1NUXWDOG(1) PKI Tools NUXWDOG(1)
2
3
4
6 nuxwdog - Provides a simple watchdog process that can be used to start,
7 stop, monitor, or reconfigure a server process.
8
10 nuxwdog -f configuration_file [-i]
11
13 nuxwdog is a watchdog daemon that builds on the uxwdog service that is
14 part of the Netscape Enterprise Server (NES). nuxwdog can start, stop,
15 monitor, and reconfigure server programs, depending on the parameters
16 passed to it in its configuration file. nuxwdog opens a Unix domain
17 socket to accept requests from any server process it is managing.
18 Optionally, nuxwdog can be configured to communicate only with clients
19 that are descendants of the nuxwdog process, limiting an avenue of
20 potential access to any servers managed by the watchdog.
21
22 Some servers require a high-level of security to protect their data or
23 operations, which means (for example) that they cannot store plaintext
24 passwords in a password file to allow the server to be started
25 automatically. nuxwdog can be configured to prompt for server
26 passwords when a server first starts and then caches those passwords so
27 that nuxwdog can restart the server without intervention if the server
28 crashes.
29
30 To make it easy for clients to communicate with nuxwdog, a C/C++ shared
31 library is provided with the nuxwdog source code (libnuxwdog.so).
32 Additionally, nuxwdog provides JNI interfaces and Perl bindings to the
33 libnuxwdog.so library, so that calls can be made from Java and Perl
34 programs. For more information on this library and the client
35 interfaces, see https://fedorahosted.org/nuxwdog/wiki/HOWTO.
36
37 nuxwdog is used by Dogtag PKI to monitor and manage the subsystem
38 server processes for Java, Tomcat, and Apache servers.
39
41 -f configuration_file
42 Passes the configuration file for the service which runs the
43 subsystem. With Dogtag PKI. For the CA, OCSP, TKS, and DRM, this
44 is for the Java process. For the TPS, this is for the Apache
45 process.
46
47 -i
48 Runs the nuxwdog process in interactive mode and keeps nuxwdog open
49 in the foreground instead of running it as a daemon in the
50 background.
51
53 ExeFile
54 Gives the full path to the executable to be started.
55
56 ExeArgs
57 Passes any arguments to the executable. The first argument must be
58 the full path to the executable (the same as the value in ExeFile).
59
60 TmpDir
61 Gives the full path to the executable to be started.
62
63 ChildSecurity
64 Sets whether the child server process should only allow requests
65 from a parent (where nuxwdog is the parent). nuxwdog checks the
66 process ID for any client which sends a request to the Unix domain
67 socket and drops any message where the client is not a descendant
68 of the nuxwdog process. To allow any request, set this to 0; to
69 allow only parent or ancestor requests, sets this to 1.
70
71 ExeOut
72 Gives the file to write stdout for the server to be started.
73
74 ExeErr
75 Gives the file to write stderr for the server to be started.
76
77 ExeBackground
78 Sets whether to run the server and the nuxwdog processes in the
79 background in daemon mode after the watchdog is initialized.
80 Setting this to 1 enables daemon mode, while 0 keeps this in the
81 foreground.
82
83 PidFile
84 Gives the PID file to use to store the nuxwdog PID.
85
86 ChildPidFile
87 Gives the PID file to use to store the PID of the server process
88 managed by nuxwdog.
89
90 ExeContext
91 Sets the SELinux context in which to start the server process.
92
93 nuxwdog can be used to manage many types of server processes. For
94 Dogtag PKI, it manages Java, Tomcat, and Apache servers. For the Dogtag
95 PKI Certificate Authority, a Java-based subsystem with a Tomcat web
96 service, the configuration file identifies the appropriate JRE and
97 class paths, along with setting the output, error, and PID files. (The
98 ExeArgs argument should be all on one line.)
99
100 ExeFile /usr/lib/jvm/jre/bin/java
101 ExeArgs /usr/lib/jvm/jre/bin/java
102 -Djava.endorsed.dirs=/usr/share/tomcat5/common/endorsed
103 -classpath :/usr/lib/jvm/jre/lib/rt.jar
104 :/usr/share/java/commons-collections.jar
105 :/usr/share/tomcat5/bin/bootstrap.jar
106 :/usr/share/tomcat5/bin/commons-logging-api.jar
107 :/usr/share/java/mx4j/mx4j-impl.jar
108 :/usr/share/java/mx4j/mx4j-jmx.jar
109 :/usr/share/tomcat5/common/lib/nuxwdog.jar
110 -Dcatalina.base=/var/lib/pki-ca2
111 -Dcatalina.home=/usr/share/tomcat5
112 -Djava.io.tmpdir=/usr/share/tomcat5/temp org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap
113 start
114 TmpDir /var/lib/pki-ca2/logs/pids
115 ChildSecurity 1
116 ExeOut /var/lib/pki-ca2/logs/catalina.out
117 ExeErr /var/lib/pki-ca2/logs/catalina.out
118 ExeBackground 1
119 PidFile /var/lib/pki-ca2/logs/wd-pki-ca2.pid
120 ChildPidFile /var/run/pki-ca2.pid
121
122 For Dogtag PKI, the Token (smart card) Processing System uses an
123 Apache-based server. This example also sets the SELinux context,
124 pki_tps_t, used by the TPS subsystem processes.
125
126 ExeFile /usr/sbin/httpd.worker
127 ExeArgs /usr/sbin/httpd.worker -f /etc/pki-tps1/httpd.conf
128 TmpDir /var/lib/pki-tps1/logs/pids
129 PidFile /var/lib/pki-tps1/logs/wd-pki-tps1.pid
130 ExeContext pki_tps_t
131
133 There is a more detailed how-to article, including information on
134 available client calls for nuxwdog, at
135 https://fedorahosted.org/nuxwdog/wiki/HOWTO.
136
137 The nuxwdog server works in conjunction with the Dogtag PKI subsystems.
138 The Dogtag PKI project wiki is at http://pki.fedoraproject.org/wiki/.
139
140 For information specifically about nuxwdog, the nuxwdog project wiki is
141 located at https://fedorahosted.org/nuxwdog/wiki/[1]. The nuxwdog
142 relates directly to nuxwdog code changes and releases, rather than all
143 PKI-related updates.
144
145 Mailing lists: pki-devel@redhat.com and pki-users@redhat.com
146
147 IRC: Freenode at #dogtag-pki
148
150 The PKI tools were written and maintained by developers with Netscape
151 and now with Red Hat.
152
153 Authors: Ade Lee <alee@redhat.com>, Deon Lackey <dlackey@redhat.com>.
154
156 (c) 2010, Red Hat, Inc. Licensed under the GNU Public License version
157 2.
158
160 1. https://fedorahosted.org/nuxwdog/wiki/
161 https://fedorahosted.org/nuxwdog/wiki
162
163
164
165nuxwdog 1 November 29, 2010 NUXWDOG(1)