Forum OpenACS Q&A: Re: Sysadmin meeting at Valencia

11: Re: Sysadmin meeting at Valencia (response to 1)

Posted by Stefan Sobernig on 11/13/08 03:15 PM

Well, I won't be around in Valencia, still my 2 (euro-)cents on:

apache migration

Wouldn't a meeting targeting and inviting "sysadmins" be an appropriate place to compile and share "configuration profiles" for OpenACS/AOLServer deployments rather than discussing the highly improbable chance to have it ported to what-ever-platform-technology?

I mean, there are recurring threads on these forums on the voodoo of aolserver configuration:

How to appropriately trace, identify, and cope with performance issues? Why not compile all the useful infos repeatedly given by Gustaf N., Dave et al. nicely and give some tool support (extend developer-support, xotcl-request-monitor)?
How to DOCUMENT and REPORT them so others can help effectively?
Provide two or three sample configs, as available for other platform technologies (RDBMSs, ...) that target different (organisational) users. Or, a web-based configurator where someone can enter profile attributes in a guided manner?
Provide a repository to store and share configurations?

This is even something you can get started at the conference: in medias res ...

As for Apache: Do not underestimate the implications. Apache has different concurrency models and the infrastructure is sufficiently distinct. Btw. if you look for stable or responsive maintainership, mod_tcl is not the best choice ... though there were life signs at this years Tcl2008: http://www.tcl.tk/community/tcl2008/schedule.html (Olly Stephens talk)

Enjoy your time in valencia!

best
//stefan

13: Re: Sysadmin meeting at Valencia (response to 11)

Posted by Héctor Romojaro on 11/13/08 05:34 PM

Hi Stefan and all,

The main purpose of the sysadmin meeting is to meet each others and share some knowledge that is not in the forums right now, talk about our common problems and solutions for them, all in an informal way.

A lot of this common problems are related to the use of aolserver. and I think that the posibility of an apache|naviserver future migration is an interesting topic to discuss. Aolserver seems to be low maintained, specially some of the modules (last commit on nsopenssl was on 2006, and the last one on nsldap and nscache is 5 years old). Openacs is fully dependant on aolserver, and this can take us into problems in the future.

About the topics you are pointing out, it would be great that we could talk about all of them too. They seem really useful to me, and can be achieved in a short period of time :)

It's a pity that you will not be in Valencia to talk about all this things while having a beer 😉

Cheers, Hector

15: Re: Sysadmin meeting at Valencia (response to 11)

Posted by Don Baccus on 11/14/08 04:10 AM

mod_tcl is not an option. As I've said, I've looked into the problem somewhat.

Getting a robust implementation working under Apache would be a large implementation effort. My background is in compiler writing and operating systems work (mostly old ones, like the original 1974 version of Unix from Bell Labs), so I don't see it as impossible, but certainly not trivial.

Don't worry, I won't sugar coat the effort involved.

As far as what sysadmins should talk about at an informal meeting held at the conference, I'd suggest they should talk about anything they'd like to talk about.

22: Re: Sysadmin meeting at Valencia (response to 13)

Posted by Don Baccus on 11/14/08 07:10 PM

Actually, the lack of development of stable bits of code doesn't bother me in the least.

The problem is misguided, poorly thought out, undocumented changes to the code that in the past have been undertaken without public discussion, or even public notification.

And an attitude on the part of the guy who thinks he "owns" AOLserver, and there he can do whatever he wants without regard for the community.

I still use 4.0 not 4.5.