December 30, 2004
FreeBSD is my server OS of choice and I’m modifying a post sysinstall script to install the software that I find essential, fetch essential system files that I’ve modified (and maintain) like the cvsup file and my personal bash_profile, install and setup scripting to automate the d/l of security patches (patches to be applied manually), auto update the ports collection and email me a report of installed ports that have new version available, etc. Good stuff: I’m brushing off my shell scripting in the process and getting a chance to give Unison a try for keeping my various bash_profile installs in sync.
David has volunteered an older box for my use and I want to run some benchmarking on NFS using various configuration settings - I’m looking for optimal setting in NFS 3 between two FreeBSD boxes (have you seen NFS 4?). I learned quite a bit about setting up and maintaining high availability Apache clusters while at Rackspace and don’t want those skills getting rusty. I plan on doing a write up of the NFS testing and then want to start experimenting with replication (and eventually the new clustering) in MySQL. I also want to look at pricing for SATA drives and a controller for Petrov (the box that I do most of my development work on - computers here are named after the convicts in Dostoevsky’s “House of the Dead”).
The active record class is coming along and I hope to get that first write up out no later than tomorrow. For the first article, I’ve stripped the class down to the bare functionality to represent one table with the intention of adding the management and interaction of related entities for the second article (that’s where it gets interesting, anyway).
Lots of photos from Christmas to process and post when I get a chance. I may try to get those processed this evening while hanging out with Kristen. Oh, “Shaun of the Dead” is the funniest movie that I’ve seen in ages and I highly recommend it if you’re not too into the trite and obvious American slap-sticky humor.