Supported i5/OS file systems for Web content served by HTTP Server

This topic provides information about supported i5/OS™ file system for Web content.

Important: Information for this topic supports the latest PTF levels for HTTP Server for i5/OS . It is recommended that you install the latest PTFs to upgrade to the latest level of the HTTP Server for i5/OS. Some of the topics documented here are not available prior to this update. See http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/iseries/software/http/services/service.htm for more information.

The HTTP Server can serve content from any of the following Integrated File System file systems:

• root (/)
• QSYS.LIB
• QOpenSys
• QDLS
• NFS
• QFileSvr.400
• QNetWare
• QNTC
• QOPT
• UDFS

A file system provides the support that allows users and applications to access specific segments of storage that are organized as logical units. These logical units are files, directories, libraries, and objects.

Each file system has a set of logical structures and rules for interacting with information in storage. These structures and rules may be different from one file system to another. From the perspective of structures and rules, the support for accessing database files and various other object types through libraries can be thought of as a file system. Similarly, you can think of the support for accessing documents (which are really stream files) through the folders structure as a separate file system.

As you decide from which file system to serve files, you might want to consider the following:

• Serving from the root (or /) directory gives you the fastest response times.
• Will the tools you use to maintain your site be compatible with the file system you choose?
• How easy must it be to move content from platform to platform?

Remember that any individual server can serve content (CGI scripts; HTML files; graphics such as .jpegs, GIFs, and image maps; and so on) from many file systems at once. You can configure your server to serve content from whatever file systems suit your needs.

See File systems in the integrated file system for more information about the integrated file system.

Before you start serving your content from the Integrated File System, you must ensure that the world can access the files that you want to serve. You must grant the QTMHHTTP user profile or *PUBLIC the following authorities and permissions to enable Web serving with IBM^® HTTP Server for iSeries™:

• QTMHHTTP or *PUBLIC must have *USE authority to all library system objects that you intend to serve.
• If you use any of the log directives with any Integrated File System directory name, the directory must exist, and QTMHHTTP or *PUBLIC must have *RWX authority.
• The QTMHHTTP user profile or *PUBLIC must be granted *RX authority to all objects (HTML pages, graphics, and so on) that you intend to serve.
• To use CGI programs to access any of the objects you serve, the QTMHHTP1 user profile or *PUBLIC needs the same authority to the objects as QTMHHTTP.