Netscape Enterprise Server Release Notes

Version: 6.1, Service Pack 4

Updated on: June 30, 2003

These release notes contain important information available at the time of the Service Pack 4 release of Netscape Enterprise Server (NES) Version 6.1. New features and enhancements, installation notes, known problems, and other late-breaking issues are addressed here. Read this document before you begin using Enterprise Server.

Check the Enterprise Server Documentation Page page prior to installing and setting up your software and then periodically thereafter to obtain the latest release notes and manuals.

These release notes contain the following sections:

These release notes describe changes made since Version 6.1. For information regarding changes made prior to this release, see also:


What's New in This Release

A bug exists in the Netscape Security Services (NSS) library in versions prior to NSS 3.7.7 (NES 6.1 SP3 uses NSS 3.7.3). This bug can cause the server to crash if presented with an unusual but otherwise legal client certificate when doing client authentication. For further details, see the NSS bug report at mozilla.org http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=204555.

Users who have SSL enabled are strongly encouraged to upgrade.

Introduced in Version 6.1 Service Pack 3

Multiple LDAP servers may be defined for a database entry in server_root/userdb/dbswitch.conf. The servers are used in the order defined in that file. If the first server goes down or otherwise becomes unavailable NES will automatically switch to the next server in the list (if any). Once NES finds a working server it will continue to use this server until either NES is restarted or this LDAP server becomes unavailable.

There is a limit of 64 servers per database.

The following caveats exist:

  1. If one has multiple "default" databases and uses the admin interface under Global Settings -> Configure Directory Service then the 1st entry will be duplicated for each additional "default" database. So don't use the admin interface to manage this.
  2. This is not round-robin. Only one LDAP server for a database entry is used at a time.
  3. There is no way to force the server to connect particular LDAP server without stopping other LDAP servers in the list and forcing rollover that way or by restarting NES.
  4. NES does not detect when an LDAP server becomes available again.

Here is a sample entry for dbswitch.conf for a database named ldapregular:

directory ldapregular ldap://dog.sample.com:389/o%3DSample
ldapregular:binddn uid=cn=Directory Manager
ldapregular:encoded bindpw YWRtaW4=

directory ldapregular ldap://cat.sample.com:3389/o%3DSample
ldapregular:binddn uid=cn=Directory Manager
ldapregular:encoded bindpw YWRtaW4=

In this example, the LDAP server dog.sample.com on port 389 will be the first LDAP server used for the ACL database ldapregular. If it becomes unavailable then the LDAP server cat.sample.com on port 3389 will be tried. If this server is available then it will be used for all authentication requests against the database ldapregular.

The ssl-check directive in obj.conf is used to check the SSL secret-keysize. If the key-size is found to be smaller than required then the user may redirect the user to a static file using the bong-file parameter to ssl-check. A new parameter, url, is now available that can redirect the user to another site. Care must be taken with the URL target, if it is on the same server with the same restrictions then the user will end up in a request loop.

A sample obj.conf entry might look like:

PathCheck fn="ssl-check" secret-keysize="128" url="http://anotherhost.sample.com/keysize.html"

This is a variant of the function shexp_match with the added capability to return the number of characters matched
by the shell like regular expression.

To use the IBM JRE 1.4 you first need to update server-root/https-admserv/config/start-jvm to read

NSES_JRE=IBM_JAVA_HOME/jre;export NSES_JRE
NSES_JRE_RUNTIME_LIBPATH=${NSES_JRE}/lib:${NSES_JRE}/bin:${NSES_JRE}/bin/classic;
export NSES_JRE_RUNTIME_LIBPATH

Where IBM_JAVA_HOME is the location where the IBM JRE was installed. For reference, assume that the JRE was installed into /opt/IBMJava2-14/:

NSES_JRE=/opt/IBMJava2-14/jre;export NSES_JRE
NSES_JRE_RUNTIME_LIBPATH=${NSES_JRE}/lib:${NSES_JRE}/bin:${NSES_JRE}/bin/classic;
export NSES_JRE_RUNTIME_LIBPATH

Next, add this to the end of jvm.option in jvm12.conf:
-Xbootclasspath:IBM_JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/core.jar:IBM_JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/server.jar:IBM_JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/charsets.jar:IBM_JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security.jar:IBM_JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/xml.jar:IBM_JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/graphics.jar

Introduced in Version 6.1 Service Pack 2

Introduced in Version 6.1 Service Pack 1


Deleted Features

As of Version 6.1, Netscape Enterprise Server no longer supports JSP 0.9. If you have a previous version of Enterprise Server, edit the obj.conf file and remove the entire <Object>/</Object> entry for the object jsp092. (603854)


Required Patches

Required patches are listed for the following platforms:

Sun Solaris Patches

The following patches are recommended for Solaris users of Enterprise Server. In addition, you should have the patches in Sun's recommended patch list. For Sun's recommended patch list, see http://sunsolve.sun.com/pubpatch. To get Sun patches, see your Sun service provider.

For each patch, use the listed revision or a higher revision. For example, if you need patch 111111-01, the later revision 111111-03 will also work.

Note that if you are using a JDK, you may need additional patches.

HP-UX Patches

In addition to using the General-Release Patch Bundles (XSWGR1100), the following operating system patch (applicable and specific to HP-UX 11i,11.11 only) must be installed: PHNE_23645.

You can find a list of patches for Java 1.2.2.07 at:

http://www.unix.hp.com/java/java2/sdkrte/infolibrary/release_notes_SDK_1-2-2-07.html

Windows Service Packs

Windows NT 4.0 SP6A is required for running Enterprise Server 6.1 SP4.

Windows 2000 Server SP1 or later is required for running Enterprise Server 6.1 SP4.


