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Setting up JIRA on CentOS 5.2

Posted by admin in Uncategorized on March 29th, 2010

I have always been a fan of Agile Software management and practiced it to its fullest. So when I found out about the JIRA software and Grasshapper for Agile software management I wanted to give it a try. First, I downloaded the JIRA evaluation software and ran it on my desktop to check out its functionality and usability. I was quite impressed with it and after that I was ready to try to install it on a production system with a recommended database.

(update) So the plan is to install the stand-alone version of JIRA on a based CentOS 5.2 system. This stand-alone version already has a tomcat version in it and a rudimentary database. However, after we verify the installation, we will switch the connection to a MySQL database and allow connections from outside.

So I downloaded the linux version, unzipped it and placed the files in /usr/bin/ directory. I renamed the directory base directory to jira.

I added the jira user per the instructions.

When trying to run jira for the first time, I saw in the log file that it did not run due to the JAVA_HOME variable not being set. I used the ls -al command mentioned in the comments of installing JAVA on the jira site and then used then set the JAVA_HOME variable. java -version was used to make sure that java was installed.

To run JIRA you must set the JAVA_HOME variable, export it, then start JIRA. That is from the command prompt.

JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-openjdk

export JAVA_HOME

bin/startup.sh

go to http://localhost:8080 to test

if locked, you must remove the .lck file

CD to the JIRA Home directory
Run ls -al
Run rm .jira-home.lock

So the plan is to install JIRA on a CentOS 5.2 Apache webserver running the TomCat 5.X or 6.X application server. Apache Tomcat is an open source software implementation of the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies.

A couple articles I will be using to help me with this task are.

http://geekzine.org/2009/02/19/configure-tomcat-6-java-6-on-centos-52-with-apache-on-port-8080/

I will also be using the official JIRA installation manuals. They have what appears to be a very extensive and well documented installation guide.

http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/JIRA+Installation+and+Upgrade+Guide

So I will also be using the following topics

Installing JIRA WAR-EAR

Installing JIRA on Tomcat 5.5

Connecting JIRA to MySQL

Running JIRA in a Virtualised Environment

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Creating a new VM from an existing VM

Posted by admin in VMWare on March 29th, 2010

OK. Once you have a good working base VM system, it is quite easy to implement new VMs for different tasks.

The first step is to create your base Linux/CentOS system or Windows system that will be used for future VMs. This system will essentially be a fresh install with all the service packs and updates applied to it. When necessary you will run it and apply new updates.

Now comes the duplicating task. That is, creating a new VM from this base system so you can experiment or create a new server. Here are the steps.

1) Create a new Virtual Machine from the VM Server access panel

2) Choose the appropriate operating system when asked. For CentOS 5.2 use Linux Redhat 5.x.

3) When asked for what hard drive to install choose none. You will later attach a copy of the base systems disk to this new VM system.

4) Choose the other setting as normal and appropriate for your situation. Remember, you are essentially creating a virtual computer without a harddrive. In my case, I needed to select a my “BridgeCard” network card for the networking setting instead of the default NAT.

5) Once created, you can now go to the summary page of the VM to add the new copied harddisk.

6) First,copy and paste the vdmk file for the base system to the new VM folder. Then rename the vmdk file to the name of that makes more sense for the VM that you just created. Usually the same name as the VM machine.

7) Now, you add the copied harddisk to the VM machine by choosing the Add New Hardware on the left hand side of the VM summary page. When adding the hardisk, choose the “Use existing Harddisk” option and select the copied and renamed vmdk file from the datastore.

That’s it. You now have a new working copy of the base VM. Your next steps would be to start configuring it to your liking such as adding the desired programs and services for it desired task, changing its IP, internal computer name, and MAC Address (if needed, for servers etc.), setting firewall setting to allow traffic to it and setting up connections to it such as external database servers.

Enjoy. The fun has just begun.

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Renaming the virtual machine disk file

Posted by admin in VMWare on March 28th, 2010

From http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=6821743&sliceId=1&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&dialogID=71326048&stateId=1%200%2071322858

Details

This article provides steps for renaming the virtual machine disk file.

