Re: [VuFind-General] multi-instance install script (and Amazon EC2)

[Demian K. <dem...@vi...>]

Thanks for sharing this.  A couple of thoughts (admittedly written without studying your code in great depth):

1.) Is it possible to make this a bit more modular?  Rather than copying and pasting things into a single long script, could you create a separate stand-alone tool for setting up an instance (i.e. switching Solr port, etc.) and also utilize the existing install script by calling out to it?  I realize that this may not be practical...  but if it is, the toolbox approach is generally more broadly useful and easier to maintain.

2.) While there are certainly situations where having multiple VuFind instances makes sense, have you also considered the possibility of using a single Solr instance and then presenting different subsets of it through faceting?  Theoretically, you could create a single Solr index and then point multiple copies of VuFind at it.  By taking advantage of VuFind's "hidden filter" functionality you could fairly easily modify the code to prefilter each copy appropriately (i.e. DVDs only, etc., etc.).  Depending on your circumstances, this might make index maintenance easier (or harder).  It would probably be a better use of resources if you're limited there -- running one Solr instance is cheaper than running many, especially if your overall index isn't that large.

- Demian



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Keene [mailto:chr...@gm...]
> Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2011 6:24 PM
> To: vuf...@li...
> Subject: [VuFind-General] multi-instance install script (and Amazon
> EC2)
> 
> Hi
> I had a quick play with VuFind and an Amazon EC2 mico instance this
> evening, using the default Amazon Linux (similar to Fedora).
> 
> First,
> All went well though I hit a problem for a while. Turns out the ultra
> cheap 'micro' instance didn't have enough memory for Java. The Jetty
> console goes to the console by default, by editing vufind.sh so that
> the output went to a normal file (e.g. JETTY_CONSOLE=/tmp/jetty.out )
> I was able to see where the problem was, and use the same file to
> decrease the required memory.
> 
> Secondly,
> I think that as well as being an excellent replacement
> catalogue/discovery service, VuFind also has the ability to cater for
> (from where I sit) a growing need to provide specialist 'web
> catalogues' e.g. perhaps for just a particular branch library, or rare
> books, or DVDs, etc. By only importing the desired set of records
> VuFind can cater to these requests quite nicely. So, for us at least,
> I can see the need in the future to quickly setup new instances of
> VuFind.
> 
> With this in mind, I've knocked up a quick script which can create new
> instances of VuFind on the same server.
> 
> http://www.nostuff.org/vufind-install.txt
> 
> It uses the code from the install script, and the code on the fedora
> install page on the website. It also takes guidance from the page on
> the site for running a second instance on the same machine. I've
> edited the SMARTY install code so that it works.
> 
> It basically prompts for a 'instance name' and a Solr port and then
> installs VuFind in to a directory named after the instance, creates a
> user of that name, edits the config files to reflect the location and
> Solr port number etc. I was able to run the script, run an import, and
> then go straight to the new instance in a web browser.
> 
> Obviously anyone is welcome to use it, but it is a very early effort,
> much of the config file changes are done by rather crude sed one
> liners (which, for example, presume any mention of 8080 in a file is a
> port number that needs changing).
> 
> However, while acknowledging its many flaws (I haven't written a shell
> scipt in years) and stress no ownership (90% isn't mine) I'd welcome
> any feedback, especially if someone was prepared to try it out.
> 
> Regards
> Chris
> (University of Sussex, UK)
> 
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