A web and systems development journal (from a–too busy–web developer who does a lot of various IT work.)
If your server goes down, and you get a message like:
Feb 16 03:00:12 server kernel: INFO: task httpd:16101 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
Verify memory usage:
sar -r
Verify CPU usage:
sar -u
For me the culprit was CPU reaching %idle reaching 99.18
Install and enable Field SQL norevisions, and use it to delete any revisions you don't need. Also set it to disable revisions for content/entity types that you don't want revisions being made.
Note: For entity content types, drupal will automatically make revisions for each update, but won't allow you to revert to any of these revisions, so this is pretty pointless; plus for very large databases this can degrade performance.
Step 1.
In Google Chrome, go to https://twitter.com/following
Step 2.
For PC hit Ctrl + Shift + J
For Mac hit Cmd + Opt + J
Step 3.
Paste this code into the chrome console, hit enter, and wait for it to finish:
setInterval(
function()
{
t=$(".Grid .Grid--withGutter").find(".user-actions-follow-button");
for(i=0;true;i++)
{
if(i>=t.length)
{
window.scrollTo(0,$(document).height());
return
}
$(t[i]).trigger("click").remove()
}
}
,2000
)
If you're experiencing slow mysql performance--top showing mysqld high cpu usage. This command will help you track down what's going on at that specific time.
mysql -e "show processlist"
Of course you should also check your log files:
/var/lib/mysql/mysql-slow.log /var/lib/mysql/mysql-error.log
You'll also want to optimize your /etc/my.cnf: For a pretty good quick start, you can use this tool, Percona Configuration Wizard for MySQL
In phpMyAdmin, click the "SQL" tab and paste the following in there--changing your_database to the actual database you want to change.
SET @DATABASE_NAME = 'your_database';
SELECT CONCAT('ALTER TABLE `', table_name, '` ENGINE=InnoDB;') AS sql_statements
FROM information_schema.tables AS tb
WHERE table_schema = @DATABASE_NAME
AND `ENGINE` = 'innodb'
AND `TABLE_TYPE` = 'BASE TABLE'
ORDER BY table_name DESC;Or if that doesn't work, do the following under SSH (change your_database to your actual database name)
If you're using godaddy cpanel hosting, you have 2 options of installing drush
1. drush version from drupal (which is NOT being updated anymore--unlike the latest github version).
or 2. (Preferred) Install the latest github version:
Go here to view instructions on how to install the latest version of drush from github.
cd ~ wget http://ftp.drupal.org/files/projects/drush-7.x-5.9.tar.gz tar xvf drush-7.x-5.9.tar.gz
Now we add the drush paths to our .bash_profile.
vi .bash_profile
Paste the following in toward the top:
NOTE: This tutorial assumes you're using an extension that uses the "special_shipping_group" attribute... But you can also use this tutorial to output any attribute you'd like into the product view and product listing.
Ok... Say you're using the "special_shipping_group" attribute, to specify which products should receive free shipping.
You would, for example, add an attribute called: FREE SHIPPING
Make sure you also set this visible under product listing, and product view, or else it won't display.
Following, you will assign this attribute to all the products that are to use this "FREE SHIPPING" attribute.
Now...
What is BFD (Brute Force Detection)?
BFD is a modular shell script for parsing applicable logs and checking for authentication failures. There is not much complexity or detail to BFD yet and likewise it is very straight-forward in its installation, configuration and usage. The reason behind BFD is very simple; the fact there is little to no authentication and brute force auditing programs in the linux community that work in conjunction with a firewall or real-time facility to place bans. BFD is available at: http://www.rfxnetworks.com/bfd.php
This guide will show you how to install and configure BFD to protect your system from brute force hack attempts.
Requirements:
- You MUST have APF Firewall Installed before installing BFD - it works with APF and requires some APF files to operate.
- Root SSH access to your server
cd /usr/local/src/ wget http://www.rfxn.com/downloads/maldetect-current.tar.gz tar -xzf maldetect-current.tar.gz cd maldetect-* sh ./install.sh or sudo sh ./install.sh
Now enable email_alert and add your email address to email_addr /usr/local/maldetect/conf.maldet
vi /usr/local/maldetect/conf.maldet #change to the following: email_alert=1 email_addr="[email protected]"
maldet --update-ver maldet --update
maldet -a /home
Or:
maldet /home?/?/domains/?/public_html
Or in background:
Sometimes drealty doesn't properly set RETS status properties marked as "Active", "Pending Sale", or "Backup Offer" as 'active=1'. Any property marked as 'active=0' will NOT display, no matter what 'rets_status' is marked as.
We can fix that by running this SQL query in phpMyAdmin:
UPDATE `drealty_listing` SET `active`='1' WHERE `rets_status`='Active' or `rets_status`='Pending Sale' or `rets_status`='Backup Offer' ;
Create/edit the following:
app/design/frontend/PATH/TO/YOURTHEME/layout/local.xml
Make it look like so--should be self explanatory...
Here is a modded Responsive Custom Menu I just did, adding named menu classes and positioning the custom block element above the menu items.
Why?
Original menu didn't have any unique class identifiers for menu items--it was partially unique, but nothing you can actually use to style any individual menu item. Also I thought it made sense to have the custom block ABOVE the menu listing. After all, any custom element you want to show is likely going to be more important than the regular menu listing.
If you're interested in this, then simply download the attached Navigation.php or copy/paste over the following app/code/commmunity/WP/CustomMenu/Block/Navigation.php:
Here's a proper way of installing PECL runkit on centos.
cd /usr/local/src/ git clone https://github.com/zenovich/runkit.git cd runkit phpize ./configure make make install
Now edit your php.ini
vi /usr/local/lib/php.ini
Add the following under your extension= listings.
