APPX Connection Manager For Unix/Linux

The APPX Connection Manager command is used to configure and manage APPX Connection Services.

An APPX Connection Service:

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

Installing the APPX Connection Manager Command (appxdsvc)

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

The appxdsvc 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 appxdsvc command will be "/usr/local/appx/tools/appxdsvc".

The appxdsvc command must run with the permissions of the root user.  Therefore, the owner of the appxdsvc command should be the root user and the SUID bit should be set so that the appxdsvc 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 appxdsvc command, the following commands can be run by the root user to set the necessary owner and permissions for the appxdsvc command.

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

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

ls -l appxdsvc

The correct permissions should be as follows:

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

Creating an APPX Connection Service

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

Initial Configuration

The -install option of the appxdsvc command is used to initially create, configure, and start an instance of the APPX Connection Service. The following steps are performed:

1. The configuration files are created(ini and env)
2. The O/S service is created,
3. The service is started

# 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 Service must be configured and started.

Configuration Changes

Managing APPX Connection Services

Managing With the appxdsvc Command

Managing As an O/S Service

Usage

NAME
uappxd

SYNOPSIS (Configuration)
appxdsvc -install -port=PORT [options]... [VARIABLE=VALUE]...
appxdsvc -modify -serviceName=SERVICENAME [options]... [VARIABLE=VALUE]...
appxdsvc -remove {SERVICENAME | -serviceName=SERVICENAME}

SYNOPSIS (Management)
appxdsvc [-start | -stop | -restart | -status] {SERVICENAME | -serviceName=SERVICENAME}

DESCRIPTION
appxdsvc is used to configure and manage instances of the APPX Connection 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)

OPTIONS (Configuration)
   -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.

OPTIONS (Management)
   -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.

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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