Tux Reports Network

Two major changes were made to two websites this weekend.

WordPress was added as the front page to The Tux Reports News. Formerly, the vbnews script resided as the index page. Unfortunately, writing with the vb script meant a separate database was kept for stories. The was not a good solution and I really abandoned updating the site  until I found a better one. The solution was found the other day. Using a modification available on vbulletin.org,  a bridge between vbulletin and WordPress allows stories to be shared as well as user member information.

In order to improve usability, Chemhints needed drastic changes. Files could not be uploaded at the same time as writing posts. Therefore, the site now resides on the Linux box with WordPress as the blogging software. Software will be uploaded after the DNS propagation. My hope is to upload word documents with each post. For example, the first post of the school year contains a course calendar and syllabus. Students should be able to download these immediately. In addition, if an assignment is available in digital format, my hope is a student who looses the paper may download the worksheet.

There is one snag to the changes. The wiki for Chemhints [The Chem Book] remains “removed” from navigation and links.  Hopefully, a solution is not far away.

The Owlery is the social network for Harry Potter Chat. The original software, phpFox, did not work out for the site and so the software was removed. Last night, a new network was created on Ning.com and the domain is slowly propagating. Additionally, Dumbledore’s Office is tied to this social network site; any blog posts are fed into the frontpage.

The second social network is for the Antelope Valley Union High School students, AV PIT. AV Pit was also on phpfox but the students complained about the performance and lack of features. A Ning social network was created for the students and the domain is slowly propagating.

Linking the Ning subdomain and the subdomain involves using CNAME in the DNS record. Propagation times vary.

An email from our hosting company stated they are moving servers between datacenters. There will be a 12-15 hour outage from July 27 through July 28.

This move is scheduled to take place beginning July 27, 2007 at 8 PM EDT. Servers will be moved incrementally from Miami to Tampa between 8 PM on July 27th and 4 AM on July 28th. The outage time on each server is expected to be 12-15 hours. For example, if your server is taken off line at 8 PM on July 27th, we expect your server to return online between 8 AM and 11 AM on July 28th. All servers are expected to be online at 7 PM on July 28th.

This move only influences the websites based on Community Server (e.g., What Is New, Democratic Chat, Tablet PC Questions, Tablet PC Blogs, etc). Tablet PC Post resides on a different server and will not be influenced by this change.

The release of Apple’s iPhone opened to much fanfare; therefore, a forum for the Apple iPhone was started on Technology Questions. Loren purchased a phone last night and hopefully we will read about his thoughts as well as others.

Due to the increased traffic on several websites, the Linux server needed a performance boost. Unfortunately, the previous versions of php cache software were incompatible with the Zend Optimizer required by vBSEO.

The latest version of XCache was released on July 15th and this is compatible with Zend Optimizer. A post on vBulletin is an excellent starting point for anyone just looking into the benefits of XCache. Unfortunately, the directions on the XCache websites are cryptic for someone unfamiliar with the inner workings of their Linux server or for someone who just wants to get through the installation quickly.

Start the installation by logging into your Linux server. I prefer to use Putty, a free telnet/SSH client. Once logged into the server as the root, change directories to the SOURCE directory. For example, the version of Linux on our server resides /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES. Your directory layout may be different and you will want to use the locate command to find where sources are kept. If you have not used the locate command in several days, updatedb will update the database storing the file locations.

The second step involves the download of the xcache compressed file. Use wget at the command line. For example:

wget http://xcache.lighthtpd.net/pub/rc/1.2.1-rc1/xcache-1.2.1-rc1.tar.gz

You should see the download of the file. Verify the file has been downloaded by using the ls command. Next, extract the compressed file.

Use tar -xzf filename to untar the file.

Verify the extraction by looking at the files (ls). You should see a directory called xcache-1.2.1-rc1. Change your cursor into this newly created directory.

Run phpize; ./configure; make; and make install just as shown on the Installing from XCache from source webpage. Complete the cat xcache.ini >> /etc/php.ini step and finally verify that the xcache statements are now in the php.ini.

We are not done at this stage, though. XCache is not enabled. Using your editor, move the cursor to the lines about XCache.

