On September 16, 1999 at 11:00, GreenNet Outreach wrote:
We are not sure which server it is best to install it on - should it be on
the same server as the listproc software or the same server as the web
pages it generates, which would be the easiest to install?
It is best to have mhonarc run on system where the output would be
directly accessible by the web server. For basic setups, this would be
on the same system as the web server. If you utilize NFS, you can have
run mhonarc run on a separate system. Some like to run mhonarc on the
same system as the mailing list software since the mailing list
software can usually be configured to invoke mhonarc directly.
However, this is not a requirement. Many archive sites (like
<http://www.mail-archive.com> and
<http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/>) run mhonarc on systems
that are completely separate from the mailing list server.
As for platform choice, as Al has pointed out, MHonArc is more
Unix/Linux oriented (historically, MHonArc has been developed under
ConvexOS (BSD), Solaris, and now Linux). However, attempts are made
to make MHonArc functional on non-Unix-type systems. Some
features (like UMASK) are Unix-specific and will not work on non-Unix
systems. The docs make note when a particular feature is specific to
an operating system, or if it varies between different operating
systems.
Since mhonarc is a command-line/batch-oriented program, Unix-based
systems are more amicable. Also, it appears it is easier to get
mhonarc configured to run automatically on Unix-based systems over
Win9x/NT systems.
Does anyone have urls for information on setting up this kind of system.
I have looked through the mhonarc site and the documentation which seems
to be very general and assumes all services are running on the same
servers.
Setup varies depending on your site configuration, mail software,
and your technical expertise. I do not think there are any direct
assumptions that all services are running on the same system in any
of the docs. Things are much easier to deal with when it is.
The main things one has to figure out is the following:
o How will mail get passed to mhonarc for archiving?
o How will files created by mhonarc become accessible by the
web server?
These 2 questions are related. If mhonarc is running on a system
different from your web server, you need to determine how the
web server will get access to the HTML files created by mhonarc.
One approach is to use NFS (or some other shared network file system
protocol). Another is to use a tool like rdist or rsync to
mirror the files from the mhonarc system to the web system.
As for how to get data to mhonarc for processing, there are several
approaches, and some depend on your mailing list software, list traffic
volume, machine performance, and possibly your MTA.
I guess it would be nice to have setup/administration guide for
mhonarc that goes over various configration models. Anyone willing
to volunteer writing such a document?
--ewh