JRE/JVM Versions

The following versions of JRE and JVM are bundled with Enterprise Server 6.1 SP4:

Platform JRE / JVM / JIT Version Comments
Solaris 2.8  Solaris VM 

(build Solaris_JDK_1.4.0_00)

Comment out the -Xrs flag in config/jvm12.conf to generate stack traces. For more details, see the section "Generating a Stack Trace for Debugging" in the Netscape Enterprise Server Installation and Migration Guide.

For JVMPI-based profiling (such as hprof) or debugging purposes (such as attaching Solaris dbx), use the reference implementation downloadable from:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4/

Windows NT 4.0 Java version 1.4.0_00 HotSpot VM  
Windows 2000  Java version 1.4.0_00 HotSpot VM  
HP-UX  Java version 1.3.1_05

JRE 1.3.1.05 Standard Edition (build 1.3.1.05-020425-12:07)

Java HotSpot™ Server VM (build 1.2.1 1.3.1.05_20020425 PA2.0, mixed mode)

 
RedHat Linux AS 2.1 Java version 1.4.0_00 HotSpot VM  


Installation, Upgrade, and Migration Information

This section includes information for installing, upgrading, and migrating from the previous release. For additional information about system requirements and installing the product, see the Netscape Enterprise Server Installation and Migration Guide.

The following table summarizes the supported platforms for Enterprise Server 6.1 SP4. All platforms, except for Microsoft Windows 2000, require a minimum of 128 MB memory (256 MB recommended) and 150 MB disk space. Windows 2000 requires at least 512 MB of memory and 2GB of disk space to run Enterprise Server 6.1 SP4 successfully.

Vendor Architecture Operating System
Hewlett-Packard  PA-RISC  HP-UX 11.0, 11.0 64-bit*, 11i* 
Microsoft  Pentium  Windows NT 4.0 SP6a

Windows 2000 Server SP1 

RedHat  X86  Red Hat Linux Advanced Server, based on kernel 2.4.9 with glibc 2.1.2.4 
Sun  UltraSPARC**  Solaris 2.6, 7*, 8 

* Supported via binary compatibility.

**As of Enterprise Server 6.x, older SPARC CPUs are not supported. Enterprise Server 6.1 SP4 continues to support the UltraSPARC architecture.

Upgrade/Migration Issues

If you are running an earlier version of this product, see the table below to determine how to upgrade to Netscape Enterprise Server 6.1 SP4.

If you are running... Then...
iPlanet™ Web Server 6.x Install Netscape Enterprise Server 6.1 SP4 in the same server root.
iPlanet Web Server 4.x Install Netscape Enterprise Server 6.1 SP4 in a different server root then migrate your data to the new server.
Netscape Enterprise Server 6.0 Install Netscape Enterprise Server 6.1 SP4 in the same server root.
Netscape Enterprise Server 3.x or earlier Install Netscape Enterprise Server 6.1 SP4 in a different server root. There is no migration path.

See the Netscape Enterprise Server Installation and Migration Guide for details.


Fixed Problems

This section lists problems fixed in Enterprise Server 6.1 SP4.

Security


This section lists problems fixed in Enterprise Server 6.1 SP3.

Installation/Migration

Startup/Shutdown

Programming

Security

Miscellaneous

Administration Interface


This section lists problems fixed in Enterprise Server 6.1 SP2.

Startup/Shutdown

Programming

Security

Miscellaneous

This section lists problems fixed in Enterprise Server 6.1 SP1.

Installation/Migration/Uninstallation

Startup/Shutdown

Programming

Security

Miscellaneous


Known Problems and Solutions

This section lists known problems with this release of Enterprise Server 6.1 SP4.

The Mozilla web browser (upon which Netscape 7.x is based) has problems with browsing history in Frames. This has been resolved in newer builds of the browser.


Platform-Specific Information

This section describes platform-specific information for the following platforms:

Windows NT

Windows 2000

UNIX/Linux


Libraries

Netscape Enterprise Server uses the following libraries from the mozilla.org organization:

Note: References in the Enterprise Server 6.1 documentation to cert7.db should now be interpreted to mean cert7.db (if migrated), cert8.db, or both.

For more information see http://www.mozilla.org/


Documentation

Netscape Enterprise Server documentation includes the following manuals, which are available online in HTML and PDF format:


PHP Support

Netscape Enterprise Server does not directly support the PHP scripting language. Support for the PHP scripting language can be added to Enterprise Server through two APIs supported by the PHP development team: CGI and NSAPI. For performance and scalability reasons, Netscape recommends that users interested in PHP utilitize the NSAPI implementation.

For more information on PHP see:


How to Report Problems

Your feedback is welcome and extremely helpful for improving the product. Before contacting us to request assistance, please check the documentation for this release. If you need further assistance or information about Enterprise Server or if you need to report problems with this product, contact Technical Support.

So that we can best assist you in resolving problems, please be sure to include the following information:

You might also find it useful to subscribe to the following newsgroups:

snews://secnews.netscape.com
snews://secnews.netscape.server
snews://secnews.netscape.devs-server.technical
snews://secnews.netscape.devs.jsp
snews://secnews.netscape.security
snews://secnews.netscape.server.enterprise
snews://secnews.netscape.devs-nsapi
snews://secnews.netscape.devs-java

Use of Netscape Enterprise Server is subject to the terms described in the license agreement accompanying it.
Software applications: © 2001 Sun Microsystems,Inc. Some software code: © 1999, 2003 Netscape Communications Corporation. All rights reserved.

Netscape and the Netscape N logo are registered trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation in the United States and other countries. Other Netscape logos, product names, and service names are also trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation, which may be registered in other countries. Other product and brand names are the exclusive property of their respective owners.