Installation

BlueZone Web-to-Host

How to Install BlueZone Web-to-Host on a Z/OS or OS/390 HTTP Server

Introduction

BlueZone Web to Host can be installed on any web server including the IBM HTTP server that ships with Z/OS and OS/390.  The IBM HTTP server is based on Apache and runs in Open MVS.  The concepts are identical to installing and running BlueZone Web-to-Host on a UNIX server.  The only difference is that HTML files must be uploaded to the mainframe as ASCII so they are converted to EBCDIC properly.  All other files are treated as binary data.  Once BlueZone Web-to-host is installed on the IBM HTTP server, all additional configuration and management functions are identical to any other web server.

BlueZone Web-to-Host does not use any active code on the web server, but uses simple static HTML web pages with some client side JavaScript for browser detection.  The entire BlueZone Web-to-Host installation uses only about 6 megabytes of disk space to support all BlueZone emulators and clients.  This can be made significantly smaller if unused emulators and clients are eliminated from the installation.

Procedure

In the following exercise, commands to be entered are shown on a separate line in blue type.  It is necessary (but not shown) to send an "ENTER" after each command.

Step 1 - Upload the BlueZone Web-to-Host Files to the Web Server

  1. Configure BlueZone FTP or other FTP client to connect to your mainframe.

  2. Change to the MVS Open Edition (OMVS) file system directory.  On the SEAGULL mainframe this is accomplished by changing the directory to /USR1/ by issuing the following command:

cd /usr1/

 

  1. Create a directory for BlueZone Web-to-Host called /bluezone/ by issuing the Make Directory command:

mkd bluezone

 

  1. Switch to the new BlueZone directory by issuing a Change Directory command:

cd bluezone

 

  1. On a Windows PC, launch the BlueZone CD-ROM, and using Windows Explorer, view it’s contents, specifically the BlueZone Web-to-Host folder.

For your convenience, we have provided .tar and .gz files which contain the entire contents of the BlueZone Web-to-Host folder.

These files are called bzw2h.tar and bzw2h.tar.gz

  1. FTP the .tar or .gz file to your web server to the /bluezone/ directory.

To expand the .gz file type:

gzip -c -d bzw2h.tar.gz | tar xvf -

  1.  

To expand the .tar file type:

tar -xvf bzw2h.tar

 

  1. Upload the SEAGULL Activation File (seagull.saf) you received from your Seagull Software Account Manager or Seagull Software Order Administration, as BINARY and replace the existing seagull.saf file.  The SAF file contains license information and is required for the BlueZone session to run once it is downloaded to the browser.

NOTE  If you don't have a Seagull Activation File, or you don't know what a Seagull Activation File is, you can skip this step and continue with the installation.  You can install the SAF file at a later time. Click here for help in obtaining and manually installing a SAF file.

Step 2 - Configure the Web Server

Once all the directories and files have been uploaded to the host, the permissions on those directories must be set and the httpd.conf file must be changed to allow access to BlueZone Web-to-Host.

To change the permissions on the BlueZone Web to Host directory:

  1. Using BlueZone Mainframe Display or other terminal emulator, connect to the mainframe hosting the web server.

  2. Enter MVS OpenEdition (OMVS).  From the ISPF Primary Option Menu, type:

M

 

  1. The Additional IBM products Panel will display.  To enter OMVS, type:

10

  1. At the OMVS prompt type:

cd /usr1/

 

The prompt will change to /usr1: >

  1. At the prompt type:

chmod -R 755 bluezone

 

  1. At the prompt type

cd bluezone

 

to change directory to /usr1/bluezone/

  1. At the prompt type

chmod -R 755 *

 

to change the permissions on the files and directories in /usr1/bluezone/

To update the web server configuration file, httpd.conf:

  1. From the OMVS prompt change directories to the IBM HTTP Server directory.  On the SEAGULL mainframe this is accomplished by typing:

cd /web/httpd1/

 

(your directory may be different)

  1. At the prompt type:

ls -1

 

to list all the files in the directory.  Look for httpd.conf

  1. Open the http.conf file for editing to add the BlueZone Web-to-Host PASS directive.  At the prompt type:

oedit httpd.conf

 

  1. Search the httpd.conf file for the PASS directive by typing:

F PASS 1

 

on the command line.  Use F5 to find more instances of PASS.

  1. At the beginning of the line for the next to the last PASS directive type:

I3

 

to insert 3 blank lines.

  1. In the second blank line type:

PASS  /bluezone/*     /usr1/bluezone/*

 

This allows the URL users type to be:

http://yourhostname/bluezone/default.htm

 

rather than:

http://yourhostname/usr1/bluezone/default.htm

 

  1. Press F3 to save and exit.

CAUTION!  If you plan to access BlueZone Web to Host through a dialup connection, the HTTP server OutputTimeout value must be increased from the default value of 2 minutes to 10 minutes.  The HTTP server must be restarted for these changes to take effect.

The OutputTimeout value can be found under the “Timeout Directives” section of the httpd.conf file.

Step 3 - Testing the Default Connections

  1. From a Windows workstation, launch your browser.

  2. Type in the URL of your web server, followed by /bluezone (or whatever you called the folder where BlueZone Web-to-Host is installed).

Example: http://63.69.143.23/bluezone  or  http://www.myhost.com/bluezone

If your web server is set up properly, the default.htm page will launch.  To see a non-working example of the default.htm page click here.

  1. Click the Default Web-to-Host Download link.  The Web-to-Host Control Module will download and install.  Then, a web page with a BlueZone Launch Pad will be displayed.  The Launch Pad will contain one of each of the BlueZone emulation clients.

  2. Launch a Mainframe Display session by double clicking the Mainframe Display icon.  Since the default configuration file does not contain any host connection information, the session will launch, but will not connect to a host.

  3. To test your host connection, select Session:Configure from the BlueZone MenuBar.  The Session Configure dialog will be displayed.

  4. Click the Configure button on the right.  Click the New button to create a new session.  The Define New Connection dialog will be displayed.

  5. Give the connection a name, then fill in Host Address, LU Name (if needed) and TCP Port.  Click the OK button.

  6. Click the OK button two more times to close the dialog.

  7. From the MenuBar, select Session:Connect.  Your session should now be connected to your host.

  8. To save the session, select File:Save from the MenuBar.

  9. If you have both Internet Explorer users and Netscape users, be sure to test with both browsers.

NOTE  When conducting browser tests, it’s okay to run IE and Netscape at the same time however, you can not launch a BlueZone display session from one browser then launch the same BlueZone display session from the other.  The second session will not launch.  You must close down the first BlueZone session (not the browser) before launching the same BlueZone session with the other browser.

Congratulations!  You have successfully installed and tested BlueZone-Web-to-Host.

Next Steps:

How to Install the Web-to-Host Wizard for Local Publishing