[Server-devel] Progress Update for Nepal

[Greg Smith (gregmsmi)]

Hi Tony et al,

Glad your network is stable and you're moving on to backup and other
tools!

I copied links to your ip tables scripts to the Nepal School Server
Phase 1 design page at:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Nepal:School_Server_Specification_-_Phase_1_De
sign

I think we need to wrap up all the relevent steps to go from off the
shelf HW to Nepal style XS or XF

Here is what I have so far:
1 - Load Linux, Apache, Moodle and PHP:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/InsideSystemStorage?entry=u
nderstanding_lamp_platform_for_web

2 - Install XS build 150
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Installing_Software

3 - Install active attennas
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Active_Antenna_Reprogramming
Does this doc really capture all the steps for getting the mesh and
active antennas to work?

4 - Set up your network
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Az990tony/iptables

I think I'm missing steps for these unless some of them come ready with
the XS 150 image:
- Setup squid (and XF in general if different from XS above)
- Setup apache and create School server home page
- Setup moodle and create home pages?

I gleaned this from a past post on directory structure. Not sure if that
gets built during install of apache and moodle or needs to be made by
hand:
/var/www/html/ <--- this is the high level directory.
/var/www/html/index.php <--- this is the default home page.
/var/www/html/moodle <--- this is moodles directory
/var/www/html/moodle/index.php <-- this is the Moodle home page

Anything missing, incorrect or in the wrong order?

I assume DHCP and DNS are configured and usable out of the box with the
XS Build 150...

I want to put together the documentation from start to finish if
possible. I've seen several people ask for this on the list so I think
it will help beyond Nepal deployment.

BTW with 14 hours of power in Nepal, we should do a test where you
switch off power on all devices without warning then see if it all comes
back up...

Thanks,

Greg S

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2008 12:10:35 -0700
From: Tony Pearson <tpearson at us.ibm.com>
Subject: [Server-devel] Progress Update for Nepal
To: server-devel at lists.laptop.org
Message-ID:
	
<OF93942CD1.E8C6C108-ON872573F9.0064AB18-072573F9.00695708 at us.ibm.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Team,
Ok, my "iptables" problem last week was a major setback, but I was able
to get it resolved this weekend!

I have started to upload the files to wiki.laptop.org rather than point
everyone over to my personal webpage.

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Az990tony   (my new page about me and my 
projects)
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Az990tony/nepal  (topology diagrams and
details of nepal project)
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Az990tony/scripts (scripts under MIT
license)
I resolved my "iptables" issue with a new set of iptables rules.  I am
fortunate to have a Barnes & Noble nearby with an extensive collection
of computer books, and can usually find the right book for each task.
This time it was "Linux Networking Cookbook".  Chapter 3 is EXACTLY what
we are trying to do.

I have written fire-start script, and posted here, with explanations of
where I put it, and how I got it to be active at boot.

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Az990tony/scripts#fire-start

(Sorry Wad, I just couldn't figure out how to get this to work using the
data/config files from the base XS-150)

For lack of better terminology, I will use the following to designate
each
box:

ISP -- my ISP model (DSL to the outside world) HUB -- my D-Link Wi-Fi
and four-port hub.  In my case, my XO is pure mesh, so never sees the
WiFi.
Win  -- my Windows box which has my keyboard, mouse and screen XF --
headless Firewall/Dansguardian/Proxy/Squid XS -- school server (LAMP
with Moodle) XB -- backup server (I don't have one yet, and might have
XD double for now as the backup server)

ISP --- HUB --- Win
ISP --- HUB --- XF --- XS --- XO

Here is what I have working:
Win ---> (SSH) --> XF                (this gives me a Windows view into 
the headless XF machine)
Win --> (SSH) --> XF --> (SSH) --> XS      (this gives me a Windows view

into the headless XS machine)
XF --> (eLinks HTTP) --> XS            (this is my main page for XS
school 
server)
XF <--- (eLinks HTTP) <-- XS            (this is just the dummy 
Fedora/Apache test page running on XF)
XS <--- (Browse) <-- XO over Channel 1 mesh  (clicking "Schoolserver" on
Google start page launches XS main page)

I am able to display the main page and Moodle pages from the XO and they
look great except for the Nepali script getting garbled into square
characters.

I had working yesterday the ability to go XF<--XS<--XO where I could
view the test Fedora/Apache page on XF, and could view the outside
internet! 
Unfortunately, I shut
everything down, and today it is not working, so I must have failed to
write down a critical step somewhere along the way.  I find that forcing
everything to shut down and start back up each day guarantees that I
document and make certain all the changes that I make are accurately
accounted for.

I also did a "yum install nmap" to provide nmap tool on both XF and XS.

Bryan Berry wrote:
>>Finally, here are the two areas Tony can really help us w/
>>
>>1. Backup scripts for the XO's and the XS
>>  a. backup the student's data to the server. There is some stuff in
>>  b. backup the XS across the network, possibly w/ rsync or 
>>rdiffbackup 2. Installation and configuration for dansguardian. We 
>>haven't gotten around to working w/ this yet.

I am in a good position now to research and work on both of these. 

1) I will research "rsync" and these other tools.
2) I don't yet have squid or dansguardian running, but at least I am
much closer than last weekend.





Tony Pearson
Senior Storage Consultant, IBM System Storage?
Telephone: +1 520-799-4309 |  tie 321-4309 |  Cell: +1 520 990-8669
email: tpearson at us.ibm.com |  GSA: http://tucgsa.ibm.com/~tpearson
Blog: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/InsideSystemStorage
AKA: 990tony Paravane, eightbar specialist