Perhaps this will save some other Linux sysadmin some time and frustration...
The first few times I installed SLES9 and OES servers in our environment, I clicked on "Check for Updates" during the installation. Of course the service always failed to connect to Novell's update site, but I didn't know why at first. I soon realized that it was because we were behind a proxy server, preventing the installer from connecting.
Some of the OES servers were configured to use iManager 2.5 or 2.6, but since we still use ConsoleOne for so many management tasks, I didn't realize that the proxy settings for tomcat4 were "broken".
So, I took to configuring the proxy addresses during the installation. Remember, this is SLES9. The updater still couldn't connect because there was no configuration for https:// proxy, which is what the updater actually needs in order to do its work.
Then, SLES9 SP1 (and SP2, etc) came out. The installation program was smarter and now I could put in an https:// proxy setting. However, Novell started to use "rug" to update my OES servers. OK, I had learned how to set the https:// proxy, but rug actually doesn't use those settings. Grrr. So I found a TID that showed how to set the rug proxy.
Eventually, SLES10 comes out and proxy configuration is much more behaved. In fact, it works very well. I installed OES2 as an add-on package for SLES10 recently. Along with that, I installed iManager 2.7. I spent a little more time reading the docs with iman2.7 and so I was pleased to see that it would automatically connect to Novell and download new plugins. Although this was possible in iman 2.6, as I said before, I didn't realize my proxy settings were wrong - actually, they didn't exist. So, here's a variety of proxy settings.
For SLES9/OES:
GUI - use YAST2. Click on Networks Services, then click on Proxy.
Check the box to "Enable Proxy" then fill in your http:// ftp:// and https:// proxy values. Make sure that "localhost" without the quotes is included in the No Proxy Domains box. Click OK. SLES9 before SP1 did not include the https:// proxy setting, if I recall correctly. To configure the SLES9 proxy settings via the command line, using vi, for example:
#vi /etc/sysconfig/proxy
make sure the following lines are present or add them if they're not:
PROXY_ENABLED="yes"
HTTP_PROXY="http://your.proxy.server:8080" (or whatever port is apprpriate)
HTTPS_PROXY="http://your.proxy.server:8080" (or whatever port is apprpriate, add this line if it is not present)
FTP_PROXY="http://your.proxy.server:8080" (or whatever port is apprpriate)
NO_PROXY="localhost"
For rug, at the command-line type:
#rug set-prefs proxy-url "http://your.proxy.server:8080" (or the appropriate port number)
For tomcat4, you have to edit the tomcat4.conf file and add the following lines:
# vi /opt/novell/tomcat4/bin/dtomcat4
CATALINA_OPTS="$CATALINA_OPTS -Dhttp.proxyHost=your.proxy.host"
CATALINA_OPTS="$CATALINA_OPTS -Dhttp.proxyPort=8080"
CATALINA_OPTS="$CATALINA_OPTS -Dhttp.nonProxyHosts=*.mydomain.com|localhost"
and then restart tomcat4 (# rcnovell-tomcat4 restart)
For tomcat5 (iman 2.7), edit this file and add the same three lines:
# vi /etc/sysconfig/j2ee
some references:
Getting the SLES 10 / SLED 10 Software Updater to work if you use a Proxy Server
Configuring Tomcat to use a Proxy server
Novell Doc: OES 1 - Preparing the Server for Patching - actually read section 6.2 for the rug command-line switches.
