apache source-compilation workaround

[caribk]

has anyone managed to get the installer to accept a source-compiled apache2?

using centos3.5 (masqueraded as RHES3 in the /etc/redhat-release file).
using tomcat 5.0.28 and jdk 1.4.2.
everything verifies fine except apache RPM (of course!)

i know from readign posts that the designed behavior of the install is to require apache installed from RPMs, however, this is a development server with many custom apache modules. thus the source compilation. of course, in the event scalix would be moved to our main production server all these compatibiliy issues would be addressed with a clean install .

HOWEVER, at this point i'd rather not have to run two httpd servers on the same machine in order to evaluate Scalix.

i know several others have inquired about this, and gotten the 'RPM required' response.

SO, my question is for all the rest of you out there in the same boat:

*** has anyone managed to find a workaround that allows scalix to interoperate with a custom source-compiled apache2 (?), for testing and evaluation purposes ***

[ScalixSupport]

has anyone managed to get the installer to accept a source-compiled apache2?

using centos3.5 (masqueraded as RHES3 in the /etc/redhat-release file).
using tomcat 5.0.28 and jdk 1.4.2.
everything verifies fine except apache RPM (of course!)

i know from readign posts that the designed behavior of the install is to require apache installed from RPMs, however, this is a development server with many custom apache modules. thus the source compilation. of course, in the event scalix would be moved to our main production server all these compatibiliy issues would be addressed with a clean install .

HOWEVER, at this point i'd rather not have to run two httpd servers on the same machine in order to evaluate Scalix.

i know several others have inquired about this, and gotten the 'RPM required' response.

SO, my question is for all the rest of you out there in the same boat:

*** has anyone managed to find a workaround that allows scalix to interoperate with a custom source-compiled apache2 (?), for testing and evaluation purposes ***

Hello,

since the installer (I am sure Nick will chime in here at some point ;-) queries the RPM database to find out if Apache is installed, I have to say - no way. On the other hand ...

I would suggest creating a dummy Apache RPM yourself which is just a placeholder. You should be OK then. You're on your own an that one, though.

That said, doing all this for an eval on a dev server - your call.

Cheers,

Sascha.

[natkins]

That's right, the installer checks for the Apache rpm and will not proceed if it is not installed. The reason for this is so we can work with "standard" (i.e. that provided by the distros) locations for Apache. The installer would have no chance otherwise as there are too many things that could be different about each individual's custom-built Apache.

This is precisely what the installer is for -- to help the 99% of people who have standard configurations and want to get Scalix working easily. If you have custom requirements I suggest you take the custom installation route and perform all the steps by hand.

Thanks,

Nick.

[caribk]

thanks for the advise. i definately understand that this is non-standard behavior and things might not work 100% as a result of it. however, as i said, it is a dev server env, so for merely evaluation purposes before considering licensing it is sufficient.

i will give the dummy rpm approach a whirl and post if i am able to get this working or if a more custom approach is needed. got a source compiled apache2 installed in /usr/local/apache/

does anyone know how the scalix dependencies work with regard to paths?
should that be ok or perhaps i need to symlink /usr/loca/httpd/ as well?

[florian]

I believe what you plan should actually work somehow.

The only thing the installer does with respect to your apache install is to symlink the /opt/scalix/global/httpd/scalix-web-client.conf into Apache's conf.d directory so that it gets picked up. This is for integration of the /Scalix/rw URL used for the web-based Scalix Rules Wizard.

If you fix this, you should be allright.

Be aware that the next release of Scalix will, by default, create a tighter integration between Apache and Tomcat; therefore, it might not be as easy then and we strongly suggest using the OS-vendor-supplied RPMs for Apache.

Cheers,
Florian.

[caribk]

thanks for the helpful tips, florian, nick and sascha. that's what i'm talking about for support, fast and to-the-point answers directly from you guys.
i'll be sure to note that when making further decisions regarding licensing EE.

i understand that this is custom, so feel free to ignore this since it is outside the realm of your support. any assistance, however, would be much appreciated!

either way, created a "dummy" apache rpm and installed it (will post the .spec file once i get everything working properly, hopefully that is).

the installer seemed satisfied with this approach and the installation proceeded, for the most part.

after creating the mail store and adding admin users, the installer failed with the following logged messages:

2005-11-01 14:00:05,850 INFO Running initconfig
2005-11-01 14:00:06,352 INFO Done initconfig
2005-11-01 14:00:06,353 ERROR Don't know what to do for this version of Apache on Red Hat!
2005-11-01 14:00:06,353 ERROR Failed to configure Apache -- could not find config
2005-11-01 14:00:06,354 CRITICAL Operation failed: config-server function configure_apache failed to execute successfully
2005-11-01 14:00:06,354 ERROR Operation failed: Aborting server configuration
2005-11-01 14:00:14,133 INFO Ending Scalix Installer (Community Edition) - Msg: Failed to configure server

per florian's advise, i uninstalled and attempted to symlink the conf before installation with the same results:

ln -s /opt/scalix/global/httpd/scalix-web-client.conf \
/path-to-apache/conf/scalix-web-client.conf

it *seems* to me that the above problem could (?) perhpas be fixed with another symlink, since it apparently is looking for apache config in the wrong place.

any ideas would be appreciated.

[caribk]

i'll givve myself a big RTFM... (as in Message).
thanks florian, if i would have read your post a *bit* more carefully everything would have been fine right away.

anyways, installation worked like a charm. i botched the symlink and set it to conf instead of conf.d. :-p
with the following symlink in place *prior* to installation (and the dummy rpm of course!) the installation works without a hitch.

ln -s /opt/scalix/global/httpd/scalix-web-client.conf \
/path-to-apache/conf.d/scalix-web-client.conf

to make life simpler for the rest of you other there attempting this approach (note, other things post-installation might still not function 100% and, if you read the whole thread, this is for *testing* purposes only) the following simple example apache.spec file will suffice to "trick" the installer into thinking that apache is installed from rpm instead of source.
all it does is create an empty file in the /etc dir.

apache.spec:
----------
-snip-
---------
Summary: Apache 2.0.54 web server
Name: apache
Version: 2.0.54
Release: 1
License: Apache
Group: Application

BuildRoot: %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}-root
BuildArch: noarch

%description
This is a dummy package to mimic an Apache RPM install

%prep

%build

%install
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT

mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/etc
touch $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/etc/empty-file

%clean
rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT

%files
%defattr(-,root,root,-)
/etc/empty-file
----------
-snip-
---------

of course make a file, throw it in the rpm SPECS dir (ususally /usr/src/redhat/SPEC/ i believe) and do: rpmbuild -bb /usr/src/redhat/SPECS/apache.spec
install the "dummy" rpm with rpm -iv /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/apache_<rpm_name>.rpm

think this thread is now finalized.

cheers,

karl

[florian]

I believe at this point it is looking for the standard apache config file location. On RedHat, that would normally be /etc/httpd/conf.d... so you might want to symlink this directory!

(Why don't you _just_ use a supported package and swap over to your self-built apache afterwards.... ;-))

Florian

[florian]

;-) ok, parallel thinking!

-- f.