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MAC osx xserve install
14 May 2009, 22:23
Alright, I am almost convinced.I have till September to get this set up.
We'll see what happens when osx server updates get installed. Any expected issues if we put lets say 150 users on ths at once? I heard MySql craps out sometimes with many users Maybe I am thinking thousands of users.
Thanks for injecting confidence!!
Dirk
14 May 2009, 22:26
Ive seen large scale forums running off mysql without issue. the only DB problems ive ever experienced have been access db's over wifi :P
I dont think you will have a problem. Maybe Nigel can clarify this, but i think mahara would have been designed with this in mind. Imagine 1500 students all logged into it at the same time. You'll be fine :)
14 May 2009, 23:24
Nobody care how many users your site has, just concurrent users. You need to be having hundreds of _concurrent_ users before you'll run into scalability problems, and that's just not likely in a school environment. The worst you'll get is in some classroom where the teacher says 'and everyone go to Mahara now' and you get 20 people at once on it.
Concurrent: all clicking around at the same time.
14 May 2009, 22:24
Also as for mahara being built into a .dmg, your terminal in osx supports tar. so its just as easy as tar -zxvf into the dir you want to put mahara in.
14 May 2009, 22:38
Hi - yes, this is still the case. We don't have a mac to test on, neither do we have much experience with macs, although I'm sure we could figure it out 
Really the key is that we get access to one - even better if we can get ones running the currently popular editions (tiger/leopard?). Then if people report problems, we can at least try to duplicate them.
16 May 2009, 9:53
Hi all.
I have just installed Mahara 1. 1.3 on a OSX 10.5.7 server using Macports and the built in MySQL.
It seems to work fine. The problem with using the built in Apache server and PHP is its a true hell adding gd and openssl and so on to it witch Mahara needs, so I use Macports instead.
Whats not working at the moment is the mailfunktion.
20 May 2009, 16:26
Hi Dirk,
Short answer: Install XAMPP for Mac on Mac OS X 10.5.x Client and everything is all in place ready to start your Mahara install. Literally a few clicks, one quick php.ini edit, and run a short security hardening script provided. (15mins tops!) I was really gob smacked at how easy it was. You could do this on a headless Mac mini as I did, or any spare Mac you have available, and save your Xserve for multimedia serving, storage and management duties, perhaps as a Podcast Producer or Final Cut Server machine more in line with its capabilities.
Full explanation and some tips:
I've just established a Mac OS X 10.5.7 Mahara 1.1.3 site for a K-12 school, which was originally planned to be a test and eval deployment, but everything has gone so well that it is likely, even at this early stage, to be accepted to go straight to production status.
Just like @Sven_Borrie descibes here I tried first to use the Mac OS X Server 10.5.6 standard distribution of Apache, MySQL and PHP and kept hitting brick walls everywhere in trying to get the right modules added in to the mix to support the requirements for Mahara. My limited unix-webserver-MacPorts build experience contributed here - all too hard.
I then tried the MAMP distribution on Mac OS X Server and found that the mix of two sets of AM&P can introduce its own headaches, especially if you are using your Server for other functions/solutions using the native AM&P, as well as the MAMP apps for Mahara.
I also found that MAMP for Mac was not up to date and had similar build/config issues like the native Apple distribution in the Mac OS X Server OS. So, I went searching for other AM&P distros that might fit the bill, and, Bingo!, straight away I hit on XAMPP for Mac.
[Stay tuned, I'll be back shortly.]
20 May 2009, 19:49
[continued ...]
The XAMPP for Mac v1.0.1 webserver distribution was released mid April and is very up to date with the full functionality and latest releases of Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Perl, and indeed when I checked it out for compliance with the requirements for Mahara v1.1.3 everything was there all ready to go!
XAMPP even comes with a security hardening php script that locks the webserver installation down and adds MySQL root password etc. to configure the solution suitably for public webserver use. Out of the box the distro is config'd for localhost intended developer and testing use only. The only other edit of the XAMPP install I had to do was from the Mahara instructions to turn Off the magic_quote_gpc which was on by default in the php.ini config.
From there everything is just follow the bouncing ball in the Mahara installation instructions. In fact it is even easier with XAMPP which provides an up to date MySQL management environment in the form of phpMyAdmin. Creating the Mahara MySQL database with the right privileges was very GUI managed and easy.
When I logged in to Mahara for the first time and clicked 'I agree' on the Licence/Welcome page the first run auto config ran and completed fine without one hitch! I was stoked! Everything from there has been plain sailing and very easy. I'm still getting the site config and admin set up the way we want it for our site. I'm now into customising the site template with our own logos and design. I am extremely impressed with this system.
When it came to creating a cron job on the Mac to run the Mahara cron php script, I used Lingon to 'do it the Mac way' by adding the every minute task to the Mac's launchd system. I had a quick go at setting up the emailing out from Mahara yesterday, but that is not working as yet. I'll come back to that later today. (I think it is actually the default email address not being real - "[email protected]" - that is auto added to the user accounts as they are created. We are using the authenticate with IMAP to our main mail server method for our main Institution when users add themselves. I think I need to go back and look further into how all that is working before we go too much further with our testing and start getting 'real' users to jump into the system.)
The only other config I have done for our own specific purposes was to change the HTTP Port away from the default 80 value. This was easily done by editing the httpd.conf for the XAMPP installation, and while I was there I stipulated the ServerName we wanted to use. I then made sure to match the new ServerName setting in the config.php file entry for 'wwwroot' for the Mahara setup. (Don't forget to stop and restart Apache after making these types of changes.) Even controlling the XAMPP services is very easy with the tools provided in the XAMPP installation.
We are very happily moving forward extremely quickly with our new installation and I put this down to the combined efficiencies of working with Mac, XAMPP, Mahara, and all the 'out of the box' features they bring.
Cheers, Peter B.
20 May 2009, 20:34
"The only other edit of the XAMPP install I had to do was from the Mahara instructions to turn Off the magic_quote_gpc which was on by default in the php.ini config."
Really, in this day and age?? 
Good to hear you've had a good experience so far! 