Solution

To rename the virtual machine disk file (.vmdk file):

Log in to the VMware Infrastructure (VI) Client.
Click VM > Edit Settings > Remove the disk from the virtual machine.

Notes:
- Do not select Remove from the virtual machine and delete files from the disk.
- To remove the primary disk (containing the guest OS) you must power off the virtual machine.
Connect to the ESX host using SSH and run the following command:

#vmkfstools -E <source> <target>

Where <source> is the name of the virtual disk to rename and <target> is the name you want the virtual disk to have.

Note: Ensure to include the extension . vmdk. If you are not in the same directory as the file you are renaming, include the full path to the files. If the file name includes a space, you may need to use double quotes around the name to ensure you capture the full name.
After renaming the virtual disk, log in to the VI Client.
Click VM > Edit Settings > Add Hard Disk.
Choose Use an existing virtual disk.
Browse to the datastore and point to the renamed disk. Finish adding the virtual disk.

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Creating a new virtual disk for an existing Linux virtual machine

Posted by admin in VMWare on March 28th, 2010

From http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1003940&sliceId=1&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&dialogID=71320981&stateId=1%200%2071322764

Details

This article provides steps to create a new virtual disk for an existing Linux virtual machine.

Solution

The following steps assume some degree of familiarity with Linux system administration skills.

This is not necessarily a cookbook and you are advised to consult freely available Linux documentation at http://www.tldp.org for a full description of the utilities mentioned herein.

To create a new virtual disk for an existing Linux virtual machine:

Create the virtual disk.
Log in as root on your Linux virtual machine.
Unless you are not running level 3, open a terminal session.
Run the df command to examine the current disks that are mounted and accessible.
Create an ext3 file system on the new disk:

# mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sdb

Note: b in /dev/sdb is the second SCSI disk.

It warns that you are performing this operation on an entire device, not a partition. That is correct, as you created a single virtual disk of the intended size. This is assuming you have specified the correct device.

Caution: Ensure you have selected the right device, there is no undo.
Run the fdisk command to verify the existence of the disk you created:

# fdisk -l
Run the following command to create a mount point for the new disk:

# mkdir /<NewDirectoryName>
Run the following command to display the current /etc/fstab :

# cat /etc/fstab
Run the following command to add the disk to /etc/fstab so that it is available across reboots:

/dev/sdb /<NewDirectoryName> ext3 defaults 1 3

Note: Use a Linux text editor of your choice.
Reboot the Linux virtual machine and the new disk is now available.

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Finding the Perfect Website Domain

Posted by admin in Website Development on June 17th, 2009

When creating a new website, you really want to do your homework and find the website domain name and if it is available.

One website that helps ease this task is http://www.namepro.ca, it allows you to enter multiple potential web domains at once and see if they are available.

I use a spreadsheat to help automate creating combinations of domain names that may be available. This technique produces some strange names but often it comes up with somegood names you would not have thought of.

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Backing up and Restoring Your MySQL Databases

Posted by admin in MySQL on June 10th, 2009

Interesting article on devshed.com on how to backup and restore your databases.

http://www.devshed.com/c/a/MySQL/Backing-up-and-restoring-your-MySQL-Database/1/

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Getting going with WordPress

Posted by admin in Wordpress on June 9th, 2009

Copy gz to directory of website
extract to create wordpress folder
use the 5 minute start guide (see below)
create new database in mysql SITE_WordPress
run install using the website address. http://www.sitedomain.com/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php
copy themes and plugins from other base system : eflowone
change settings:permalink
activate plugins: exec_php,

Here’s the quick version of the instructions, for those that are already comfortable with performing such installations. More detailed instructions follow.

