Integrum Technologies a Ruby on Rails consulting house and home of Gangplank ran into a little trouble with their network and found the JumpBox for Cacti just what they needed to get it resolved.
Have you ever used a JumpBox to solve an unusual problem? If so we’d love to hear about it.
It’s like a reverse Agatha Christie novel - the numbers are going up instead of down! Today our newest team member Steven joins us to help hone our marketing message and tell a better story for JumpBox. Steven’s trading card reads as follows:
A self-proclaimed social media junkie and technology freak, Steven brings enthusiasm and a fresh marketer’s perspective to the team. Formerly in his spare time Steven raced go karts and shredded mountains on a snowboard. He now dedicates his attention entirely to his wife, two children and web-based technology.
We’re excited to have Steven involved and helping us translate the sometimes abstract concepts and features involved into meaningful benefits for our users. Welcome aboard Steven!
So here at work, we’re in the process of developing a new web site for our subscribers. We’ve decided to implement the site atop the SilverStripe Content Management System, as we’ve found it to be incredibly flexible and easy to use. It’s based on a powerful MVC framework that’s written in PHP. We develop mostly on Mac OS X, which includes PHP5 pre-installed, so therefore it should be easy to install, right? Wrong!
Want to install SilverStripe? Sure, drop it in place, it’s just a directory structure, but when you try to access the main page, which generally results in SilverStripe attempting to perform its initial setup, you’re Denied!
Why? Well, first of all, SilverStripe requires MySQL… Not included by default on Mac OS X. So I had to install that. I also had to install the MySQL Admin and MySQL Query tools so that I could create the default SilverStripe database and properly set up its permissions.
Next, SilverStripe requires the GD2 PHP extension. Unfortunately, Mac OS X’s PHP installation includes absolutely none of the common PHP extensions. Have one of the thousands of PHP apps that want to use the PHP SOAP extension out of the box? Can’t! Yep, I found that one out while I was trying to do PHP development using the EC2 SOAP APIs.
Should be easy enough to compile the GD2 extension and install it, right? No Way! Building GD2 from a standard PHP download requires a bunch of dependencies that aren’t installed by default on Mac OS X, and then when you finally do get it built and add it to your PHP.ini, it still doesn’t work. So how about MacPorts? Why should I have to install PHP from MacPorts if PHP is already installed?! Even worse, I’d have to reconfigure Apache to use the MacPorts PHP5 install instead of the default. Bleck!
Long story short, I wasted over an hour of my time trying to get the Mac OS X PHP install to bend to my will with absolutely no luck. Then I realized something. I work for JumpBox… We actually have a JumpBox for SilverStripe. It took me about ten seconds to download the JumpBox, another ten to uncompress the Zip file, and yet another ten seconds to start up the SilverStripe VM. After that, I had to fill out a couple of fields for the initial setup, and was good to go. Yes, people, it took under a minute to get a working SilverStripe system up and running.
Even better, instead of having to go through the headache of installing SilverStripe, MySQL, and the missing Mac OS X PHP extensions all over again on my MacBook (so that I can work at home, of course), all I had to do was suspend the VM, copy the JumpBox for SilverStripe folder onto my 5gb thumb drive and throw it in my pocket. Try doing that with your average everyday install.
It was clear from the last survey we conducted that we haven’t done a spectacular job publicizing the JumpBox Rewards Program (many respondents weren’t aware it existed). This is a referral program available to all customers who recommend the Open to a friend. It’s explained in detail here but basically during the checkout process for an Open, your friend puts your email address into the referral field and you earn $50 in cash that’s paid to you at the end of each quarter (refer just four people and you’ve recouped the cost of your own subscription - any referrals beyond that is money in your pocket).
There are some conditions that apply so if you want to participate be sure to read those first. But the concept is simple: we appreciate the people who help us spread the JumpBox gospel and we believe the clearest way to reward them for their efforts is via cash. Post a comment here if you have any questions about how this program works.
