NorthStar 1.6 Documentation
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2.4. Installation Procedure

2.4.1. Choosing an Installation Directory

To install NorthStar you need to pick a directory for the public Perl script to reside and a directory for the NorthStar configuration files and library files to reside. The public directory can be any directory that is accessible by your webserver, however, the private directory should be one of the following:

/usr/NorthStar (Default)
/usr/local/NorthStar
/opt/NorthStar

If you would like to put all the NorthStar files under one directory you can, however, your webserver should be configured to block access to the configuration files to prevent your database passwords from being revealed. If you would like to install into a directory that is not listed above you will have to edit the NorthStar.cgi file by hand and add your directory to the @searchdir array around line 21. For the purpose of this document we will assume the installation directory is /usr/NorthStar

2.4.2. Unpacking the NorthStar Source

We will assume that you have already downloaded the latest source package as described in the "Downloading the NorthStar Source" section above. After downloading the file execute the following commands to unpack the archive:

$ cd /usr
$ gzip -dc NorthStar-x-x.tar.gz | tar -xvf -

You should now have the NorthStar package untared and ready to install.

2.4.3. Configuring NorthStar

Now that we have unpacked the NorthStar system were ready to set the parameters that NorthStar will need to run. This configuration is handled by the file NorthStar.conf in your /usr/NorthStar directory. The file format should be pretty straightforward and comments are included in the NorthStar.conf.sample file to explain what each configuration item means. A detailed table of each configuration directive and it's meaning is given below. To edit the configuration file using vi enter the following command:

$ vi /usr/NorthStar/NorthStar.conf

Once you have edited the configuration file to meet your needs save it and we'll continue to setting up the database schema for NorthStar

Table 2-1. NorthStar Configuration Reference

Section	Directive	Description
Global	AdminEmail	The email address of the local NorthStar administrator
Global	ScriptURL	The URL to be used to access the NorthStar program
Global	InstallDir	The directory that NorthStar is installed in
Global	TemplateURL	The relative URL used to access templates from a web browser
Global	ShowAllMaskLens	This option is a small aesthetic option to enable showing all CIDR mask lengths in dropdowns (normally the /31 length is not shown because it is totally unusable).
Database	DatabaseDriver	The DBI Database Driver. Change this to the DBI driver that you would like to use.
Database	DatabaseHost	The hostname of your database server
Database	DatabasePort	The port that is running your database software
Database	DatabaseName	The name of the database used to store NorthStar data.
Database	DatabaseUser	The username used to access the database
Database	DatabasePass	The password used to access the database

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