[volunteers] Some questions about Lighty and svn on www.svlug.org

[Lisa]

On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 03:50:21AM -0700, Rick Moen wrote:
> Lisa, thank you for past good work on getting the
> www.svlug.org virthost into shape.

You're welcome.  And, in fact, I have some regret that I have
been unable to help for the last 18 months or so.  Work has been
killing me (not literally), I had some moderately serious
medical issues, I am working on another pilot rating, and my
daughter has been keeping me hopping in the remainder of my
"free time."

> I'm contemplating getting the virthost updated to newer Ubuntu
> Server software -- which is long overdue because it's still on
> 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon, which is now ancient.

Probably a good idea.

> I've researched the slightly arcane recommended procedure
> required for upgrading Ubuntu Server.  Most Ubuntu docs are
> extremely vague on the matter: The notion of upgrading without
> X11 and a huge pile of overengineered GUI software seems alien
> to the Ubuntu mindset.  _However_, there is a solution: The
> 'do-release-upgrade' ncurses tool, part of the
> update-manager-core tool, is said to be exactly the right tool
> for the job (a tip from Akkana Peck).  I have now kludged
> www.svlug.org's access to (residual) Ubuntu apt repositories
> for EOLed releases, and installed Gutsy Gibbon's version of
> the 'do-release-upgrade' tool.

Interesting.  Since we went to ubuntu server, I decided to do
the same on my personal linode and, IIRC, I have upgraded
several times via CLI.  I didn't think it was that difficult,
nor did I remember using a special tool.  But it's quite
possible that I did so and just forgot about it.

Just did a quick search and the only thing I found is pretty
much what you say above:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=590813

> I'm thus almost ready to start moving the virthost into the
> 21st Century, starting with the upgrade to Hardy Heron. 
> _But_, I need to check with you on two things:
> 
> 1.  I notice that Lightttpd is running a whole lot of
> /usr/bin/php-cgi daughter processes.  These seem to be the
> FastCGI infrastructure required to support PHP, which you
> added in order to finally lose all the archaic .shtml SSI
> architecture from the original site design.  I notice there
> are eight php-cgi process instances.  Is there a way to tune
> that?  You are by far the best-briefed volunteer on that
> subject.  In fact, I daresay that you're currently the only
> person who can safely touch that at all.
> 
> I ask that favour for a couple of reasons:  (1) Once again,
> it's becoming a good idea to look closely at www.svlug.org
> configuration to make sure we're not wasting RAM (because we
> may be able to shoehorn in Mailman and SMTP after all).  I
> have a feeling that the eight
> /usr/bin/php-cgi processes are excessive.

>From one of your earlier messages to the list, it seems like you
have solved this problem?

> 2.  I notice that www.svlug.org runs xinetd.  As far as I can
> tell, the sole reason this is the case is to run
> /usr/bin/svnserve on port 3690.  And, in turn, I notice that
> we _don't use svnserve_.  Instead, we just reach svn over ssh,
> like most people.
> 
> I'm thus highly tempted to turn off both xinetd and svnserve,
> cutting RAM usage.  Do you see any reason why not?

I don't even recall being aware of that.  But it's quite
possible that either: (a) The install does that by default and I
wasn't even aware that it did so or (b) I thought that the CLI
client might use it and didn't know how to (or didn't take the
time to) check.

I see no problem with the idea of disabling it -- particularly
if the CLI still works just fine.  Because, like you, I am not
aware of any other way that anyone uses SVN.

> Thanks for your help, Lisa.

NP.  Again, I am sorry that you are having to shoulder this
burden on your own.  If the meetings have been "decently"
attended, I am surprised that none of the "active" memebers have
stepped up to assist.  *sigh*

Lisa