Over the last couple weeks we’ve released a large number of updated JumpBoxes. There were two critical security issues detected in PHP and Python for which fixes have been incorporated into these updated releases. Updating is recommended for all users.
The following JumpBoxes have been updated: Moin Moin, OpenLDAP, Trac, Cacti, vTiger, TikiWiki, SugarCRM 4.5.x, Silverstripe, PMWiki, MySQL, Drupal 5.x, Drupal 6.x, Enterprise Wiki, Moodle, MediaWiki, Mantis, PunBB, Joomla 1.0.x, phpBB, DokuWiki, Wordpress
Note: if you’ve downloaded any of these in the past week you may already have the updated version so check the JumpBox version number.
There are a few application updates we wanted to highlight as well. These also incorporate the latest platform fixes.
SugarCRM is a market leading customer relationship management (CRM) application. SugarCRM’s open source architecture easily adapts to any business environment by offering a more flexible, cost-effective alternative than proprietary applications.
Updated to SugarCRM 5.0.0g which is a regular maintenance release. (SugarCRM 5 release notes)
Project Pier is an Open-Source, self-hosted PHP application for managing tasks, projects and teams through an intuitive web interface. ProjectPier will help your organization communicate, collaborate and get things done.
This release has been updated to ProjectPier 0.8.0.3 which contains a few minor bug fixes. (ProjectPier release notes)
MoinMoin is an advanced, easy to use and extensible Wiki Engine with a large community of users. It’s written in Python and has a clean easy to understand user interface. Since it’s a Python program it’s not one of the most popular wikis, but that’s a shame as it has a very clean interface and is a very powerful tool for documentation projects. This makes the JumpBox for MoinMoin even more valuable, because it allows us to expose this great Wiki system to more users who we believe will find it quite valuable.
Updated to MoinMoin 1.7.1 which fixes a number of bugs. (MoinMoin release notes)
Joomla! is arguably the world’s most popular open source content management system for public facing web sites. Joomla 1.5 is a ground-up rework of the Joomla 1.0 code base moving it to a true MVC architecture.
Updated to Joomla 1.5.5 which is a maintenance release that fixes several bugs and some security issues. (Joomla 1.5.x release notes)
This is probably sacrilege to admit amongst IT professionals but I DESPISE the command line. For someone who grew up using a mouse in a GUI environment, it’s a daunting proposal to be told to SSH into a Linux machine and edit a bunch of stuff in VI. ”CAT the file, TAIL the log, GREP it, CHOWN the permissions” - I can talk the jargon but when it comes to executing these commands to do something useful, well…
That doesn’t mean us GUI people don’t want to use applications that run on Linux though. The fact a JumpBox lets anyone manage a linux-based application entirely via GUI is something that is hugely attractive to those of us who fear the command line. While many of the common administration tasks are currently manageable via web-based tools, the reality is that there are still times when one needs to manually add or edit individual files within a JumpBox (ie. installing modules and themes in Wordpress or Drupal).
People of the mouse: fear not. There is a simple graphical-based way to achieve this. The big disclaimer here though is that you can screw things up when you start editing files under the hood. As always, before attempting something that has destructive potential, make a backup first. Once you’ve done that, follow this quick 4-step tutorial to see how you can edit files sans command line:
Okay, “belated b-day,” (it was yesterday). Two years ago we founded the company with the goal of dramatically simplifying server software. We postulated that if it were made easy enough, people would find innovative uses and ways to leverage it more in their daily lives. We saw a sea of Open Source applications that were extremely powerful but prohibitively complex, and therefore a ton of opportunity to simplify how they could be managed.
Two years later we like to think that we’ve put a sizable dent in the problem. And while we have a long way to go towards achieving our vision of supreme usability and flexibility, it’s good to celebrate where we’re at. If you follow this blog, thanks for tracking JumpBox developments. We promise to continue to work towards making server software easier and more useful and we look forward to your continued input to enable us to produce products and services that simplify your life.
