Loading the POA

The GroupWise POA requires certain information before it will load properly. Simply typing LOAD GWPOA.NLM from a NetWare server console, for example, will result in an error message stating that the required parameters are missing. There are two ways to provide the required parameters, as described next.

Using the Startup File

When the GroupWise agent installation program ran on your server, you were prompted for some information. The install wizard, in order to create a startup file with all the information the POA needs, used this information. The name of this file is the name of the post office, truncated to eight characters, followed by the .POA extension (for example, CORPPO1.POA). To use the startup file, load the POA with the @ switch as shown here:

NetWare:

LOAD GWPOA @filename.POA

Thus, for the CORPPO1 post office, the command is as follows:

LOAD GWPOA @CORPPO1.POA

Linux:

/opt/novell/groupwise/agents/bin/gwpoa @../share/filename.poa

Thus, for the CORPPO1 post office, the command is as follows:

/opt/novell/groupwise/agents/bin/gwpoa @../share/corppo1.poa

Tip

On NetWare the command assumes that the GroupWise POA software is installed into the SYS:SYSTEM directory on a NetWare server, and the CORPPO1.POA file is also in the SYS:SYSTEM directory. The name of the *.POA file is not particularly importantit could be called MICKEY.POA or MICKEY.TXTthe POA doesn't care.

Using Command-Line Switches

Another way to provide the POA with the information it needs is to use command-line switches. These switches take the general format of / parameter=value. On the Linux platform the leading slash (/) is replaced by a dash (-). Neither the parameter nor the value strings are case-sensitive for the NetWare or Windows POA. On the Linux platform, switches and value strings are case-sensitive. A rule of thumb for the Linux POA is to keep all switches and parameters lowercase. The only exception is the -home switch for the Linux POA. If the path to the post office's home does have any uppercase characters, this should be reflected in the home switch.

Any number of switches can be placed on the command line used to load the POA, and they can even be used in conjunction with the @ switch described in the preceding section.

The only required switch for the POA is the home switch, which gives the agent the path to the post office to be served. The syntax is as follows at a NetWare server:

LOAD GWPOA /HOME-volume:\path

For a post office residing in the PO directory on the MAIL volume of a NetWare server, the command line would look like this:

LOAD GWPOA /HOME=mail:\po

For a post office on a Linux server, the syntax would look something like this:

/opt/novell/groupwise/agents/bin/gwpoa home=/mail/po

Learning the Switches

Almost all the switches the POA will recognize are listed in the startup file that gets installed when the GroupWise agents are installed. By now you've probably figured out that the startup file is just a shortcut for passing command-line switches to the POA. Any switch found in this file can be entered on the command line used to load the agent.

Tip

You can discover most of the switches for the GroupWise NLM POA by loading the GroupWise POA with the /? switch, as in the following example:

LOAD GWPOA /?

You can discover most of the switches for the GroupWise Linux POA by loading the GroupWise POA with the help switch, as in the following example:

/opt/novell/groupwise/agents/bin/gwpoa help

When to Use Switches

When loading a GroupWise POA, you usually do so with a command line such as this:

NetWare:

LOAD GWPOA @CORPPO.POA

Linux:

/opt/novell/groupwise/agents/bin/gwpoa @../share/corppo.poa

The CORPPO.POA file is just an ASCII file that contains a listing of all the documented GroupWise POA switches that can possibly be enabled. Ideally, the only switch that should be enabled is the home switch:

NetWare:

/home=vol1:\CORPPO

Linux:

-home=/mail/corppo

Most of the switches map to a location in ConsoleOne where the functionality that the switch is mapping to in the GroupWise POA code is configurable from ConsoleOne. For those switches, use ConsoleOne. For example, rather than having the /httpport=8300 switch enabled in the startup file of the POA, you edit the POA in ConsoleOne and configure the HTTP port field on the Network Address property page of the POA. By managing the features that are mapped to settings in ConsoleOne, it's much easier to make changes to the POA. Most of these changes can happen on the fly when you make changes from ConsoleOne. With the GroupWise POA, however, when you make a change to the startup file (CORPPO.POA, in this example), you must manually bring down the POA and restart it.

Tip

Although the Linux POA requires a dash (-) for switches passed on the command line, switches in a startup file use the forward slash (/). The reason Linux requires dashes is that the forward slash character is reserved by Linux to reflect file paths.