Assuming there are no error messages,

root:/usr/local/src/eaccelerator-0.9.5.3# make
root:/usr/local/src/eaccelerator-0.9.5.3# make install


…But my site has already been down for more than 12 hrs now.

As I was contemplating a new server, one of my friend favored me by giving me his IBM xSeries server. He was not able to find space to keep this huge beast. Yes, it weighs 32 lbs, takes up space and is merciless with it’s fan noise.
Obviously, we are not equipped with racks to mount a server at home as in a datacenter. So now it stays on my floor hoping I would find a proper placement soon. As it came to me, it had the following specs

• Model: 8687-1RX
• Processor: 4 x Intel Xeon MP (Dual Core) 512 KB 2 GB (4x 512 MB)
• Processor Speed: 1.4GHz
• L2 Cache: 256 KB
• L2 Cache: 512 KB
• Memory: 4 GB (8 x 512MB)
• Memory Slots: 16
• Max. Memory: 64 GB (with 4 processors)
• Memory Type: PC-133 ECC SDRAM
• PCI-x: 6 available slots compatible with both 32 bit and 64 bit cards
  • 2 x 66 MHz
  • 2 x 100 MHz
  • 2 x 133 MHz
• Video: SVGA with 8 MB video memory
• USB: 3 ports (1 front, 2 rear)
• Storage Type: SCSI 160
• Network Adapter: 1 x 1000 MBps (on board PCI-x 66 MHz 64 bit)

When I got the system it had two 32.5 GB Ultra160 SCSI drives configured with RAID 1 handled by ServeRAID-4MX controller card and an additional 100 Mbps PCI-x network adapter installed. However, the RAID configuration was corrupted. I also felt the need to expand the storage space so as to accommodate two virtual machines. Since I do not have a SAN solution, these virtual machines have to be self contained for their storage requirements.

After extensive googling, I found the following sites that provided the hardware for the two upgrades I wanted, hard drive and memory.

• Two 73.8 GB Ultra160 SCSI drives (server pulls)
• 4 GB PC-133 ECC SDRAM (1 GB sticks)

While I was waiting for my new hardware to arrive, I tracked down the BIOS upgrades for my server, the RAID controller and more importantly the SCSI configuration Disk ISO. Hardware upgrade was very quick and simple; thanks to the modular and tool-less designs of these servers.

I used the SCSI controller disk to create a new RAID configuration and plopped in the VMware ESXi installer disk into the CDROM drive. It took about 10 -15 minutes from power on to complete the ESXi installation. The first and the last configuration from the console was to set a static IP to my ESXi host. Once done, I used the VMware client on my desktop (which comes with VMware server for desktops) to connect to the ESXi host and set up two virtual machines. One of them is a Linux VM running Ubuntu 9.04 Beta (Jaunty Jackalope) server edition. This was a major task and a long awaited one for me. I am glad that I have a production server and enough hardware for a standalone development environment.

Watch out for more posts on how I configured a LAMP server on my ubuntu VM and also on ESXi issues that I faced as I learnt administering it!

@ 10:50 PM – Winds getting Stronger !!

– Update:

@~midnight, the Hurricane hit us with full force. It was a great experience to hear the wind howling. Luckily we were safe but I can’t imagine how the affected would have been! Galveston was washed away. Lot of lives to repair.. and I guess there are certain things that even time won’t heal!!

Hurricane Ike (2008) Path

We did survive the hurricane (obviously) and the only issue was not having power at our apartment for nearly 7 days. Our new house did not suffer considerable damage except for a few roof shingles blown out of place and the fence completely blown away. Wasn’t truly our loss since we had not yet closed on the house. But there were a lot of damage in our would-be neighborhood.

In an enterprise environment, applications and updates are rolled out automatically as a post login script or using automated deployment tools. This automated update process however does not take care of prior versions of an application. As such a user might be left with multiple versions of the same application. Though the application by itself works well, application automation might take a hit. Another example of such an issue is having multiple JRE versions. Even worse, having registry entries for a few versions that don’t actually exist!

Ok here is the complete code tested and 100% functional:
1. Custom Docbase Attribute config file: Place the file in your custom/config directory.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
   <config version='1.0'>
      <scope type="YOUR_CUSTOM_TYPE">
         <!-- docbaseattributelist definition -->
         <attributelist id="YOUR_ATTR_ID" extends="attributes:webcomponent/config/library/attributes_dm_document_docbasea
ttributelist.xml">
         <data_dictionary_population>
            <enable>true</enable>
            <ddscopes>
               <ddscope name="application">webtop</ddscope>
            </ddscopes>
            <ignore_attributes>
               <!-- add any attributes that shouldn't be shown in the UI here -->
               <!-- <attribute name="attribute2"/> -->
               <attribute name="YOUR_ATTRIBUTE_TO_HIDE"/>
            </ignore_attributes>
         </data_dictionary_population>
      </attributelist>
   </scope>
</config>

2. This will be your custom newdoccontainer component: Place the xml file in
custom/config directory

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
   <config version="1.0">
      <scope>
         <component extends="newdoccontainer:webcomponent/config/library/create/newdoccontainer_com
ponent.xml" id="newdoccontainer">
            <!-- Contained components -->
            <contains>
	<component requiresVisit="true">newdocument</component>
	<component requiresVisit="false">newdocattributes</component>
	<component requiresVisit="false">permissions</component>
            </contains>
         </component>
      </scope>
</config>

3. Here is the definition for your newdocattributes component: Place it in your custom/config directory

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config version="1.0">
    <scope>
        <component extends="attributes:/webcomponent/config/library/attributes/attributes_dm_docum
ent_component.xml" id="newdocattributes">
            <!-- Component Layouts -->
            <pages>
                <start>/custom/attributes/new_document_attributes.jsp</start>
            </pages>
        </component>
    </scope>
</config>

4. Finally the jsp file for the above custom attributes component: Place it in custom/attributes directory and name it new_document_attributes.jsp

<%@ page contentType="text/html; charset=UTF-8" %>
<%@ page errorPage="/wdk/errorhandler.jsp" %>
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/tlds/dmform_1_0.tld" prefix="dmf" %>
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/tlds/dmformext_1_0.tld" prefix="dmfx" %>
?<dmf:html>
   <dmf:head>
      <dmf:webform/>
   </dmf:head>
   <dmf:body cssclass='contentBackground' id='attributes_dm_document' titlenlsid='MSG_TITLE' >
      <dmf:form>
         <!-- the Docbase object -->
         <dmfx:docbaseobject name="obj" configid="attributes"/>
         <!-- the attributes -->
         <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
            <tr>
               <td class="spacer" width="4">
                               </td>
               <td valign="top">
                  <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
                  <dmfx:docbaseattributelist name="attrlist" object="obj" attrconfigid="YOUR_ATTR_ID"/>
                  </table>
               </td>
            </tr>
            <!-- show all attributes checkbox -->
            <tr>
               <td align="left" colspan="2" valign="middle" scope="row" height="30">
                  <dmf:checkbox name='show_all' onclick='onShowAllClicked' nlsid='MSG_SHOW_ALL_PROPERTIES'/>
               </td>
            </tr>
         </table>
               </dmf:form>
   </dmf:body>
</dmf:html>

Make sure you modify the following words YOUR_CUSTOM_TYPE, YOUR_ATTRIBUTE_TO_HIDE, YOUR_ATTR_ID as per your needs.