Second release (Now with Bugzilla)

The second release of DevInfraNix is now publicly available. It took a good bit of work to get Bugzilla to play along, but after a lot of trial and error I have it working on first boot. You'll be prompted to create admin credentials on first boot. Here are the defaults I used for the Bugzilla install:

• MySQL DB: 'bugs'
  
• MySQL DB User: 'bugs'
  
• MySQL DB PSW: '' (yes, blank - CHANGE THIS TO SOMETHING SECURE FOR YOUR USE!)
  
• URL: 'http://<server>/bugs'
  

Check out the link in my prior post for some good info on how to integrate the tools provided by DevInfraNix together. I hope to eventually get the initial DevInfraNix settings to a point where the integration described is default functionality.

Categories:

• rpath
• vmware
• linux
• bugzilla
• status

Bugzilla/SVN/Wiki Integration

A nice article about integrating Bugzilla, Subversion, and Mediawiki. Most of the setup work is already done for you in my DevInfraNix image.

Bugzilla/SVN/Wiki Integration - Segetech Open Source Rendezvous:

Categories:

• rpath
• bugzilla
• subversion
• mediawiki
• appliance
• development

The first release is out the door

I finally published the first release of the DevInfraNix distro. To use it, just download the VMWare image and open it using the VMWare player or server, which are also freely available. After it boots you should be able to connect to it from a browser on the system that is hosting the image and step through the following configuration procedures:

1. Login to the server as root and find the ip address that was assigned to the machine (ip addr). Then open a browser on the machine where the VMWare host is running (Note: you could connect with a browser on a different machine if you changed the VMWare Ethernet setting to "Bridged" from "NAT" prior to booting the image) and goto the wiki setup page at http://<ipaddress>/wiki. Fill in all of the information, making sure to use the following DB settings:
   
   Database:
   wikidb
   DBUser:
   wikidbuser
   DBUserPsw:
   wikidbuserpsw
   * Security Note: Change these credentials to your own secret credentials after initial setup.
   
   Make sure you follow the step of copying the /srv/mediawiki/config/LoacalSettings.php file to the /srv/mediawiki directory after saving the config. The wiki will be available at http://<ipaddress>/wiki after successfully saving the configuration.
   
   
2. In the same browser go to http://<ipaddress>/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php and again fill in all of the configuration using the following for Database settings:
   
   Database:
   wordpress
   DBUser:
   wordpressdbuser
   DBUserPsw:
   wordpressuserpsw
   * Security Note: Change these credentials to your own secret credentials after initial setup.
   
   The blog will be available at http://<ipaddress>/wordpress after successfully saving the configuration.
   
   
3. The last thing to do is to create a subversion repository. Follow the instructions on the Subversion website for doing this. Note that there is an init script available for making subversion auto start at boot. You can use this after you get a repository setup and modify the script to reflect your settings for your repository. The script is located at /etc/init.d/svnserve. After modifying the script it can be installed with the chkconfig --level 35 svnserve command then started with service svnserve start. From then on it should auto start at boot.
   

I plan on creating a php page in the future to help walk one through these steps by linking to all of the setup pages and possibly having it handle the side setup tasks. I'm also still working on adding an issue tracker (bugzilla?) and am thinking about adding a build automation application like CruiseControl so one could also use this as a build server if they wished.

Leave me some comments and let me know what you think of this alpha release. Do you think it is a good idea and do you think it will be helpful?

Categories:

• rpath
• linux
• vmware
• appliance

VMWare and prebuilt Linux appliances can save your aspercreme

I had gotten off on a mandatory side tangent the past two days due to an emergency fix, or should I say workaround that called my attention. I have a site that is hosted by GoDaddy.com and it currently gets about 12,000 hits a day. This site is hosted on one of their shared hosting plans and is written in ASP using MySQL. They called me and left a voice mail stating they had to shut off access to my MySQL database due to over CPU utilization. Granted I was getting up there on the number of inserts and selects per minute (about 10), but still not what I thought would be nearly enough for them to complain since I've written enterprise apps on many database platforms in the past that handled MUCH more data than this...I won't go on that rant now;) Anyhow, they ended up telling me they would not turn access to the MySQL database back on, but did give me temporary access to grab one last copy of the database. I wanted to reduce my down time as much as possible, so I needed a place to temporarily host the MySQL database. Since I've been working in the environment now I turned to the rPath web site and immediately downloaded their VMWare build of a LAMP package (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP..Perl). In no time I was up and running with a secluded MySQL host on one of my home machines and installed phpMyAdmin (conary update phpMyAdmin) to have some type of gui to more easily work with my data.

I had started out on one of GoDaddy's free hosting accounts, which forced me into using ASP 1.x and MySQL since this was all I was offered on the free account. I have since upgraded to a paid account and have the option of ASP with .NET 2.0 and MS SQL databases that have been calling me to upgrade my application. Now, I was pretty much forced into making the change so I rewrote the ASP portions from VB into C# using .NET 2.0 and exported the MySQL database to use MS SQL with stored procs. I know there are people out there who are going to say MySQL could beat MS SQL any day...and with the proper setup and tweaking I think all DB platforms can compete so please no flaming;)

So long story short, I was impressed with the speed that I was able to get back up and running, and mostly thanks to the quick install using VMWare and the rPath LAMP distro. In about 15 minutes I had a copy of my database up and running. All of this in a portable environment too.

Well, now back to getting a release of DevInfraNix out to the public.

Categories:

• vmware
• development
• linux
• rpath

Progress is being made

I've been able to create a VMWare release that contains Mediawiki, Wordpress, and Subversion. I also have it creating the MySQL dbs for mediawiki and wordpress, as well as auto starting the httpd, and mysqld services. I am able to downaload the release, run it in VMWare, and after it boots I can hit the Mediawiki and Wordpress install pages from an external browser.

Items to note for the initial configs of the blog and wiki:

The wiki can initially be found at the url http://<host>/wiki

The MySQL db for the wiki is wikidb, user: wikidbuser, psw: wikidbuserpsw

The blog can initially be found at the url http://<host>/wordpress

The MySQL db for the blog is wordpress, user: wordpressdbuser, psw: wordpressuserpsw

**It is suggested that one changes all passwords after initial config.

I also added an init script for svnserve that can be modified with the correct user and path names after manually creating a repository with the svnadmin create command. It is located at /etc/init.d/svnserve and can be turned on using the chkconfig svnserve on command.

I should soon have a public release. Future items to be done are:

Creating a group-trac group to possibly release a Trac version. I moved my current group of apps to a group called group-notrac, with this option in mind.

Add bugzilla or possibly a different issue/bug tracker to group-notrac and get it working on first boot.

Categories:

• linux
• vmware
• status

Welcome to the blog of the next big linux appliance

I have created a rPath linux package to help facilitate a fast time to development by packaging most of the tools I've used in the past that helped me and my teams successfully communicate and collaborate while designing and developing on a project. These tools are a foundation of collaboration, such as a code repository, blog, wiki, and bug/issue tracker. I plan to use this on my own projects and plan to create a VMWare image from the install so that whenever I start a new project I can simply grab a fresh image and get to work. Find the project here: http://www.rpath.org/rbuilder/project/devinfranix/.

Categories:

• linux
• rpath
• vmware
• development
• appliance