[Cvsnt] CVSNT server for NT and WinCVS 1.3B6 clients

Tue Feb 5 21:25:43 GMT 2002

Joel,
I will give some views from my horizon, but first of all:
Please switch off HTML formatting when communicating via an email list
like this one. It is a real pain in the butt and it spams the list.
I will remove the many HTML lines at the bottom of this message to
make it a bit more manageable....

Back to business:

1. Installing CVSNT in the WinCvs folder...
I can't imagine why you are even contemplating this step! Stay as long
away from this idea as possible! They use different compilations of
cvs.exe for one thing....
The CVS system works as a client/server system. You install CVS server
(CVS-NT in the case of Windows NT) on a server machine, which is
sitting in a server room and never touched by human hands (at least
seldom). And you install WinCvs on the clients.

1.1 How to install CVSNT server
My advice here to get a robust system:
- Plan your server by assigning one complete disk partition for the
cvs repository. Don't install anything else here and DON'T create any
share on this partition! The users shall be forced to access the
repository in client/server mode. Say you selected partition D:
- Create a directory D:\Temp and set permissions on this directory to
full control for everybody
- Get the latest CVSNT beta from cvsnt.org
- Use the installer to set it up, but make sure that the installation
directory is one without spaces in the path. Spaces are mostly handled
ok but to keep things safe install to something like c:\programs\cvsnt
- After the installation is done you open the control panel applet
CVS-NT to configure the repository.
- Create the repository by setting a suitable base path to the
repository root. Don't use names like 'cvs' or 'cvsroot', a good one
could be <driveletter>:\cvsrepo
- Check the "Repository prefix" option and browse to the above
mentioned root of the repository (d:\cvsroot). This makes it possible
for your clients to use simple repository definitions.
- On the advanced page navigate to the temp directory you created
earlier (d:\temp) and select it
- Stop and start the service on the first tab when you are done. Some
changes do not take effect until a restart is done.
- Check that the system path environment variable is including the
cvsnt directory, if not you have to set it and restart the server

1.2 How to install WinCvs client on the workstations
- Get the latest beta setup file from sourceforge, should be 1.3.6.1
beta 6 or so.
- Get the TCL setup files from its authors (I have an archive too)
- Get the Python setup files from its source too
- Install WinCvs 1.3 using the setup program
- Install TCL using its setup program. Make sure it is installed to a
directory without spaces in the path like c:\programs\tcl
- Install Python the same way
- You will probably have to reboot somewhere here
- When you start WinCvs the first time there are a number of things
that need to be set up. Please look at
http://www.devguy.com/fp/cfgmgmt/cvs/

2. AUTHENTICATION
No matter what you select as protocol (pserver or ntserver) you will
have to enter the users into the passwd file in the CVSROOT module of
your repository. The users here must be valid domain or local user
accounts otherwise they are not accepted.
With ntserver protocol the users on NT class machines are
automatically authenticated using the login they gave when they logged
on to their workstation (but they must be mentioned in the passwd file
still, no password required though). With pserver they connect and log
in and the password is checked against the one in the passwd file. If
successful they are accepted and the NT user ID of that user or the
alias is used for all operations on the repository.
Notice: The encrypted password in the passwd file need *not* be the
real password used by that account at all, the authentication is done
by cvs only and then the server 'impersonates' the real user account.
This is done by SYSTEM so the password is not needed...
So you will be able to use the cvsnt server from anywhere, for example
via a VPN channel. But you don't really need pserver if you have VPN
set up because then you are effectively on the network as an
authenticated user so ntserver can be used here too. I do this all the
time.
Win98 and WinME users will have to resort to pserver connection, but
they will be able to use the NT user account once they have logged in.

3. Mapped drives
Again, DON'T publish any shere on the server. Noone except the CVSNT
service shall be able to touch these files! The users shall connect
using ntserver or pserver only as this makes the repository safe.
And don't ever put the repository on a network drive as seen from the
server machine! It must be a local disk if you want it to work. If for
some reason you are contemplating this scheme why not then install
CVSNT on the server you are mapping???

4. VPN connection
See above. I connect to two different CVSNT servers via VPN tunnels
over the Internet. One uses Windows 2000 RRAS to give me the VPN
connection and the other uses Cisco's VPN solution. Both are the same
after the tunnel is up, I use ntserver protocol and it all works as if
I were locally connected.

/Bo B

On Tue, 5 Feb 2002 19:56:57 +0000 (UTC), Joel Lemon
<JLemon at point-inc.com> wrote:

>This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand
>this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.
>
>------_=_NextPart_001_01C1AE7F.2AF8E4DE
>Content-Type: text/plain
>
>Hi;
> 
>I am setting up CVS server for NT 1.11.1.2 on a Windows NT 4.0 Server for
>the first time, and I am testing this using WinCvs Version 1.3B6 clients.
> 
>I am the system administrator for our company so I am testing for
>functionality right now and the best setup for our situation.
> 
>A couple of questions have come up for me.
> 
>1. In Step 1b in the CVS Server for NT instructions says;
> 
>    Installation of the cvsnt inside the WinCVS application folder (WinCvs
>1.3 and higher only)
> 
>            The NT server is supported by WinCVS 1.3b3 or better.
>            *copy the cvsnt cvs.exe into WinCvs\cvsnt.exe 
> 
>My Question: should this be copy to cvs.exe? here and not to cvsnt.exe?
>My Question: Are we supposed to copy the cvs.exe file from the server
>install to the client install directory here?
> 
>             copy the cvsnt cvs95.exe into WinCvs\cvs95.exe
>          
>In the preference dialog select 'cvsnt/95 (cvsnt server)'
> 
>My Question: Where do I select this? In the preferences dialog of the
>client?
>I don't see it there.            
> 
>2. Given that most of my client machines will be Windows NT 4.0 WS, Windows
>2000, or Windows XP Pro, but may include a couple of Windows 95 or Windows
>98 SE should I stick with PSERVER or should I use NTSERVER authentication?
> 
>3. I have created group that maps the V: drive to \\cvs-svr1\cvs
><file://\\cvs-svr1\cvs>  on the server where I have both the CVSNT install
>on the server and the 
>repository v:\cvsroot. Is this workable?
> 
>I read where NamedPipeImpersonation doesnt' work over shares. I don't
>understand this. If I don't use shares and mapped drives what other
>alternatives are there for using CVS on a server?
> 
>4. I will have users that are local to the NT domain (Windows NT 4.0), but I
>also will need to allow users on another NT domain in Canada to access this
>server through our VPN. How can I make this happen?
> 
>Thanks,
> 
>Joel
>

/Bo
(Bo Berglund, developer in Sweden)
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