Notes for forrest.zones.apache.org
Overview

The server forrest.zones.apache.org provides our testing and demonstration area. It is managed by Apache Forrest committers. The material is intended for developer use only.

Configuration

Configuration files and directory structures are stored in SVN at https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/forrest/zone and additional private stuff is in our pmc/forrest/zone SVN.

config

creates /export/home/config ... $CONFIG directories /forrestbot-*/ are the forrestbot homes, see below. setenv*.sh ... these are sourced by the forrestbots and other cronjobs and user configs, to set the environment.

htdocs

creates /var/apache2/htdocs ... $DOC_ROOT directories /ft/ and /fts/ are the forrestbot config and results, see below.

test-sources

A place to hold sources for various test sites. Normally these would be in the relevant project's SVN. Hold them here until building properly.

All files are owned in the group "other" so any one of us can edit/update. Make sure that your 'umask' is set properly so that new files have group write permissions. See the notes about user administration. FIXME: Add a proper group.

Cron runs the various Forrestbots and management tasks, such as updating the forrest-trunk software; cleaning up old logfiles, etc. FIXME: These are not yet managed under SVN, see ~crossley/my-crontab.txt

Software

Global zone software is as described in zone administration.

Various local software is installed in /export/opt/ (not managed with SVN) ...

Our Apache httpd server is managed using Solaris SMF so should always come back up automatically after a failure or machine reboot.

Forrest

forrest-trunk

svn checkout of trunk. automatically 'svn update' and 'build' via cron: $CONFIG/update-forrest-trunk.sh

forrest-trunk-stable

svn checkout of trunk, manually updated as needed.

forrest-release

svn checkout of current release branch, manually updated as needed.

To manually update -stable or -release do this:

The forrestbots

There are various forrestbots operating with different versions of forrest. Their home is at $CONFIG

$CONFIG/forrestbot-trunk

forrestbot operating with trunk. builds various sites automatically, triggered via cron. Configuration files and the generated results are at $DOC_ROOT/ft/

$CONFIG/forrestbot-trunk-stable

forrestbot operating with trunk-stable. builds various sites, only runs when needed, triggered via cron. Configuration files and the generated results are at $DOC_ROOT/fts/

Forrestbot logs are at $CONFIG/forrestbot-trunk*/logs/ and old ones are cleaned up by the crontab. There is also a log file for each site that forrestbot builds which captures the output of cron (cronout-*.txt). Be sure to verify this logfile after making configuration changes.

Administration

See the general notes for the zone administration.

The project chair is the root user. Committers can ask on the dev list to get a user account added or modified.

As requested by that infra doc, keep our zone info up-to-date (see https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/infrastructure/trunk/docs/helios/zones.txt).

We have minimally configured our zone. See some other projects' config ideas, e.g. GumpZonesConfig and those of us on the Cocoon PMC can see their config in their "pmc" SVN.

Monitor the infrastructure@ mailing list for changes to the zones machine.

If you think that you need to contact infra about anything, then please try our Forrest dev or private list first. See the monitor page for Service Status.

Keep an occasional eye on $CONFIG/update-forrest-trunk.log This is the output of the cronjob to do svn update to trunk and re-build.

User administration

After receiving your account, please be sure to configure it properly.

See some notes at zone administration and the general notes for new committers (especially the part about 'umask').

Look at the setup of some other users on our zone.

Other notes