Technical Support

Internet Exchange Frequently Asked Questions

Common IEMS Installation Problems

How Do I Change The Administrator Password?
The system administrator may change the default username and password. To do this, follow the steps below:

For Linux:

  • Open a root shell. Once the # prompt appears, type:
      htpasswd -c /etc/httpd/user.iems.administrator
  • Specify the administrator name for IEMS
  • Enter the administrator password

For Windows:

  • Go to C:\Program Files\IMA\IEMS 7\Apache\bin
  • Run the program htpasswd.exe to change the password for the administrator account
  • After starting the htpasswd.exe program, it will bring up a window asking to enter a new password for administrator. Enter the new password in the requested fields. This creates the file: C:\Program FIles\IMA\IEMS 7\Apache\bin\users which is used to store user/password names. Then copy the file users to the directory C:\Program Files\IMA\IEMS 7\Apache
  • To change the name of the administrator account, simply edit the above mentioned users file and change the name administrator to a new name.

I Have Installed IEMS on Linux But Cannot Login as Administrator
The Internet Exchange Messaging Server (IEMS) uses Apache as the backend web server. For authentication, the file /etc/httpd/user.iems.administrator is consulted. In recent distributions, such as RedHat 8.0 (which also ships standard with Apache Version 2) this file cannot be read by the web server. The reason is that the file by default is owned by the user root with restricted permissions. As the security is tighter on more recent releases, it is necessary to change the owner of this file to the UID/GID of the apache process.

To accomplish this, log in as root, and run the following commands:

    # chown apache.apache /etc/httpd/user.iems.administrator
    # /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd restart

I Get Error Messages When Starting Apache
The IEMS Apache include file iems.httpd.conf is installed assuming that both the user and administrative modules are configured to be the only services provided by Apache, and that they both reside on port 80. At the same time, the IEMS Apache configuration file is layed out to make it simple to move the user and/or administrative modules to a port other than 80 (but still it assumes that no other apache services are being offered).

The configuration file accomplishes this by defining two separate _default_ sections - one for the administration modules and one for user modules. By default, both are configured for the standard HTTP port 80. In some installations, when Apache starts up, it complains about duplicate _default_ definitions. If IEMS is the only service Apache is using, it is safe to ignore this warning. If you are trying to run multiple services with Apache, see the next section for a better solution to this problem.

The warning messages have been corrected in the next version of the IEMS Apache configuration file, which will be incorporated into the next release.

I Need To Run Other Services Using Apache in Addition to IEMS
The IEMS Apache configuration file supplied with IEMS 6.0 and before assumes that the machine will only be used for IEMS, and that no other web services are to be provided. If you need to run additional services with IEMS, or need a more robust configuration file, please download an updated version of the iems.httpd.conf file.

This configuration file should be installed in place of the existing IEMS configuration file - /etc/httpd/conf/iems.httpd.conf. This file is self documenting - so instructions for configuration for different common scenarios is provided in the file itself. In addition, this configuration file can be used as the basis for both SSL and non-SSL configurations. Rather than trying to redefine _default_ sections, this approach utilizes Apache's Virtual Host capabilities, allowing for complete control of IP address, Port assignments, and naming for both the administrative modules as well as IEMS user modules, while at the same time allowing for the concurrent provisions of non-IEMS web services.

After Installing and Configuring IEMS and Apache, I Still Cannot Get a Respose From the Server
Depending on how Linux was installed and configured, there is a good chance that the firewall rules are configured to deny access to the web server (port 80). To see if this is a problem, shut down all firewall rules (IPCHAINS or IPTABLES) and then retry to connect to the web server. If this solves the problem, then the appropriate firewall rules will need to be modified to allow web related traffic into the machine.

I'm Planning To Install on Mandrake Linux Release 9.1 - Are There Any Issues With This Distribution?
IEMS has been tested on Mandrake 9.1 and aside from a minor installation issue, runs well. The problem has to do with the default Apache configuration file, which is /etc/httpd/conf/httpd2.conf under 9.1. The IEMS installer assumes the configuration file will be named httpd.conf.

If you are reading this before installing IEMS, simply run the following command:

    # ln /etc/httpd/conf/httpd2.conf /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
Be sure to link these two files rather than a rename. Doing the later will break the Apache startup script /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd. If you are reading this after installing IEMS, simply append the following line to the end of the httpd2.conf file:

    include "/etc/httpd/conf/iems.httpd.conf"
If you have not already done so, it is also a good idea to replace the iems.httpd.conf file in the IEMS distribution with the updated version prior to configuration.