on 7/22/01 8:57 PM, Jeffrey B. Ferland at autocracy@linuxfreemail.com
wrote:
> From experience, it's the best way to do it. Pick a date and time that
> works for most people and all the required people to do the task, pick a
> place to do it, and do it.
>
We're on this page with you, Jef. Several of our meetings in the last 9
months have been of this sort. The big issue we face is a very broad
range of technical abilities, especially as regards Linux. From
experienced sysadmins to "What's Linux?". We only have 3 *nix
experienced sysadmins, and only 1 who is experienced with sendmail,
majordomo, and DNS. And, that one has many other commitments. That's
why we've been trying to expand our base of sysadmins.
> In order to set the server (avcnetnew.bates.edu) to do what we want, we
> have to know what we want it. Obviously we're not on the same page (nobody
> is ever all on the same page when you have at least 2 people), and I'd like
> to get on the same page.
>
I'll take a shot at it:
First, it must have a Web server and the latest version of the web
pages. To go with that, it must have user accounts and passwords for
those people who are maintaining either the system or web pages. Rob
Spellman has done these, except, of course, that the web pages are
probably out of date. They will always have to be moved on the date of
conversion, anyway, along with page counter file(s). Also to go with it,
the CGIs and any associated files must be copied and tested. I haven't
looked to see if Rob did this, but I would guess that he did. Oh yes,
ftp server turned on.
If that's all we did, it could replace the existing machine. But,
that really doesn't gain us much, because the current machine is handling
web traffic just fine. There's so much more. In no particular order:
- Web site statistics and rolling web logs, all automated. I used to
do them by hand on the Mac web server. They haven't been done in over a
year so we don't know what our site useage has been doing.
- Transfer of mail from the Mac to Linux. This is a big one because
the current server is crashing frequently. It's also a hard one because
we have to deal with
* passwords that are encrypted differently
* possibly moving mail folders that may require programmed
conversion (hopefully we can just require people to empty their mailboxes)
* a managed conversion with coordinated timing, clear steps and
people available to help users
- Conversion of mailing lists from Macjordomo to majordomo, and Mac to
Linux. This one would be transparent to users, but will take some time.
Rob has already installed majordomo on the machine. Things to be done
would include
* some archives are currently in Usenet newsgroups on the Mac news
server and would need to be converted to majordomo archives. They should
also be set up as searchable Web pages, which means installing and
configuring Mhonarc (my preference) or Hypermail and a search engine
(Swish or htDig, perhaps), as well as setting up the connection between
majordomo and the mail-to-web program and automating the search indexing.
* lists of users will have to be converted
* it would be nice to set up one of the Web-Listserv interfaces, e.g.
LWGate, so we don't have to write/rewrite pages in order for users to
manage list subscriptions from the Web.
- More Web-based system administration tools installed and configured
so that people could be trained to help with upkeep without having to
learn command line Linux. I know Commanche, for example, provides a GUI
interface to Apache configuration, but I'm not sure whether it has a Web
interface, too. Anyway, there's an initiative called Webmin which
provides an architecture for building Web sysadmin modules.
- Is there an equivalent to NT's File Replication Service for Linux?
If so, that would allow the 2 machines to each have a copy of all the
important files, such as web pages, mailboxes, and so on. Then, one
machine could be a backup for the other.
- Is load balancing or load sharing or some kind of fail-over available
so that some or all of our services would stay available if one machine
went down?
- File sharing over the 'net instead of ftp for maintaining web pages,
etc. Netatalk can handle this for Macs. Windows(tm) is more of a
problem because 9x versions can't do it, at least not as delivered. If
memory serves me, Rob mentioned something for Windows 98 that could be
added so it could log into a domain over the 'net. Is that right, Rob?
If so, then we could put Samba up, too. These both have Webmin modules
available, I believe.
-
> Before I go any further, I'd like to ask all the admins if they have some
> sort of definitive future plans for AVCNET and its servers, and if so to
> share them. I'll start :)
>
> My first idea is to do something that will make us more well known. Way to
> do it: make a community discussion board that everyone can post to and see
> easily. Case in point: www.slashdot.org. How to do it: use the same code
> that /. uses, and change the type of stories to local community-oriented
> stories. It'd be like reading the paper, writing what you think about a
> story, and then passing it to the next person AND occasionally being able
> to rate other's comments (a bigger, badder USENET via http written in
> HTML?). Thoughts on my thoughts are also welcome.
Sounds like a great addition to me.
As for redesigning our web presence, I'm open to any and all ideas.
Portals would be great. I've been looking at an interesting piece of
software, tonight. Check out: openacs.org
An amazing number of modules, including content management, templates,
portals, chat... all free and fully integrated. See:
http://openacs.org/sdm/one-package.tcl?package_id=1
for details.
---
Jim Hart, Server Administrator
Androscoggin Valley Community Network
"Working together we _can_ make a difference."
Jim Hart
"Working together we _can_ make a difference."
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