Download and unzip the WordPress package, if you haven’t already.
Create a database for WordPress on your web server, as well as a MySQL user who has all privileges for accessing and modifying it.
Rename the wp-config-sample.php file to wp-config.php.
Open wp-config.php in your favorite text editor and fill in your database details as explained in Editing wp-config.php to generate and use your secret key password.
Place the WordPress files in the desired location on your web server:
- If you want to integrate WordPress into the root of your domain (e.g. http://example.com/), move or upload all contents of the unzipped WordPress directory (but excluding the directory itself) into the root directory of your web server.
- If you want to have your WordPress installation in its own subdirectory on your web site (e.g. http://example.com/blog/), rename the directory wordpress to the name you’d like the subdirectory to have and move or upload it to your web server. For example if you want the WordPress installation in a subdirectory called “blog”, you should rename the directory called “wordpress” to “blog” and upload it to the root directory of your web server.Hint: If your FTP transfer is too slow read how to avoid FTPing at : Step 1: Download and Extract.
Run the WordPress installation script by accessing wp-admin/install.php in your favorite web browser.
- If you installed WordPress in the root directory, you should visit: http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php
- If you installed WordPress in its own subdirectory called blog, for example, you should visit: http://example.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php

That’s it! WordPress should now be installed.

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Creating a VMServer NAS using FreeNAS

Posted by admin in VMWare on June 5th, 2009

So I wanted to create a NAS on a Virtual machine to store webfiles. This would allow a good separation of program files and content files. With the help of my friends Ron and Phil, we were able to get it up and running from scratch in about 90 minutes. Aren’t friends and VMs nice.

The idea is to create a NAS on a virtual server as a virtual machine, mount the NAS on the webserver and then setup apache to be able to access it.

Setting up FreeNAS VM

For the NAS virtual machine, we were able to download the FreeNAS VM Image from http://www.freenas.org/index.php?option=com_versions&Itemid=51

Download the VM Image from http://www.freenas.org/index.php?option=com_versions&Itemid=51
unzip in your virtual machines directory on your Virtual Server host.
Then add a new virtual machine from inventory to have the vm show up in your inventory.
At this point, you can increase the size of the hard drive.
You may also wish change some settings to the network card depending on how you wish to manage your NAS IP. In my case, I manually set the virtual network card MAC address and set my hardware firewall to assign a static IP address to that MAC address.
You may also wish to set the auto-start/auto stop settings of the VM Server to include the new NAS so it will auto power up and down.
After starting up the NAS, you can connect to it and reset the webGUI password, assign interfaces and set LAN IP if necessary.
Connect to the webGUI using a web browser. You will be prompted for the username and password.
Once connected you will want to create a folder to store your data and enable the services to allow sharing of files.
create a new folder by going to the advanced menu and selecting file manager.
create a new folder like /usr/local/nas/
Go to the Service menu and select NFS and enable it and save it.
Then go to the Share tab and add a folder to share, browse and select the new folder you created
For authorized network, you can either set it to be your entire network by adding something like 192.168.0.0 and a mask of 24 or you can specify the specific web service IP and set the mask to 32.

Mounting your NAS on your web server

Next we would like to mount the NAS on the web server so that it has access to it.

log into you webserver.
go to the /mnt directory by using the cd /mnt command
add a new directory by using the mkdir command, mkdir nasfiles
next mount the new directory to the nas directory using, the command, sudo mount -t 192.168.0.35:/usr/local/nas /mnt/nasfiles
edit the fstab file in the /etc folder to have the nas mounted on power up with the following line 192.168.0.35:/usr/local/nas /mnt/nasfiles ext3 defaults 0 0

Give Apache access to the newly mounted NAS

edit the httpd.conf file and add in an alias to the mnt directory and add a directory declaration
Alias /nasfiles “/mnt/nasfiles”
<Directory “/mnt/nasfiles”>Options None AllowOverride None Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory>
then restart the httpd service

Test it.

Add a file to the mounted nas directory, see if you can access the file from your website.

VMserver VMWare FreeNAS

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Creating a favicon

Posted by admin in Apache on June 3rd, 2009

To jazz up your site and make it look professional, you should add a favicon icon. This is the icon that shows up in the url of your browser. An easy way to create a favicon is to use one of the free favicon site out there. One such on is.

http://www.favicon.cc/?action=edit_image&file_id=35382

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