How-to : Using WebSVN as RANCID repository access tool

by | Mar 1, 2012 | Automation, Infrastructure, Network, SysAdmin | 8 comments

In previous articles in the RANCID series I described:

So, we have RANCID collecting configuration from network devices to repository with version control. Only question is how to get access and make use of information collected there.

In this part of RANCID stories I will show how to install and configure WebSVN to access RANCID repository via web browser.

Downloading and extracting WebSVN

WebSVN web page is available here. Direct link to WebSVN package is available here.

Below is command line dump from Lab environment in which I did installation:

lab-gw-01:~ # mkdir websvn
lab-gw-01:~ # cd websvn
lab-gw-01:~/websvn # wget http://websvn.tigris.org/files/documents/1380/49056/websvn-2.3.3.tar.gz
asking libproxy about url 'http://websvn.tigris.org/files/documents/1380/49056/websvn-2.3.3.tar.gz'
libproxy suggest to use 'direct://'--2012-02-20 19:14:06--  http://websvn.tigris.org/files/documents/1380/49056/websvn-2.3.3.tar.gz
Resolving websvn.tigris.org... 204.16.104.146
Connecting to websvn.tigris.org|204.16.104.146|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 882779 (862K) [application/x-gzip]
Saving to: `websvn-2.3.3.tar.gz'
100%[============================================>] 882,779      162K/s   in 5.5s
2012-02-20 19:14:22 (155 KB/s) - `websvn-2.3.3.tar.gz' saved [882779/882779]
lab-gw-01:~/websvn #

Once archive is downloaded we need to extract files:

lab-gw-01:~/websvn # tar -xvf websvn-2.3.3.tar.gz
websvn-2.3.3/
websvn-2.3.3/include/
websvn-2.3.3/include/version.php
websvn-2.3.3/include/configclass.php
websvn-2.3.3/include/template.php
websvn-2.3.3/include/header
websvn-2.3.3/include/svnlook.php
websvn-2.3.3/include/bugtraq.php
websvn-2.3.3/include/diff_inc.php
websvn-2.3.3/include/utils.php
websvn-2.3.3/include/setup.php
websvn-2.3.3/include/distconfig.php
websvn-2.3.3/include/command.php
websvn-2.3.3/include/accessfile.php
websvn-2.3.3/include/auth.php
websvn-2.3.3/include/diff_util.php
websvn-2.3.3/dl.php
websvn-2.3.3/log.php
......
websvn-2.3.3/languages/russian.php
websvn-2.3.3/languages/slovenian.php
websvn-2.3.3/languages/portuguese.php
websvn-2.3.3/languages/uzbek.php
websvn-2.3.3/filedetails.php
websvn-2.3.3/cache/
websvn-2.3.3/cache/tmp
lab-gw-01:~/websvn #

Adding WebSVN to Apache2

Next step is to place WebSVN in apropriate folder, which in my case is /srv/www/websvn.

lab-gw-01:~/websvn # cp -R websvn-2.3.3 /srv/www/websvn
lab-gw-01:~/websvn # cd /srv/www
lab-gw-01:/srv/www # ls -l
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 18  2011 cgi-bin
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 18  2011 htdocs
drwxr-xr-x 9 root root 4096 Feb 20 19:25 websvn
lab-gw-01:/srv/www # cp websvn/include/distconfig.php websvn/include/config.php
lab-gw-01:/srv/www #

Once all files are in right place we can add configuration to Apache2 web server.

/etc/apache2/conf.d/websvn.conf

# WEBSVN CONFIG SNIPPETS FOR APACHE WEB SERVER
# Last Modified: 2012-02-20
Alias /websvn "/srv/www/websvn"
<Directory "/srv/www/websvn">
    Options None
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>

Once additional configuration file for Apache2 is created we can restart or reload Apache2 configuration and test access to WebSVN:

lab-gw-01:/etc/apache2/conf.d # service apache2 reload
Reload httpd2 (graceful restart)                  done
lab-gw-01:/etc/apache2/conf.d #

We just confirmed that Apache2 has proper configuration and we can access WebSVN. One missing piece is to point WebSVN to location where our RANCID repository sits, so WebSVN can display its content.

Configuring WebSVN to display RANCID repositories

/srv/www/websvn/include/config.php

// Local repositories (without and with optional group):
//
$config->addRepository('LAB', 'file:///var/lib/rancid/SVN');

Now we can test is RANCID repository is available for us by going to http://172.16.90.5/websvn. Results should be as below 🙂

Reference materials

Articles which might be helpful in LAB environment preparation and/or RANCID deployment:

Enjoy! 🙂

8 Comments

  1. Pierra
    Pierra on May 27, 2013 at 8:56 am

    Hello,

    Thanks for the good tutorial!

    I have a problem with websvn.
    after adding the repository it gives me a error http://localhost/websvn

    Error running this command: svn – non-interactive – config-dir / tmp list – xml ‘file :/ / / var / lib / rancid / SVN / @’
    Unable to open an URL to ra_local session
    Unable to open repository ‘file :/ / / var / lib / rancid / SVN’
    Can not open file ‘/ var / lib / rancid / SVN / format: Permission denied

    What exact rights should I add?

  3. Pierra
    Pierra on May 27, 2013 at 3:15 pm

    thanks for your answer!

    I find my problem, I added the apache user rights. that was why.
    Now I see all the folders and files on websvn, but when I click on are empty. While the root file contains the configuration.
    I put all of these rights to a file, but it did not change anything.
    Have you any idea?

  4. Diego Carletti
    Diego Carletti on August 25, 2014 at 7:56 pm

    Quick question If I MAY, the lab-net-01 , address that shows in the example, does that correspond to a specific hostname/IP address that is configured some other place out of this toturial? Thanks and great tut by the way!!

  5. SKufel
    SKufel on August 26, 2014 at 9:07 am

    lab-net-01 is same system as lab-gw-01. Just typo on screenshot.

  6. Channa
    Channa on February 22, 2015 at 11:16 am

    Hi Pierra, I have problem like you, What is your solution for this error ?

    Error running this command: svn – non-interactive – config-dir / tmp list – xml ‘file :/ / / var / lib / rancid / SVN / @’
    Unable to open an URL to ra_local session
    Unable to open repository ‘file :/ / / var / lib / rancid / SVN’
    Can not open file ‘/ var / lib / rancid / SVN / format: Permission denied

  7. Jonathan Swick
    Jonathan Swick on April 23, 2015 at 9:40 pm

    Please help. I have this same problem and for the life of me i can not figure it out.

  8. Greg
    Greg on September 22, 2015 at 7:47 pm

    I did a chown for www-data to the SVN directory and it fixed it. not sure if this was the best way to do it but I havent figured out if it broke anything yet. I think it should probably be done with a group so that rancid, svn and apache all have access to the folder…

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