The Console Tab

The Console tab displays all servers registered in a particular configuration directory, giving you a consolidated view of all the server software and resources under your control. What you control is determined by the access permissions the superadministrator has set up for you.

From this view you can perform tasks across arbitrary groups or a cluster of servers in a single operation. In other words, you can use the Console tab to manage a single server or multiple servers that are installed on different ports on one machine. Also, you can access individual server windows (or administration interfaces) by double-clicking the icons for the corresponding server instance entries.

With the exception of Certificate Management System, all server instances displayed on the Console tab store their configuration information in the same configuration directory. For security purposes, Certificate Management System uses file-based configuration which is stored locally on the host system; during installation, the server registers only its server instance entry in the configuration directory.

For any given instance of Netscape Console, the limits of the network it can administer are defined by the set of resources whose configuration information is stored in the same configuration directory--that is, the maximum set of hosts and servers that can be monitored from Netscape Console. The superadministrator (the person who manages the configuration directory) can set access permissions on all network resources registered in the configuration directory. Thus, for a given administrator using Netscape Console, the actual number of visible servers and hosts may be fewer, depending on the access permissions that administrator has.

You can accomplish various CMS-specific tasks from the Console tab: