Office of Information Technology

1
Princetons Apache Utility

• How to make users happy without losing your mind
• HighEdWebDev 2006 TPR 6

2
Princeton University

• Students
• 6,500 undergraduates,
• 3,000 graduate
• Departments
• ?
• No medical/law/etc. graduate schools

3
Imagine a Conversation

• Someone with a university affiliation calls and
  wants to put up a web site.
• Question is how can you help me?
• Answer changes with the service vision

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I want to put up a web site, how can you help me
do that?

• 2000
• Public html pages (www/)
• Register for perl cgi (campuscgi)
• DbToolbox (DB application interface)
• Buy your own server and manage it

5
I want to put up a web site, ?

• 2004
• Public html pages (www/)
• Register for perl cgi (campuscgi)
• DbToolbox (DB application interface)
• Webscript (public php/mysql service)
• Buy your own server and manage it

6
I want to put up a web site, ?

• 2006
• Public html pages (www/)
• Register for perl cgi (deprecated)
• DbToolbox (deprecated)
• Webscript (public php/mysql service)
• Departmental Weblamp service
• Departmental Roxen service
• Buy your own server and manage it

7
The Departmental Web Site Planners Dilemma

• Private or shared server?
• Security?
• Production level service?
• Technical help?
• Cost?
• Cost?
• Cost?

8
The Ideal World

• Websites just happen
• Analogy, the electric company
• Always just there

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The Real World

• Physical network presence
• Computing platform
• Network connection
• Web/Application server
• Content control mechanisms
• Maintenance

10
The Goal

• Provide access to services for users across the
  university
• Practically
• For as many as possible
• Within our ability to support
• Recognizing need

11
The Goal

• With a useful set of standard tools
• Apache 1
• Apache 2
• Pam Ldap authentication
• Mysql 4
• Php 5
• Any scripting language available on Redhat
  Enterprise 3 (perl, python, etc.)
• Awstats
• phpMyAdmin

12
The Goal

• With a useful set of optional tools
• User directory support
• RSA authentication
• Supervisory/Customer support interface
• Single sign-on (WebISO using pubcookie)
• Tomcat connectors
• Weblogic connectors
• Tomcat

13
Service Models

• From us who have to him who has need
• The suck us dry model
• For him who has according to their wallet
• The capitalist model
• For him who yells loudest
• The political model
• We dont serve here and we should
• The opportunity model

14
Cheap Sites

• People like to buy cheap sites
• In a college/university cost has no relationship
  to expected service

15
User Management by

• Public html pages
• Webscript (public php/mysql service)
• 0
• No support
• Departmental Weblamp service
• 22/month (for two sites, test development
  sites)
• Hand holding up to site development (charged)
• Shared Server
• 60/month
• Pay for site development
• Departmental Roxen service
• Charged site development
• Waiting list
• Buy your own server and manage it
• Server cost 5,000/year (UPS and system
  support)
• Pay for site developement

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Result

• 6 sites _at_ 60/month
• 1 site _at_ ??/month (bumped off 60 machine)
• 22 sites _at_ 22/month (2 instances each)
• Various other sites created for other uses
• Total 65 installation instances on 16 servers

17
How Do You Survive?

• Automate
• Simplify
• Decentralize

18
Demo

• Monitoring
• Site defintion
• Installation