Below the [xcache-common] section, you will find statements which need to be commented or uncommented. Linux users will want to complete the zend extension path so that it matches the location of the xcache.so file. I moved this file to the lib location and made sure this path was set in this statement. Comment out (add a semicolon) in front of the window’s section.

Next, go to the [xcache] section and modify the xcache.size = statement so that there is an amount set aside for the cache. This size must be greater than zero. Other variables below this line must also be set. Finally, change the “Off” for xcache.optimizer to “On.” Save the file and restart the httpd service.

A little clarification for those wanting to get through this installation. First, use vi to edit the php.ini file. At the command line type vi /etc/php.ini .. Use the arrow keys to move to the lines you want to change. Press the i to insert text and the escape key to stop inserting. To save the file, use the colon and w. To quit, use :q. If you are not interested in using vi, try nano or pico. On my redhat system, I used yum to install nano (at the command line type yum install nano).

To restart httpd service type “service httpd restart” Watch for error messages on the screen and later read the error_log under httpd to make sure everything loaded properly.

Verify the website loads in your browser.

You may verify XCache is loaded by looking at the phpinfo page within vbulletin (from your admin panel) or use the  php-fcgi script. As a last step, monitor the server by using the top command. top -u apache is a great way to just look at the apache processes. If you do not see all of the cpus, you may want to use the toggle “1″ so that all of the CPUs are seen.

Now, I did not cover the admin section of the php.ini file. You will want to read up on this on your own. There are some posts on the vbulletin site which may help you.

Best of luck on your installation.

I have been extremely busy with life and failed to check statistics for the network.  Even the page layout on this site needs help.

In the past two months, there were 2.5 million page impressions and several new websites.

• Harry Potter Chat was redesigned.
• Insane Politics was started.
• A new layout was installed for Technology Questions.
• Community Server 2007 was installed for Tablet PC Blogs. This happened after ASP.NET 2.0 was installed. I am not seeing enough difference to install this version for every site.

Significant changes have occurred with the network and many of these changes have not been publicly documented. The work allows visitors to easily find information on select topics as well as share thoughts in a common area.

Forums have been combined so that multiple blogs point to a single set of forums: Technology Questions.

• What Is New
• Tablet PC Questions
• UMPC Buzz
• Vista Buzz
• Zune Views
• Tablet PC Education
• Incremental Blogger

In addition, multiple domain names point to these forums.

There are four main “communities” within the site:

• Tablet PC Community
• UMPC Community
• Small Form Factor Community
• Operating Systems Community

Each community may remain independent or the search capability provides members and visitors information to a wide-range of topics.

Time was spent today fixing Harry Potter Chat. This site continues to gain new members but the header over the last two months was awful. I managed to upload the security patches and upgraded the site to IPB 2.1.7. The older header was found in a backup and uploaded to the correct location. The forum index was rearranged, too. Some new people were missing the place to ask questions for help. Hopefully the new forum arrangement will help new members.

The CS 2.1beta 2 installation on Zune Views was not perfect. The article with a contraction in the title caused an error. Luckily this will fixed by going directly into the database and changing the contraction to two words. Work on the forums has not begun for the site. The site also needs a header.

The weekend was spent rebuilding websites that were destroyed at the beginning of summer.

(1) Democratic Chat. The site is not complete but in enough shape to start some good conversations.

(2) Zune Views. This site is far from launch. The YouTube Video does not load properly and so there is plenty of work required before opening.

(3) Tablet PC Questions. Community Server 2.1 Beta 1 was installed and the blog was moved to the root. Navigation is not complete. The header needs to be customized. Other sites upgraded to CS 2.1 beta 1 include What Is New and Vista Buzz. Unfortunately Ink posting does not work in this release of CS, therefore, Tablet PC Blogs was not upgraded.

(4) Super Star Chat. The site was upgraded to CS 2.1 Beta 1, header changed, forums updated. Lindsay Lohan Chat and Hilary Duff Chat were combined with SSC. This change upset many people who felt the need to email. Several thousand people will have to re-register and the 10,000 plus forum posts are now gone. Hopefully the “new” combination site will build quickly and be more enjoyable for everyone.

(5) Chemistry Hints. The site needs plenty of work before August 14, the first day of school. Students made plenty of suggestions last year on what needed to be done. Maybe this can be done in the next few weeks.