Configuring the Document Viewer Agent


The documents that users attach to email messages are as varied as the combinations of document formats, tools, and users throughout the world. To display documents in your web browser, WebAccess must convert them to HTML. Because some documents contain totally unexpected data, WebAccess cannot convert them. In the past, in some cases, the WebAccess Agent would hang when it could not convert a document. If this occurs, the activities of all WebAccess users is interrupted.

In GroupWise 7 the new Document Viewer Agent resolves the problem by taking over the document conversion task from the WebAccess Agent, which processed these attachments itself in previous versions. The Viewer Agent, shown in Figure 11.18, can process multiple documents simultaneously. If it encounters a problem with a document, the problem does not affect its processing of other documents, nor does it affect the functioning of the WebAccess Agent. Therefore, WebAccess users no longer experience interruptions because of documents that fail to convert into HTML.

Figure 11.18. The WebAccess Document Viewer Agent console screen on NetWare offers a great overview of all the conversion tasks


The Viewer Agent is automatically installed along with the WebAccess Agent, and the WebAccess Agent manages the Viewer Agent, starting and stopping it as needed. The default configuration of the Viewer Agent is sufficient to provide basic document conversion functionality. Additional functionality can be enabled using startup switches in the Viewer Agent startup file (gwdva.dva). The startup file lists all available switches. The most helpful switches are described here:

  • Viewer Agent Web Console: As with the other GroupWise agents, you can view configuration and status information about the Viewer Agent in your web browser. To enable the Viewer Agent web console, add the /http startup switch to the Viewer Agent startup file. The default port number is 7439. Use the following URL to display the Viewer Agent Web console:

    http://server_address:7439

  • Document Quarantine: You can configure the Viewer Agent to quarantine documents that cannot be converted to HTML so that they can be examined manually if necessary. To enable the file quarantine feature, add the /hold startup switch to the Viewer Agent startup file. Documents that fail HTML conversion are then placed in the hold subdirectory that is created wherever the Viewer Agent program has been installed.

  • Document Cache: You can configure the Viewer Agent to cache documents that have already been converted to HTML. This speeds up document display when the same document is viewed multiple times and by multiple users. To enable document caching, add the /cache startup switch to the Viewer Agent startup file. This creates a cache subdirectory wherever the Viewer Agent program has been installed. Under the cache subdirectory, converted GroupWise library documents are stored in a library cache subdirectory and converted document attachments are stored in a transient cache subdirectory.

The configuration file for the Viewer Agent is calledGWDVA.DVA and the temporary files are stored in a directory called GWDVA.DIR; on NetWare both are located in the SYS:SYSTEM directory by default. The configuration file contains settings for the number of threads, logging options, HTTP parameters, file caching parameters, and quarantine; perhaps one of the most interesting is the option to specify a recipient for notifications of attachments that have been put in the quarantine. All of these settings are currently not configurable via ConsoleOne. It is expected that these parameters will be added to ConsoleOne in a future release.

On NetWare and Windows, the Viewer Agent has the same type of user interface as the WebAccess Agent. On Linux, the Viewer Agent runs only as a daemon with no user interface. You can monitor the Linux-based Viewer Agent activity by viewing its log file. Change to the Viewer Agent log file directory, and then display the end of the current log file using the following commands:

cd /var/log/novell/groupwise/gwdva tail -f mmdddva.nnn

Here, mmdd is the month and date (for example, 0318) and nnn is an incrementing extension (for example, 001 for the first log file of the day). The -f option keeps the file open and follows additions to the file so that additions to the log file appear on the screen as they occur.

You should now be comfortable configuring most of the aspects of the WebAccess gateway, including the WebAccess Agent and Application. In future sections, you'll learn how to leverage these settings to create a highly reliable, and scalable, GroupWise WebAccess gateway for your environment.



NOVELL GroupWise 7 Administrator Solutions Guide
Novell GroupWise 7 Administrator Solutions Guide
ISBN: 0672327880
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 320
Authors: Tay Kratzer

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