SME Server:9.0Alpha

Back to SME Server 9.0 Development

SME 9 Alpha (Feb 14 2013 version) ISO Testing

An overview of related SME9 development pages can be found here.

There have as of now been 2 versions of the SME9Alpha1 ISO - check the date, this is current as for the Feb 14 2013 version.

User Feedback

The Alpha ISO will not give you a working system out of the box. There are steps here to follow after you install, but this will get you to a point that the other developers are at, and then you can report bugs and suggest fixes. Any issues that require developers attention should be logged in our Bug Tracker. (See below)

Bugs

• Check the recent activity in the SME9 category:link
• SME9 Bugs by type / status: link

Installing SME9 Alpha

• We suggest you use a virtual machine, like Virtualbox - [1]. The advantage is that you can save snapshots at important stages of testing and revert to them quickly. Some tips for virtualbox: The default settings for a Redhat virtual machine are fine, but you will want to change the Network settings to add a second network interface and be bridged adapters if you want to test Server-Gateway mode. The 1st adapter is local, the 2nd adapter is external.

	Note:
	keep in mind you need to activate the PAE option of your virtualisation environment for playing with SME Server 9

• Download the SME9 Alpha ISO from [2]. Use the x86_64 version if your hardware supports it.

If possible use something like zsync which will transfer just the chages to the ISO and not the whole file itself :

• You can get it for Debian/Ubuntu with

sudo apt-get install zsync

• On CentOS/ RH you can get an RPM here http://pkgs.repoforge.org/zsync/

You can then do the following :

	Tip:
	zsync http://mirror.contribs.org/releases/testing/9/iso/x86_64/smeserver-9.0alpha1-x86_64.iso.zsync zsync http://mirror.contribs.org/releases/testing/9/iso/i386/smeserver-9.0alpha1-i386.iso.zsync

If the ISO changes, just run these commands again and it will propogate the changes, not the whole file.

• Start the machine and choose the ISO image to boot from and install SME Server following the instructions.

After first reboot

• Save a snapshot
• Login as root and enable networking:

- This is a temporary measure, and should work if you have the a DHCP server giving your external adapter (usually eth1) an IP address

ifup eth0
ifup eth1

• enable ssh for access from Putty or other SSH client

- For easier copy/paste of the next few commands...This is also temporary, the hosts.allow file is templated and will be overwritten soon

echo "ALL:ALL" >> /etc/hosts.allow
service sshd reload

• Configure SME9 repositories

Download a repo file that will enable the SME9 repo's as a temporary measure until the SME9 yum.conf settings are enabled. After the post-upgrade/reboot the proper yum configuration is enabled.

wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/sme9.repo http://bugs.contribs.org/attachment.cgi?id=3682

• Yum install the e-smith and smeserver packages

- Bug bugzilla:7350 is fixed with e-smith-base-5.4.0-10 so now the command is just:

yum install smeserve\* e-smit\*  --nogpg

(todo: fix the repo file and instructions to not have to add --nogpg)

• Yum upgrade to see if there are other updates available

- currently this does nothing, no other rpms are updated

yum upgrade

• Save another snapshot
• post-upgrade / reboot

/sbin/e-smith/signal-event post-upgrade
/sbin/e-smith/signal-event reboot

- NOTE: press the 'ESC' key to close the CentOS graphical splash screen with the blue/white bar at the bottom of the screen before it is all white - see bugzilla:7354

• When system boots up it will ask you if you want to restore from backup (say no) and enter a root password, etc, and will reboot.
• Configure the server

- log in as root and run 'console' and select 'configure this server', choose the desired configuration and then it ask you to reboot again.

• Re-enable ssh access (the lazy not-so-secure way, but I am assuming for this testing/dev scenario that your external IP is really a local address behind a router)

db configuration setprop sshd status enabled
db configuration setprop sshd PermitRootLogin yes
db configuration setprop sshd acccess public
db configuration setprop sshd PasswordAuthentication yes
/sbin/e-smith/signal-event remoteaccess-update

• Enable easier access to the server manager (modify as needed for your network)

- I could not access the server manager from the console

db configuration setprop httpd-admin access public
db configuration setprop httpd-admin PermitPlainTextAccess yes 
db configuration setprop httpd-admin ValidFrom '192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0' 
/sbin/e-smith/signal-event remoteaccess-update

Should be able to access https://yourserverip/server-manager/ now in a browser but seems that you have to log in here first - https://yourserverip/server-common/cgi-bin/login - Is that right? I think I'm missing something...Someone fix this part of the instructions please :-) - Oh, it could be bugzilla:7254 causing part of that problem...

• Save another snapshot
• to-do - check smeupdates-testing is enabled, and if not, enable it and do another yum upgrade
• Look for things to fix & Report bugs/problems

- If you have followed these steps and you are up to date with 'yum upgrade', go ahead and look for problems, and report them to the bug tracker. Currently there are many issues, but lots have been reported and fixed already, so report issues you find right away.

Some ideas for things to look for:

Note:

In this Alpha ISO there are going to be a lot of strange things that might appear before doing a configure and reboot. Most of these things won't be of interest to us. Once we fix the configure and reboot part of the first-boot then we can really start looking at the issues that occur during install and first boot. If you notice any issues/bugs that occur after the initial config and reboot please continue to raise them.

• Services not starting
• Config files (templates) that need changes, especially if the major version of the package has changed
• Look in the various log files for clues to problems
• add more generic ideas here....specific issues to the bugtracker please

Discussion, help and share

• Please consult/subscribe to the devs list for more information. devinfo mailinglist and in particular all threads starting with " SME on CentOS 6"
• There is a IRC channel where people who are interested in this effort 'hang out'. You're most welcome to drop by and/or join. It's free! ;-)
  • You do not have to install anything to pay the channel a visit. All you need is a nice nickname and right click here to open the channel in a new browser window or tab.

Resources and references

Setting up a RPM Building environment under CentOS

• Simplest way to develop patches to submit
• Building using Mock
• Simple Package Modification
• On the CentOS wiki
• From the Fedora project