1) Contact info
2) RT Queue items that should be done before he gets back
3) old -> new webserver
4) assignment submission broken
5) q. about peoplepages.

1) contact info: Isaac gone through May 11.  physically out-of-town for a few weeks around Christmas.
and away for some of March.
- expect email replies < 1 week
- hoped to have SVN set up with his work, before he left...
- will work on parts of coding he can't explain well.

2) queue items:
- current postgres- 8.3 xhiered, not on server.
  - it fixes function definition problems (dif between func-call and func-define).
  - Adrian?

- Python: 2.5 OK, 2.6 will be out before he's back.
  - used in classes
  - "supposed to be drop-in replacement (not like 2->3)

- services120.cs: not integrated, regional requests don't arrive.
  - infrastructure job
  - only used for: grad app (before last week)
  - will be used for web-server

  - uses xhier package odyssey-apache, for server config, document roots
    - student region
    - not on core
  - this sot of config has been done by adrian in the past
  - CAS-enabled by default
    - distribute group file (within region?) to allow multiple servers.
    - maybe eventually pull from watiam

3) webserver:
  - old: per-host logs
  - new: regional logs
    - hostname is in log
    - performance implications? maybe. if so, maybe move back to host.
      - has script to log from the access-log file into SQL and remove the original log.
      - direct to SQL is awful, because if d/b goes down, webserver goes down.
      - Question about whether this double-redirect (from webserver to regional file to SQL) is easier than just SQL?
        - access-log: custom format = easy to keep in SQL.
        - error-log: freeform text = impossible to parse. so each virtualhost gets its own (not SQL)

  - new webserver will use FastCGI (better splitting of error logs)
    - needs FlexSUexec conversion?
      - maybe suexec as wrapper?  
    - xhier package odyssey-apache
      - one config for common look&feel
      - log rotation: rotate daily (error and access)
      - CAS fixup (ticket= in URL)
      - proxy-caching: not active.
        - new server anticipates regional files -> regionalization should be easier.
      - ready for testing
      - would like to symlink new doc-root on services120 to test
      - apache2, newer python..
      - menu stuff isn't finished; hook up old Java for testing.
3a) changing menus:
  - anonymous user -> anonymous JVM -> zapping anonymous JVMs will clear up clogs.
  - do once per hr.
  - cached in JVM on www.student.cs
  - killing all Java running as user odyssey is OK.
  - tracking mystery: common element is java on database.cs and jvm on www.student.cs
    - shell script to run submit elsewhere, via ssh?
    - submit is a CLI command.

  - daily crontab to clean up.
    - restart JVMs
    - clean out connections directory (FIFO, locs are fine)
    - filenames have mnemonic. .= (period equals) running as user.
    - killing database JVM 2am (is that an awful time, given when students are working? 8am?)
  - isaac suggests telling tutor to log in and turn off submission section manually?

4) broken assignment-submission system
  - webserver fast, but... present menu implementation slow.
  - java uses lots of generics so half code is type-definitions
  - melts down because look-and-feel depends on Java
  - should be converted to interpreted code!
  - newer grad program expanding to fit
  - written with Ilya
  - framework for making system in python.
  - xml-html-generation library.

  - working with existing system: cleaning tasks to automate:
    - odyssey-2: svn from [some-machine] checkout
      - capo source -> user package (not /usr/src)
      - needs to be svn up'd to make changes
      - it's documented; and changes require svn.

    - logs -> odyssey pkg. from: connectors, and Java procedures.  Both might have problems.
    - kill all old Java processes.  Daily?

[map of processes, sort of encapsulated above.]

5) peoplepages: isaac has new version on old server. he will work on it, put it onto new server.
  - automate professor edit bios, papers. computes small snapshot from large automatically.

-- DanielAllen - 20 Jan 2009