administrator login and password and set the path specification to "/www/cgi-bin/admin/". A list of the contents of the "/www/cgi-bin/admin/" directory will be displayed including the header and footer files (mentioned in the installation instructions above). Select the "[ED]" link beside the header or footer entries. This will load the contents of the selected file into a form. You can then simply edit the contents and upload the changes back to the server.

    Using a POP Login and Password
    If you are using a Fully Functional Deluxe Virtual Server (Server B) you have the capability of adding individual POP accounts to your server. Each POP account has an entry in your Virtual Server's "~/etc/passwd" file which includes the full name of the user, the user's password (crypted of course), the user's home directory specification, and his or her disk quota if FTP privileges have been granted.

    Any of your POP account users may enter in their POP account name and password to authenticate themselves. However, they must specify a path specification that is valid for their account or they may leave the path specification blank, in which case iManager will determine their home directory. Thus they are restricted in access only to their home directory or subdirectories in their home directory. This allows your POP users the convenience of iManager utilities without compromising the security of your Virtual Server. Since POP authentication is supported in iManager, your POP users can do for themselves what you as the server administrator used to have to do for them by hand.

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