We have a whole bunch of application updates to tell you about. With the transition to the JumpBox platform 1.1 it put us a little behind but we’re getting back on track. Of particular note is that the JumpBox for Trac has been updated to the long awaited Trac 0.11 (see below for more detail.
Updated to MoinMoin 1.7.0 which adds OpenID authentication, Jabber notifications and a number of framework improvements. MoinMoin 1.7.1 was also just released so another JumpBox update will be coming soon. (MoinMoin release notes)
A great review of JumpBox was just posted on linux.com. It’s a really good overview and ends with.
That’s cool, but even now there’s no easier and faster way to get up and running and managing a Web app or a Web development environment than with a JumpBox.
Yep, that’s what it’s all about.
Deploying Ruby on Rails Applications
One of the major barriers in deploying Ruby on Rails applications on a wide scale is the fact that so many potential prerequisites might be expected of a target system. Never mind Rails itself, you’ll also need to install Ruby, Ruby Gems, packages designed specifically for the host operating system, and possibly GCC if any of your dependent gems require native compilation (and they often do). What I have just described is the case in almost all but the most trivial of Rails deployments.
Obviously these issues present a major challenge when you’ve developed your Rails application on Linux and you’re attempting to make it available to users who might well be attempting to deploy your application on Windows. The situation becomes even more complex when your users are non-technical people who’ve never had to install Ruby, much less Cygwin and the many packages that it may or may not provide. And why should your users have to be technical? They just want to get your shiny new CRM system up and running in the amount of time it might take to install any other application.
So how do developers address this problem? Well, many of them simply avoid distributing their applications, instead opting to host them as services, and in doing so, they target the operating system and configuration that they know works. Even this approach can be problematic in that finding a hosting provider that supports the exact operating system and configuration one might require, often resulting in the developer being forced to colocate hardware rather than leverage a hosting provider’s internal facilities.
Enter JumpBox
The mission of JumpBox is to develop software solutions that almost entirely eliminate the problems of deploying software in heterogenous environments. It accomplishes this via the use of virtual appliances that are capable of running on nearly any operating system and on all of the major virtualization platforms.
So now, instead of banging your head against the wall attempting to configure a server with the many dependencies and settings it will require to host the application you’re attempting to utilize, you need only launch one of our appliances, answer a few basic setup questions, and your new application is up and running.
The JumpBox for Ruby on Rails
Our latest appliance is the JumpBox for Ruby on Rails. The purpose of this JumpBox is to serve as a deployment system for your Rails applications. We understand that developers prefer to use their own tools for developing and deploying their applications, and so our JumpBox for Ruby on Rails politely remains out of your way until you’ve decided that it’s time to deploy your application.
We feel that the proposition of significantly reducing installation and configuration support issues will be compelling enough of a reason to consider deploying your Rails application with the JumpBox for Ruby on Rails. Now, instead of being required to install Ruby, MySQL, Apache, and a potentially vast array of dependencies, your end user need only install a virtualization platform such as VMWare, Parallels, or Xen. If they so desire, they can also easily host your application in a Cloud Computing environment such as Amazon EC2.
How Does it Work?
Technically, it’s rather simple. The JumpBox for Ruby on Rails is a self-contained Ubuntu Linux environment that, upon startup, immediately hosts fully functioning Apache, Ruby, MySQL, and Ruby On Rails environments. With only a minimal amount of preparation, you can use your favorite deployment method to install and host your Rails application on the JumpBox.
Once your Rails application has been successfully deployed onto the JumpBox, bundling it for redistribution is as simple as performing a backup in the JumpBox administration portal. The contents of this backup can be used to install your application, its databases, and its gem dependencies on another JumpBox for Ruby on Rails simply by performing a restore operation.
Note that as this is a beta release of the JumpBox for Ruby on Rails, the deployment process will likely change in the future, becoming more flexible and streamlined. We are approaching our JumpBox for Ruby on Rails with an eye toward the overall needs of the Rails developer community, and in doing so, welcome any and all feedback that you may have for us.
