Loop-back supported under Windows?

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John Costa

Veteran Member

Posts: 154

12/14/2007 12:47 AM

I apologize if I'm posting this in the wrong forum but it seemed like the closest spot.

My development system consists of two Windows Server 2003 boxes. One server has the Environment (8.0.3, service pack 7), the applications (8.1.0, service pack 6) and the database (SQL-Server 2000). My second server includes the web pieces including Tomcat 4.0.6, Portal, etc.

Can someone tell me if a loop-back configuration is supported under Windows Server 2003?

I spent 9+ hours today trying to move all web services from the second box to the first one. In the end, I wanted to end up with the environment, apps, database, and web services all on the same box (it's only a development server used by me and one other person so performance is not a major concern). I was able to get Tomcat up & running (as a service) and verified that IIS 6.0 and the isapi_redirect filter was working. I made sure all of my properties files were good, at least according to the documentation.

However, I cannot get any servlets to execute. I am able to bring up my environment settings under Internet Explorer and I can bring up the Portal Home page. But anytime I make a call requring a connection to the environment or database, IE seems to go into an infinite loop and never returns anything. All I see is the address bar and status bar constantly refreshing with the servlet call.

As expected, Lawson GSC is refusing to help because system reconfiguration problems fall outside of their scope of responsibility. So I'm on my own. Tonight I was going through the Technology Patch installation guide for Windows (TECPIG-803W-01) to see if there was anything special I needed to do for a Lawson "local" configuration. On page 6 of the document when you are completing the Installation Worksheet, there's an entry asking you to provide a value of yes or no for a Lawson "local" config. It specifically states that "local server configurations are not supported on Windows." Does this mean that a loop-back configuration is not possible under Windows Server 2003 or am I confusing this with something else?
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JohnC - Wichita, KS

Can someone please help me out here? I need to know if a local "loop-back" configuration is possible under Windows. If it is, can someone provide me with some pointers or tips on what to do? My brain is exhausted and I'm wondering if everything I worked on today trying to get this to work was for naught.

John Henley

Senior Member

Posts: 3348

12/14/2007 1:06 PM

Your configuration is certainly a valid, and widely-used approach. The "local loopback" really just means that you have an IOSRE (web server) and also an IOSRS (app server) on the same box. It used to be in the 7.x days of LOGAN/IOS that you had to choose between IOS (true local) or IOSRS/IOSRE (local app server, remote web server...i.e. this was called "LOGAN Remote"). With 8.x and Tomcat, the IOS/"true local" was eliminated, and there always needs to be a connection between IOSRS and IOSRE--whether it is on the same box, or different boxes, doesn't really matter. The "local loopback" approach usually uses 127.0.0.1 or "localhost" as the way of connecting...is that how you have it configured?

John Costa

Veteran Member

Posts: 154

12/14/2007 1:29 PM

Thanks John, I was hoping you would respond. Yes, I have all of my configuration and properties files set to 127.0.0.1. I'm going to try moving the IOSRE folder back over again and this time recongfigure the config/properties files using the true server IP address. I hope that will give me different results.

I'll let you know my results shortly.
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JohnC - Wichita, KS

John Costa

Veteran Member

Posts: 154

12/14/2007 3:12 PM

Well, no go. I still get the same exact thing, what appears to be a looping call to the environment. I'm lost as to what to try next.
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JohnC - Wichita, KS

John Costa

Veteran Member

Posts: 154

12/14/2007 4:32 PM

Referring to KB article 549041, I am able to execute userenv.exe directly from a DOS command line. However, when I try to run it from IE, it keeps going into a loop. The address bar get's updated to "http://localhost/lawson/office.index.html". The status bar cycles from showing "Opening page http://localhost/cgi-laws...reUrl=/lawson/office" to "Done" (but very rapidly). It's got to be some sort of redirect issue, but I'm going absolutely crazy. I know this is gonna be a simple fix but I just can't find it.
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JohnC - Wichita, KS

John Costa

Veteran Member

Posts: 154

12/14/2007 4:42 PM

Referring to KB article 100654, I cannot execute "http://localhost:8080/servlet/Profile?". I get a Tomcat error back saying "Cannot allocate servlet instance for path /servlet/profile". Still researching...
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JohnC - Wichita, KS

John Costa

Veteran Member

Posts: 154

12/14/2007 5:56 PM

Another bread crumb...Checking logan.log on the IOSRS side, I keep gettng the same error repeatedly: Socket information not read, no such file or directory (2).

What would this error mean and where is it corrected?
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JohnC - Wichita, KS

John Henley

Senior Member

Posts: 3348

12/14/2007 9:26 PM

I'd suspect a problem with the Tomcat servlet mapping to IIS, perhaps the workers.properties file.

See the troubleshooting diagrams here (although they are for Unix, you should be able to translate them to Windows):
https://www.danalytics.co.../archive/2004-10.htm

John Costa

Veteran Member

Posts: 154

12/14/2007 11:47 PM

Well, I finally figured it out. It turns out I had two problems (or at least I think I did).

Problem 1: I needed to have Tomcat installed on a physical drive on the server, not on an external drive array. My Dell servers were purchased with small disk drives (10gb), barely enough to hold the operating system. To accomodate the Lawson components, we use an external drive array. Each of my servers have a 200 gb drive 'mapped' to them via the array. Although they do appear to the operating system as local drives, in reality they are not. To preserve disk space on drive C:, I decided to set-up TomCat on the arrayed drive (drive L:). After tinkering unsuccessfully with the xml files, properties files, etc. for the past two days, I thought I would try one more thing before I decided to shoot myself. I put TomCat on the C: drive. After I verifed the contents of the configuration files, I rebooted the server. Lo and behold, I tried to log into Portal and got a new error! (could not authenticate user) At least now I had something to go on!

Problem 2: Since I am using IIS with TomCat, I had to set up my web site with very specific permissions for the folders. For example, I had to set the website itself to use anonymous authentication. My virtual folder (where the isapi redirect is located) had to be set up with basic authentication. The cgi-lawson directory had to be set to Basic Authentication. Lastly. the Lawson directory had to be set to Anonymous access.

After one last reboot, everything is working great. I now have a development system that is completely stand-alone with all components installed locally. More importantly, I have freed up a server that I will clean-up next week in preparation for an install of Websphere 6.1. I just hope that it has no problem recognizing and working with disk drives from an external array.

I'm gonna go put my gun away now.
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JohnC - Wichita, KS