Testing Server......

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 8:48 pm

Greetings All,
The impending release of RN 2.10 has got me thinking. I guess it is time for me to come out of the Dark ages and set up a testing server and stop working LIVE.

I have 2 choices. I have a Blank Partition on my main machine or I have a another machine sitting by my desk doing nothing.

I would like to have a place to test code but also I would like to have a place to run remote backups too. (In the middle of the night have my remote server server log into my local server and upload backup data)

I would like to do this right the first time....so I am coming to the experts. What is the best way to go about this? XAMP, LAMP or a customn install of Redhat on the other machine?

One other question while I am at it....I would want to match my existing server cofigs as close as possible. Other than Apache, PHP, MySql and PhpMyadmin what other configs do I need to ensure I set up equal to my live servers for everything to mesh correctly? (That means if it runs on the testing server it should run on the LIVE server)

Thanks for the Time, Engery and Effort this post will require!

Dawg

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 8:52 pm

I use XAMPP on my home desktop PC and love it. I downgraded the PHP from 5 to 4 to almost match my live site (it comes with a bat file to do this). MySQL is still at 5 on XAMPP while my live site is 4.x.x something. It's not a perfect match but it is a very convenient test bed.

I dunno if it is good for doing backups or anything.

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 3:04 pm

I am in agreement with Gremmie on XAMP! I have always just built my own PC up from scratch with the components in the past, but when I replaced my laptop this year, I decided to give it a try. What a snap it was to install and set up. Basically, for a local test system, there was NO configuring needed (except that I still use virtual hosts even locally to even more closely mirror my production sites).

I have not even downgraded. I have been developing and testing the RavenNuke 2.10 release using the latest XAMP (which is Apache 2.0.x, mySQL 5.0.x and PHP 5.1.x). After RN is released, I am going to upgrade all of my sites to it and then upgrade my Apache, PHP and mySQl as I have been longing to use the new features (and more recent versions of some other software)... Smile

BTW, if most of what you are doing is PHP/PHP-nuke, I am now less inclined to worry about being exactly the same as my production. I used to be "anal" about it, but unless you are going to be what I'd like to call "programming around the fringes" (taking advantage of low-level stuff) that requires an exact replica, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

However, if you see something which says "requires version x.x to run", you could have issues.

For remote backups, I have used phpMySQLAutoBackup. Not a bad utility. It will backup your database and then send the compressed file to whatever email address that you want. i simply scheduled using my windows scheduler to fire up the IE browser with the URL it required at some point in the night.

I'll be honest though, I have not used it in a very long time.

BTW, doesn't cpanel give you the ability to have it FTP the back up to wherever you wish? But, wouldn't that also require you to have a fixed IP address always at your PC? If you are like many of us, you probably have your home network sitting behind a firewall/router and using NAT. Not sure it would work well this way unless you really want to expose your PC to the outside world.

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2007 3:05 pm

BTW, I would NOT use the basic XAMP or LAMP on a production server! Unless you know what you are doing and can lock it down.....