F.A.Q - Installation and use of the ESUP WebDAV server

This document deal with the frequently asked questions ;-)


Thomas Bellembois   
University of Rennes 1

Dates de modification
Revision 1.0 2006.03.03 : Thomas Bellembois (University of Rennes1) first release - Note that this page will not be versionned because it is often updated.
Revision 1.1 2007.04.03 : Rui Miguel Valério (University of Rennes 1)
1. Server
1.1. I can not connect to the server or the access is forbidden
1.2. How to resolve the encodage problems ?
2. Administration tool
2.1. What about the cl parameter of the run script ?
2.2. I have created homedirs but I can not access them
3. Miscellaneous questions
3.1. Sometimes the quota is exceeded while uploading a file ? What is wrong ?
3.2. Can one use another Tomcat server than that provided in package?
4. Different WebDAV clients
5. Links

1. Server

1.1. I can not connect to the server or the access is forbidden

This is often because the authentication layer is not well configured or you are not allowed to access the resource. Configure carefully your build.properties file.

Watch the server logs - a successfull request is like :

TP-Processor51, 03-mars-2006 11:11:48, bourges, PROPFIND, 207 "Multi-Status", 7 ms, /files/injac/res_proj_cri/

If you have problems with just some webdav clients, look at Recommended configuration section of Installation chapter

1.2. How to resolve the encodage problems ?

In order to resolve the encodage problems, you must specify the encodage needed at the server.

setenv LANG "fr_FR.utf8"
setenv LANGUAGE "fr_FR.utf8"

2. Administration tool

2.1. What about the cl parameter of the run script ?

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, the administration client was designed to be run using a graphical user interface or a command-line mode.

The G.U.I. had to be run using the run.* -gr command and the command-line mode using the run.* -cl command.

But only the command-line mode is currently implemented.

2.2. I have created homedirs but I can not access them

It is often due to a wrong pattern file. You will find a good sample file in the user guide.

3. Miscellaneous questions

3.1. Sometimes the quota is exceeded while uploading a file ? What is wrong ?

Nothing is wrong. The ESUP WebDAV server has a soft quota management system. It means that a quota can be exceeded at most 1 time.

The killing question is : "Why having developped such a quota management system ?"

We did not intend to develop a soft quota management system. The problem is that the quota listener relies on the content-length HTTP header to check if a resource to put/copied/moved on the server will leads to an overquota. But the content-length HTTP header is optionnal and in this way, the listener can not check the overquota "on the fly" and just check if the quota was already exceeded just before the action in progress.

3.2. Can one use another Tomcat server than that provided in package?

One can use another Tomcat server than that provided in package. Nevertheless, one must modify the server.xml file of Tomcat. (The additions are in bold)

<Connector port="8080"
maxThreads="150" minSpareThreads="25" maxSpareThreads="75"
enableLookups="false" redirectPort="8443" acceptCount="100"
debug="0" connectionTimeout="20000"
disableUploadTimeout="true"
URIEncoding="UTF-8"/>

<Connector port="8009"
enableLookups="false" redirectPort="8443" debug="0"
protocol="AJP/1.3" URIEncoding="UTF-8"/>

4. Different WebDAV clients

5. Links