If you read my last post (if you were even able to) you’ll notice that things have been slated for a change here on the server. Before moving any other websites to the virtual host configuration scenario I must do some testing first. I figured in this case it would be easiest to just monkey around with it on my production site, and it has produced some rather, well, interesting results.
I discovered that combining the SSL and Non-SSL virtual host directives caused the issues. I created a self signed SSL cert specifically for the doogielabs.com site versus the icebox.doogielabs.com server itself. When I combined the SSL directives the site theme failed to load making the home page appear as if you had just visited the site using Interweb Exploder 4 (yuck!), and the pictures loaded all messed up. I’m not sure if something got lost in translation? There were no errors in Apache log, and I didn’t care enough to turn on debugging in WordPress or the browser because I knew the issue lied within the configuration
Anyways, separating the *:80 and *:443 server directives in apache fixed the issue. The site even works at my house, faster than ever at that.
Along with the virtual server directives I was forced to change the way the address is handled in the server. (address is no longer icebox.doogielabs.com/doogielabs, but instead just doogielabs.com as explained in the new years post). This caused me to add aliases in the httpd server config for double paths. Some images on the site may reference as /doogielabs/e107_files/whatever.img, as if the address was icebox.doogielabs.com. If it’s just doogielabs.com then the true address now is actually just /e107_files/whatever.img.
So the alias allows doogielabs.com/doogielabs/e107_files/whatever.img, and forwards it to the real path doogielabs.com/e107_files/whatever.img.
The whole site definitely does not run this way, the only thing in the old e107 folder is images that my articles reference. Every DoogieLabs article written was ported from the other two CMS’s , and retaining the image DIR’s as they were allowed me to import everything in less than a weekend.
It’s a complicated deal (kinda), but in the end things will be much better off. I have noticed an all around speed improvement for example. If you see something that doesn’t work, please be sure and let me know. Everything works at this point besides the images on the Vanagon pages.
In other site related news…
I upgraded my network in my house today! I was able to finally pick up the remaining pieces to put together a Gigabit fiber backbone for the server. I picked up a Cisco Catalyst 2900XL and a 1000Base SX GBIC so I could have a fiber backbone for the server. All this stuff is actually covered in this random update video here:
What you see near the end actually turned out to be something very interesting. In researching my name resolution issues I was kind of thinking that a DNS server may be the perfect solution to this problem. So after doing some head scratching looking at how to setup a DNS Server in Solaris, I decided to dust off the old Windows NT Disks and setup a DNS Server that way. I really wished server 2003 was supported on the Sun PCi II. I know that Windows 2000 advanced server is, but I do not have it anymore.
Actually, the DNS Server thing was incredibly interesting, for the first time if someone visited a site from within my house, the name would instantly resolve to where it needed to go instead of receiving a few second delay. I could name other things on the network and have instant access to them. The DHCP stuff is actually still handled by my DSL Modem, and even my servers are setup with DHCP, but the address is static in the database in the modem. I could do this any number of different ways, for now this has worked out pretty good. Of course there are a couple of things with static IP addresses. Such as the DNS Server, and the RSC Card. I should have done this a very long time ago, I guess I haven’t really needed to for any reason but now it is done. As far as Windows NT Goes, it’s only temporary. I want to learn how to setup the same network within Solaris and keep everything running from within Solaris. Although, the PCi Card provides and interesting Container. Windows NT runs from a Ramdisk. If there was an issue for any reason I just re-upload the image to the ramdisk (or this happens after a reboot anyways) and any corruption, changes, and viruses are removed.
I’m not sure if NT is the most reliable solution for DNS, but it’ll do. I’ve already had some interesting issues with it, such as the server crashing when changing DNS settings in the router.
I’ve also thought about tasking the Alpha Multia I have with this project, but the Sandbox created from the PCi II environment is closer to what DNS actually does.
As of finally finishing writing this, the site pieces that are broken are finally all fixed. So if you see anything out of the ordinary please let me know in the comments, should be the most convenient way. The circuit board pattern is new and I feel a nice touch.
Likewise I need feedback on the speed. The site should load nearly immediately, if the site takes a few seconds or more to load definitely please let me know. I depend largely on people’s feedback to both projects and the site. Much of the time I don’t know if the site works for the outside world because regardless it will work inside my house.
That’s all for the site now, before I get too far off course. I have a bunch of unrelated things that I could waffle on about, but then again I don’t know that anyone reads these anyways 😛
