[Koha] What's up with That?

[David Nind]

Hi Phillip.

On 22 December 2013 13:59, Phillip Ponchot <pponchot at live.com> wrote:

> Thanks David, you were right.  The actual issue is that there are 3 webs
> on a new server.  The default, the koha staff and the koha public and all
> of these have to be addressed in the dns or a hosts file.  I've been able
> to attach to the staff and public side on the server now, but from a remote
> computer, I'm only able to get to the staff even though I've changed out
> the hosts file on the remote computer.
>

Line 370 of the current manual installation instructions for Koha on Ubuntu
mentions that access to the Koha site using the default configuration (for
both the public and administration sites) are limited to connections from
127.0.1.1 (or 127.0.0.1). Finding and changing the setting that does this
may solve the problem.

The current version of manual installation instructions for Ubuntu are here:
http://git.koha-community.org/gitweb/?p=koha.git;a=blob;f=INSTALL.ubuntu;hb=HEAD
(This is linked from
http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Category:Installation)

I've never experienced this in Debian though.

Note: using the packages is generally the recommended way to install Koha
on Debian or Ubuntu, not manually installing.

There is generally only one Apache config file needed (on Debian anyway),
unless you have deliberately split it up into separate files for the public
site and the administration site (normally the administration site is on
port 8080 and the configuration for both sites is in the same file).

The koha-sites.conf file is crucial in how you setup the public and staff
> side and the instructions are rather vague concerning this file and how it
> works.  I was able to get another tech guy from Butte, Mt to give me some
> pointers and I've spent today playing with the Host file and
> Koha-Sites.conf.  Also some changes in this file pertains to how the
> /etc/apache2/ports.conf is setup and of course with vague instructions, its
> all trial and error.
>
> Thank you so much for your comments as they have helped me understand how
> this who thing works.
>

Your welcome!

Koha has many components (operating system, database, webserver and Koha
itself), and this can present a steep learning curve. Normally packaged
installations are very straight forward, so not sure what has not worked in
this instance. Once you do get things installed and setup it will be worth
it though. I normally have to install things from scratch several times to
get the hang of things... (I normally use VirtualBox to install and setup
things on my laptop when trying them out).

When I get a chance I will try the installation on Ubuntu using packages
and suggest any changes to the instructions.


> One question that I have however, is this.  Is Opac the public side or
> something else?
>

The OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue) is the public side - what your
library customers get to see. What is normally referred to as the
'intranet' is the administration side - library staff use this to manage a
library and to configure most aspects of Koha.

Thanks again,
>