Configure the application server

There are several ways to configure the application server refdbd to your needs. Two of these ways will modify the behaviour at startup, while the remaining two ways will reconfigure the server only for the duration of the current run.

Configuration at startup

There are two ways to permanently change the refdbd configuration. First, you can edit the configuration file which holds the default values. Second, you can modify the command line parameters in the script that starts refdbd in the first place (e.g. an init.d script).

Reconfiguring a running refdbd process

Again there are two ways to reconfigure an already running refdbd server. The recommended way is to send a HANGUP signal to the server (kill -HUP pid) after editing the configuration file. You can send the signal either manually or use the refdbctl script instead. This of course requires that you have a shell on the machine running refdbd. This should not be a problem if you sit in front of that machine. If you don't, and you can't do a remote login (e.g. because it is not supported, as on Windows), this won't help. In that case you may use the second possibility. refdb supports remote administration via refdba if refdbd is started with the appropriate parameter. This allows you to use the refdba confserv command to reconfigure the server.

Note: The current implementation of the access control to use the confserv command requires the refdb administrator to be a database server administrator. This is different from being root on the machine.

You can change the settings for the timeout and the settings for the logging facility.

refdba: confserv timeout 60

This will set the timeout to 60 s, i.e. a client-server connection has to be stalled for 60 seconds before refdbd gives up.

refdba: confserv loglevel 7

This will set the log level to 7.

refdba: confserv logdest 1

This will set syslog as the log info destination.

refdba: confserv logfile /var/log/mylog

This will use /var/log/mylog as logfile if logdest is set appropriately.