APPX Connection Manager For Unix/Linux

When and instance of the APPX Connection Manager service is started, a daemon is spawned which waits for and processes connection requests from the various types of APPX clients.

The APPX Connection Manager daemon:

1. Waits for a connection request by an APPX Client;
2. Validates the user ID and the password provided by the APPX Client;
3. Initiates an APPX session for the user who requested a connection.

Installing the APPX Connection Manager Command (uappxd)

The APPX Connection Manager command (uappxd) is installed automatically when you install APPX on your system. The installer sets the necessary owner and permissions on the uappxd command.  So, there is nothing additional that you need to do to install the APPX Connection Manager command. However, after you install APPX, you will need to run the uappxd command to configure and start at least one instance of the APPX Connection Manager service before any client connections may be established.

The uappxd command is installed into the "tools" subdirectory of the directory where you installed APPX. So, if you installed APPX in "/usr/local/appx", the full pathname to run the uappxd command will be "/usr/local/appx/tools/uappxd".

The uappxd command must run with the permissions of the root user.  Therefore, the owner of the uappxd command should be the root user and the SUID bit should be set so that the uappxd command can be run by users other than root but still be run with the permissions of root.

In the event that it is necessary to reset the permissions on the uappxd command, the following commands can be run by the root user to set the necessary owner and permissions on the uappxd command.

cd /usr/local/appx/tools
chown root uappxd
chmod 775 uappxd
chmod u+s uappxd

You can check the permissions of the uappxd command by running the following command:

ls -l uappxd

The correct permissions should be as follows:

-rwsrwxr-x 1 root root    636843 Jul 11 07:31 uappxd

Configuring an Instance of the APPX Connection Manager

On Unix/Linux systems, an instance of the APPX Connection Manager is initially configured by running the "uappxd" command. At least one instance of the APPX Connection Manager must be configured and started before an APPX Client can initiate an APPX session. You may configure and start as many instances of the APPX Connection Manager as you desire. However, each concurrently running instance must be configured to listen for connection requests on a different TCP/IP port.

Initial Configuration

When the install option is used to configure and instance of the APPX Configuration Manager, the following steps are performed:

1. A service is installed
2. An environment (.env) file is created
3. An initialization (.ini) file is created

# Appx connection manager environment variables
#
#   The entries in this file will become
#   environment variables in the engines
#   spawned by this service
#
#   blank lines are ignored
#
#   anything following a '#' is treated as a comment
#
#   letter case IS important in this file
# --------------------------------------------------
APPX_KEYMAP=WINDOWS
$SSL_TYPE=PLAINTEXT

Before clients can connect to an APPX system, at least one instance of the APPX Connection Manager must be configured and started.

Configuration Changes

Managing the APPX Connection Manager

Managing As a Service

Managing With the uappxd Command

Usage

NAME
uappxd

SYNOPSIS
uappxd -install -port=PORT [options]... [VARIABLE=VALUE]...
uappxd -modify -serviceName=SERVICENAME [options]... [VARIABLE=VALUE]...
uappxd -remove {SERVICENAME | -serviceName=SERVICENAME}

uappxd [-start | -stop | -restart | -status] {SERVICENAME | -serviceName=SERVICENAME}

DESCRIPTION
uappxd is used to configure and manage instances of the APPX Connection Manager service.

To create a log monitor process, include --serviceType=logmonitor on the command-line
The optional -AM argument determines the authentication method
  Acceptable values are 'OS-User', 'Appx-User', and 'HT-User(filename)'
  With 'Appx-User' authentication, passwords are validated against
  the Appx user file
  With 'OS-User' authentication, passwords are validated by Windows
  With 'HT-User(filename)' authentication, passwords are validated against
  the named file (which you can maintain the Apache's htpasswd utility
  If you choose 'Appx-User' authentication, you do not need a separate OS user
  account for each Appx user
The -displayName is optional - if you don't supply a display name
we will append the port number to the end of the service name and
use that as the display name. (The display name appears in the
Services control panel)

SERVICE MANAGEMENT OPTIONS
   -start | <_blank_>
      Start an instance of the Connection Manager service using the configuration information in the SERVICENAME.ini and the SERVICENAME.env files.

   -stop
      Stop the instance of the Connection Manager service that was started with the SERVICENAME.ini file.

   -restart
      Restart (stop and then start) the instance of the Connection Manager that was started with the SERVICENAME.ini file.

   -status
      Report the status of the instance of the Connection Manager that was started with the SERVICENAME.ini file.

SERVICE CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
   -install [options]... [VARIABLE=VALUE]...
      Configure and start a new Connection Manager service.  The options which follow are used in conjunction with the -install option:

   -remove -servicename=SERVICENAME

   -modify

      -port=PORT
         [Required] Configure the service to listen for connection requests on the specified TCP/IP PORT number.  This option is required with the -install option.  You may choose any TCP/IP PORT number that is not reserved or already being used on your system.

      -name=SERVICENAME
         [Optional] The specified SERVICENAME wiil be the name assigned to the Connection Manager service script that is created and to the related configuration files.  The configuration file will have a file extension of "ini".  If this option is omitted, the default SERVICENAME will be "appxd" followed by a "-" and the specified port number, e.g "appxd-8060".

      VARIABLE=VALUE
         [Optional] You can include a space-separated list of environment variables at the end of the command line when you use the -install option.  These environment variables will be saved in the .env file that is created and will be given to the environment of the appx sessions that are started by the Connection Manager.

EXAMPLES
Configure and start a new instance of the Connection Manager that will listen for connection requests on port 8060:

   uappd -install -port=8060
         Warning - the engine that you named has the setuid bit enabled,
                   you may not want that bit set for the authentication
                   method that you have chosen (OS-User)
                    To turn off the setuid bit, chmod u-s ../appx
         Configuration written to:  appxd-8060.ini
         Environment written to:    appxd-8060.env
         Service script written to: /etc/rc.d/init.d/appxd-8060

   uappxd -install -port=8060 -name=appx8060 -displayName="Appx-Production(8060)" -engine=/usr/local/appx/appx APPXPATH=c:\appx\data APPX_KEYMAP=Windows

Display the status of an instance of the Connection Manager:

   uappxd -status appx8060

Shutdown a running instance of the Connection Manager:

   uappxd -stop appx8060

Start a previously configured instance of the Connection Manager:

   uappxd -start appx8060

uappxd -install -serviceName=name -displayName=name -port=port -engine=path -AM=method

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