SME Server:9.0Alpha

SME 9 Alpha1 (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 :

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

After first reboot

- 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

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 upgrade to the latest the e-smith and smeserver packages

- All the e-smith and smeserver packages needed are installed by the CD now, and bug ~~bugzilla:7350~~ is fixed with e-smith-base-5.4.0-10 so now the command is just:

yum --disablerepo=base,updates,extras upgrade --nogpg

post-upgrade / reboot

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

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. It has been seen that the server freezes on entering the first letter of the admin password, more info needed on this.

- Should be able to access https://yourserverip/server-manager/ now in a browser but due to ~~bugzilla:7254~~ you need to access it twice.

Save a snapshot in virtualbox so you can revert to this point if needed.
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. - the repo smeupdates-testing is not enabled by default. At this point in the development process you will probably want those rpms. This will check what is available:

yum --enablerepo=smeupdates-testing upgrade --nogpg

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

here are the current bugs that have been found

"Well done guys, no more open bugs!"

Please consult/subscribe to the devs list for more information. devinfo mailinglist
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. ChatZilla is a good option for Firefox users.

Tips

Re-enable ssh access

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

easier access to the server manager

Enable easier access to the server manager if you prefer (modify as needed for your network)

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

Resources and references

Setting up a RPM Building environment under CentOS

Zsync

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 :

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.

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