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Initial set-up process

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Follow these steps to set up EZproxy for your library.

EZproxy is a completely stand-alone application. It does not require nor use any existing web server that is already installed on your server.

If you are already running a web server on the system where EZproxy is running, do not attempt to install EZproxy within directories that are used by that web server.

Installation steps

1. Install the software

Go to Install and update EZproxy to download EZproxy.
  • Create a directory for EZproxy and make it your current directory.
  • Download the ezproxy program file into this directory.
  • Enter the command to rename the download file to ezproxy and make it executable.
  • Enter the command to create the default version of needed files.
  • Enter the command to verify that EZproxy can automatically detect your host name correctly and to check whether firewalls may interfere with your ability to use EZproxy.
  • Use a text editor to edit the config.txt file. If suggested from the previous step, manually specify your host name in this file. The file also contains suggestions for other changes. This text editor should not introduce extra formatting when the file is saved. Notepad can be used for editing these files.
  • Use a text editor to edit the user.txt file. To this file, add this line: 
    someuser:somepass:admin
    Change someuser to the username you want to use for texting and somepass to the password you want to use for testing.
  • Enter the command to start the server.
  • Use your web browser to connect to your server on port 2048. For example, if your EZproxy server was named ezproxy.yourlib.org, you would use this URL: http://ezproxy.yourlib.org:2048/admin
  • Enter the username and password that you created when you edited the user.txt file. This should bring you to the main server administration page.

 Note: The options presented and how effectively they work depend on your customization of config.txt. As you make additional changes to config.txt, stop and restart EZproxy to make the changes take effect.

2. Start the set up process

When EZproxy is working, go to the User authentication page to learn how to create URLs that link to specific databases on the EZproxy server and how to set up user authentication for your environment.

3. Configure your resources

Once you have EZproxy working, the next step is to configure resources. Choose two or three resources to begin.

4. Authentication

Once you have resources working, the next step is to get your authentication component working.

5. HTML if desired

After your resources and authentication is functional, then work on updating web pages if you do not want to use the default set of pages.

Tips, hints and cautions

  • Make a copy of your current EZproxy folder and save it somewhere so you can roll back if an update doesn't seem to work for you.
  • Use Notepad or some other editor that doesn't automatically introduce document formatting when it is saved.
  • If you are having problems connecting to a specific database, carefully look through your EZproxy config file for duplicate entries for that database vendor. Often when there are problems you can find two or more entries for the same database vendor with conflicting configuration entries.
  • Remember to contact your server administrators to make sure that the DNS entries are correctly added to your servers DNS.
  • Check the ezproxy.msg file for entries in this file that might point to a problem you might be having connecting to a database.
  • Remember to register the IP address of your EZproxy server with any Database vendor you plan on using with EZproxy.