[ILUG] weekend projects...

[kevin lyda]

two seperate projects this weekend.  first mod_gzip which is an apache
module to speed up serving static and dynamic mime(text/.*) web content.
the second is the compaq smart array configs for linux.

before i go on much more i'll cover the following bits: the server
is running redhat 7.3 linux with all the updates on a compaq dl380.
the client is running the same on a compaq laptop.  pretty much everything
is stock redhat 7.3 - and i'm consciously trying to stick to that.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
mod_gzip:
    
    there's a tutorial on linux.ie for it (thanks donnacha) but since i'm
    not an apache person this only got me part of the way.  step by step,
    this is what i did:

	# cd /root
	# wget http://www.remotecommunications.com/apache/mod_gzip/src/1.3.19.1a/mod_gzip.c.gz
	# gunzip mod_gzip.c.gz
	# apxs -ic mod_gzip.c
    
    that should compile and install fine, so add the following to
    your apache configs.  i've included comments to explain where they
    should go.  my apache config is split among many files (which is
    why i didn't use the -a flag to apxs).

	# put this after the last LoadModule line
	LoadModule gzip_module        /usr/lib/apache/mod_gzip.so
	# put this after the last LoadModule line
	AddModule mod_gzip.c
	# this just needs to go below the obove two lines.
	<IfModule mod_gzip.c>
	    mod_gzip_on                         Yes
	    mod_gzip_minimum_file_size          300
	    mod_gzip_maximum_file_size          0
	    mod_gzip_item_include               file    \.htm$
	    mod_gzip_item_include               file    \.html$
	    mod_gzip_item_include               file    \.txt$
	    mod_gzip_item_include               file    \.php$
	    mod_gzip_item_include               file    \.php3$
	    mod_gzip_item_include               file    \.php4$
	    mod_gzip_item_include               file    \.pl$
	    mod_gzip_item_include               mime    text/.*
	    mod_gzip_item_include               mime    httpd/unix-directory
	    mod_gzip_item_include               handler ^perl-script$
	    mod_gzip_item_include               handler ^server-status$
	    mod_gzip_item_include               handler ^server-info$
	    mod_gzip_item_exclude               file    \.css$
	    mod_gzip_item_exclude               file    \.js$
	    mod_gzip_item_exclude               mime    ^image/.*
	    mod_gzip_dechunk                    yes
	    # mod_gzip_min_http                 1000
	    mod_gzip_temp_dir                   /tmp
	    mod_gzip_keep_workfiles             No

	    LogFormat "%h \"%f\" %{mod_gzip_result}n %{mod_gzip_input_size}n %{mod_gzip_output_size}n %{mod_gzip_compression_ratio}npct." mod_gzip_logs
	    CustomLog logs/compression_log mod_gzip_logs
	</IfModule>

    finally, poke apache:

	# service httpd reload

    and after you've viewed some pages and check
    /var/log/httpd/compression_log in order to see if it's working.
    if you have /server-info avilable you should see that mod_gzip
    is loaded.  a compressed line and a non-compressed line might look
    like this:

	roo "/.../ssl_glossary.html" OK 15092 4726 69pct.
	roo "/.../ssl_template.head-num-7.gif" DECLINED:EXCLUDED 0 0 0pct.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
compaq smart array config:   (WARNING: YOU NEED A JVM FOR YOUR BROWSER)

    i searched on google for "compaq smart array configuration linux" and
    got a slew of hits.  one of them was a click away from this page:

	http://www.compaq.com/support/files/server/us/download/14703.html

    i downloaded the rpm.  installed it. and ran the server per the
    instructions.  note, the -R enables remote connections.  if you're
    running the browser locally, run it without the -R and connect
    to localhost.

	cpqacuxe -R

    i found that galeon didn't work.  mozilla did.  i suspect it's because
    pop-ups are disabled in galeon config, but i might be wrong.  it uses
    java which is slow and memory hungry on this laptop.  feel free to
    try galeon with pop-ups enabled if you want to.

    so, point mozilla at http://yourserver:2301/ .  login as
    administrator/administrator and change your password.  then go back
    to the main page and click the little drive array graphic towards
    the bottom.  configure your array as you want (i had to add a disk).
    save your changes, and exit.  to stop the server, just do this:

	cpqacuxe -stop

    in my case the drive was now accessible.  i started the process of
    making the file systems by partitioning the drive.  i knew what
    it would be called, but a grep for ida on the output of dmesg
    confirmed it.

	fdisk /dev/ida/c0d1

    and from there i built the filesystems and so on.

hope this helps some folks,

kevin

-- 
Kevin Lyda - kevin at doolin.com
Lead Programmer
Doolin Technologies