Macports Newbie - XServe use

[Alex Kac]

Hi Ryan - yeah, I know :) Was actually surprised to see you leading  
the charge here. I spent a lot of time searching and reading the  
list's archives (about 12 pages worth), so hopefully my post is a  
decent first one.

On Apr 1, 2007, at 6:44 PM, Ryan Schmidt wrote:

> Hi Alex. Long time no see. :) Welcome to MacPorts.
>
> On Apr 1, 2007, at 17:24, Alex Kac wrote:
>
>> I am very comfortable with BSD (specifically OS X Server over the  
>> last few years) and maintain my current OS X Server primarily via  
>> command line, though I like web admin tools as well because I  
>> don't always have SSH access and I prefer to not have my impatient  
>> typing kill a server. So for the last few years I've been using  
>> iTools from Tenon on my Dual G5 server. We are moving to a new  
>> XServe Xeon in the next 2 days and I need to migrate the servers/ 
>> config to that machine. I do not wish to use the Apple supplied  
>> servers because they are usually out of date and don't meet my  
>> needs. I do not wish to continue using Tenon's iTools for the same  
>> reason. I am comfortable building my own servers from source, but  
>> its been so long that I'm not completely aware of all the options  
>> and I'd rather not recompile apache 50 times because I forgot  
>> something. I was told by a friend who maintains Apple's XServes in  
>> their IT team that some of those guys are enamored with MacPorts.  
>> So great  - here I am :)
>>
>> Here are the open source servers I run:
>> Apache2 with
>> 	mod_SSL
>> 	mod_auth_dbm
>> 	PHP5
>> MySQL 5
>> Subversion
>> SFTP
>>
>> I would like to add Webmin to the new server since we'd not be  
>> using iTools. Right now we have Subversion using svn+ssh access  
>> (direct SVN server access), but I'd like to change that to  
>> mod_SVN. So add that to the list too :)
>>
>> So my questions and concerns. With Apache2 we have it use the dbm  
>> for all authentication instead of htaccess or OS X accounts. I'd  
>> like to move our SFTP over to using the same dbm instead of OS X  
>> accounts like it is now. And I definitely want MySQL 5 running as  
>> an x64 binary. The rest can run as 32-bit binaries.  Of course I'd  
>> like to have it all start on startup and run in server mode.
>>
>> With all that said, any tips on variants/options to use with  
>> MacPorts to set this up properly?
>
> Apache and Subversion need apr and apr-util, and will install them  
> for you automatically if needed, but will do so with BerkeleyDB  
> support added. This is not necessary for most people, and on Mac OS  
> X I believe it is not recommended, so I like to omit BDB support on  
> my system.
>
> Apache always includes SSL support so no special variant is needed.  
> The apache2 port does install a mod_auth_dbm.so but I've never used  
> it. Does it require BerkeleyDB? If so, then you should forget about  
> the above BerkeleyDB-less recommendations.

Its actually a Berkley-less authentication mechanism so I'm good there.

>
> Subversion includes some nice tools you may want which are not  
> installed by default; use the +tools variant to get them. Couldn't  
> hurt even if you don't need the tools right this second.
>
> Use the +server variant for mysql5 to get the launchdaemon plist.  
> Apache is always a server and always includes the plist.
>
> php5 has many options selectable through many variants. "port info  
> php5" to see what's available.

Great - will do.

>
> I haven't had a chance to use an Intel Xserve yet but I assume that  
> anything you compile with MacPorts would end up 64-bit if you're on  
> such an Xserve. If you find that's not the case and that we need to  
> modify the portfiles in some way to make it happen, let us know.

Interesting :) Does anyone on this list have experience with this? OS  
X Tiger on the XServe (Quad core Xeons) supports 64-bit server  
processes such as MySQL 64-bit, but its not a 64-bit OS per se. I  
know Leopard comes with 64-bit Apache/MySQL.

>
> I don't have any experience managing an SFTP server so I can't  
> suggest a software package to install.
>
> It's been years since I ran Webmin. There doesn't appear to be a  
> webmin port for MacPorts. If you install it manually following  
> their instructions, it may work, depending on what you try to do  
> with it.

It does - I tried it on my iMac G5 (my PhoneValet server) first. They  
have OS X instructions and it works very well.

>
> Here's how I would install the ports you mentioned:
>
> sudo -s
> port install apr-util +no_bdb
> port install subversion +no_bdb +mod_dav_svn +tools
> port install mysql5 +server
> port install php5 +apache2 +mysql5
>
> Then you need to install the initial MySQL databases (or move in a  
> data directory from an old MySQL install). Then you activate the  
> launchdaemon plists for apache2 and mysql5.

Yes, I plan to do a dump out of my current DB to mysql5 as a new DB.   
Now - you mention activating the launchdaemon plists - I don't see  
that anywhere in the wiki or maybe it'll explain it when I run the  
port :)

I will try this tomorrow when the server is supposed to be delivered  
and will report back. Thanks!

Finally, why does MacPorts require X11 SDK? I have X11 installed on  
my MBP simply because of Crossover, but not the SDK. I wanted to test  
the server ports in MacPorts, but it requires I install the X11 SDK  
if I have X11 app installed and I have no intention of using X11 apps.


Alex Kac - President and Founder
Web Information Solutions, Inc. - Microsoft Certified Partner

"Patience is the companion of wisdom."
--Anonymous