2019

On 29 Sep 2019, at 01.58, Stuart Tremain <webdna@plsoftware.com.au> wrote:

I have really leaned =another one of this life's lessons today.

As any member of this list will may or =may not know I have been an active member of this list for 20+ =years.

During =this time I have learned so much about the use of WebDNA from people =such as Ken Grome, Donovan Brooke, and others that have since moved =on.

I have =always tried hard to return the favour and as such at times have gone =far and beyond the task of offering help. I have enjoyed giving back to =the community from which my skills have grown. This I believe is the =reason why I have been contracted by WebDNA users from around the =world.

I have =seen many users over the years with configuration problems, in =particular the last few weeks with Ubuntu 18.04, hence the reason why I =wrote the instructions a week or so ago on how to set up WebDNA on a =fresh installation of Ubuntu 18.04 - I even went as far as to provide an =image of the same available to anyone that would like it, all in the =hope that WebDNA would become a quick easy solution for members of this =list to implement.

I had a number of people request a copy of this image, none =of whom have taken up the offer. One user requested that I build an =image that anyone could use on any platform. However this is not =possible for cloud servers as each cloud provider has their own flavour =of Ubuntu tuned to their hosting configuration. The instructions that I =publish will work if you follow the steps on any host and/or new Ubuntu =18.0 installation.

And then along came Brian Harrington. 

I must preface this with =the fact that everything that i have done for Brian was at no charge, =purely a gesture of good will that I extend to all members of this =list.

Brian =was unable to log into the Ubuntu 18.04 Droplet that he created. I =offered to meet him on Skype to help him get past his hurdle - less than =a minute later I had connected to the Droplet (a virtual server) using =ssh, Brian had some confusion as to how that was achieved, and had not =received the image that I had shared with him from DigitalOcean. So to =make things easier and so that he didn=E2=80=99t have to go backwards I =simply completed the installation from the instructions that I had =published.

Less =than 20 minutes later Brian was the owner of a shiny new Ubuntu 18.04 =server complete with a working installation of WebDNA server that was =only requiring a license number.

As you will know, if you have read the =published instructions, Webmin is also installed on the =Droplet.

What =happened next is purely comical, if I published the emails that I =received and you read the warnings that I provided, plus the repeated =advice that I gave,  you would see exactly where Brian=E2=80=99s =problems are.

=46rom here all Brian needed to do was upload his websites to =/var/www/html and set up his Virtual hosts - at this stage WebDNA was =100% functional with all the standard file extensions that are installed =with the WebDNA installer.

As an additional task I set up two Virtual Hosts, one on 80 =the other on 443 with the ssl certificate that he supplied so that he =could have a working reference.

However Brian had other plans, he =wanted to create a new directory /Library/Websites to be the root =directory of his webserver, remember this is the same person that has =had no experience with a Linux server, he has had experience with a Mac =server so I believed that he had a good sense of being able to manage a =Linux Server. Brian didn=E2=80=99t want to use the installed Webmin, he =wanted to do all Apache configuration by uploading files with FTP =however he didn=E2=80=99t have a FTP client.

Brian, you may remember the Skype =message that I sent you expressing my concern that if you work outside =the standard installation you would break it.

For the rest of the week I continued to =help him, answer his questions, provide advice. All the time doing my =own work that Brian=E2=80=99s emails were interrupting. As I live in =Sydney there were times that I was not able to answer him immediately =due to the 10 hour time difference.

Then on Friday afternoon (Sydney time) =I received yet another email from Brian - he had locked himself out of =his server, yes, I fixed this for him too, repaired his non-root user =with sudo privileges and advised him that in 19 minutes time I would be =leaving for the weekend.

So it is now Sunday morning in Sydney, I have turned on my =computer this morning after have a =E2=80=98family=E2=80=99 day =yesterday to see the usually quiet WebDNA list dominated by Brian =continuing to have issues with his installation.

What does surprise me, and leads me to =writing this email are comments pointed to myself by Brian such =as:

"TalkList members say they will help... then =they are GONE and suddenly don't has access to email or skype???!!! =Nothing worse than someone setting you up to fail...!!!=E2=80=9D

Brian had a very large =VHost file that he moved from his Mac server to the Linux environment =without any alterations. He believes that it was easier to change the =configuration of the Linux/Apache server than to use search and replace =on his VHost file. Brian=E2=80=99s problems relate directly to =Permissions and the relocation of his server root. I note that Brian has =said: 

" I have no idea why Stuart thinks =/Library/Webserver files are gonna be an issue when apache2.conf list =share folder and everything else.=E2=80=9D, I guess to Brian taking =advice from someone that has 23 operational Ubuntu 18.04 servers =really doesn=E2=80=99t make much sense.

So= Brian, if you had followed my advice, you would have been 100% =operational as soon as all your files had been uploaded to the =/var/www/html directory and had their ownership and preferences =checked, and had simply changed the root locations in =your vhost configuration file simply with a search and replace with =your text editor. If you listened to the FREE advice that you were given =or you could have even asked me to do it you would have had a fully =functional server many days ago.

Now I would like =to see a retraction of the ill placed comments that you have made about =me.

 



Kind regards

Stuart Tremain

Pharoah Lane Software

AUSTRALIA

webdna@plsoftware.com.au





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