; PECL runkit extension=sorunkit.so
Now restart Apache.
service httpd restart
That's it.
Alright... Kinda off topic.
XBMC is my favorite media center, and the default skin Confluence is pretty dated--i.e. the icons/interface haven't been updated in forever.
I did try other skins, but mouse support wasn't anywhere near as good as the default skin Confluence--I use a logitech touch mouse and no keyboard.
Anyhow...
A quick way to apply a patch to a drupal file or module is as follows:
cd locations/of/module/ #or cd locations/of/file/ wget https://www.drupal.org/files/issues/some.patch cat some.patch | patch -p1
That's it.
This still hasn't been fixed at the time of this writing. So here we go...
Sort breaks, and does unpredictable sorting, if you use more than 20 options. E.g. say you have have an exposed grouped filter with a price drop down of more than 20 options, sorting will not work after 20 items, it will always spit out a different order than what you specify.
Edit the following Views module file:
sites/all/modules/views/handlers/views_handler_filter.inc
Look for this:
'#delta' => 10
Replace with this:
'#delta' => 60
Here is my optimized Apache 2.4.x httpd.conf:
Credits: gregrickaby/The-Perfect-Apache-Configuration: https://github.com/gregrickaby/The-Perfect-Apache-Configuration
NOTICE: Adjusted the <ifmodule filter_module=""> portion, to be compatible with Apache 2.4.
Before:
FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/html
After:
By default apache loads a bunch of encryption protocols. Most of which either are insecure and/or slow.
The location of these settings are based on DirectAdmin's Apache 2.4.x, however, you should easily be able to locate them in your apache .conf files.
vi /etc/httpd/conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf
Now comment out the default SSL settings and add new ones as shown below:
Let's assume that we already have a primary physical drive in our system (HDD or SDD), and have added a second drive to our box, which we need to partition and mount automatically on boot.
Here's how to that:
ls /dev/sd*
Since this is our 2nd drive, you should see /dev/sdb.
Example:
/dev/sda /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 /dev/sda3 /dev/sdb
Let see the currently mounted drives and partition layout:
lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT,LABEL
Here's a full list of all available lsblk options:
Recently our /etc/fstab got screwed up preventing us from SSH-ing into the server after a reboot. So we were given KVM access to our server.
Once seting up Java to allow unsigned certificates--hint: under the Java Control Panel click the "Security" tab, and slide the "security level" to the bottom "Medium" . We were then greated with a message:
'give root password for maintenance or press ctrl+d to continue"
Come to find out CTRL-C and CTRL-V doesn't work, you have to type the pass by hand--this was very tedious since my root pass is extremely complex.
So once in I soon realized that the system was mounted as "read-only"; meaning that you couldn't make any changes to it; or in other words, completely useless at this state.
For security reasons, it's recommended to disable recursive DNS lookups. Here is how:
Find out your named version
named -v
If your BIND version is at least 9.x then insert the following, between options { }:
// Deny recursive lookups
allow-query { any; };
allow-transfer { none; };
allow-recursion { localhost; };
recursion yes;
So it looks like something like this:
So... A couple of years ago I purchased a Thunderbolt capable motherboard (Gigabyte GA-z77X-UP5), and an Apple's 27-in Thunderbolt Display--rather than it's (now-discontinued) Apple LED Cinema display--to go along with my Apple iMac 2010 (as a dual-display setup) which I was primarily using as an LED monitor for my Windows 7/8 PC. Boy was that a mistake... LOL . Thunderbolt support on non-Apple computers was TERRIBLE back then. Maybe it still is terrible still, but I got some good news after all this time. More after the break.
As a server administrator, I rely mostly on root or sudo access--allowing me absolute control of the server. However, "with great power, comes great responsibility!"
You can easily accidentally do this devastatingly bad command of wiping your entire system clean.
rm -rf / # or rm -rf /*
Which looks almost identical to the popular command
rm -rf ./ # or rm -rf ./*
There was a recent prank on 4chan /b/ forum that, in short, instructed users to execute the above command in order to "unlock Apple OS X bitcoin mining".
Your server sends out a lot of email to user root. For example, CSF (ConfigServer Security & Firewall) sends out most security notifications to root.
So, this is how we specify what email address root emails go to:
vi /etc/aliases
Scroll to the bottom, and add or replace existing:
root: [email protected]
Save and exit, then reload the aliases:
newaliases
Another option is to create a ~/.forward file and put your email address in it.
Example: Say I'm logged in as root.
vi ~/.forward
This will create (or edit an exising) file:
/root/.forward
Next we add the email address we want root emails forwarded to:
[email protected]
Now restart exim.
Say you're on CentOS 5.x, and want to pimp out your bash prompt using the pretty awesome Solarized color scheme. Well, there's a nice .bashrc Solarized setup here: https://github.com/seebi/dircolors-solarized. To use all the features of dircolors.256dark version, you'll need GNU coreutils 8.5 or higher, otherwise you'll get errors like this:
I recently ran into this problem of iTunes NOT seeing my iPhone or iPad, even though Windows 8 recognized it with no problem.
Well, come to find out, somehow the "Apple Mobile Device USB Driver" drivers got uninstalled and only Microsoft Windows 8 drivers "Portable Devices" MTP USB Device driver existed.
I found an interesting discovery with Notepad++ where PHP, HTML, CSS, etc language syntax highlighting didn't appear in the language menu. Not sure if this is the result of the way an older version set the settings--whereas, even if you upgraded to latest version (without uninstalling first), the upgrades wouldn't overwrite the original settings file. I think this was disabled at the time of install when it asks if you want it to be your default for HTML files; where I normally UNselect this, since I use a PHP IDE to handle PHP, HTML, CSS, etc files.
Anyway... The fix:
Zend Opcache is part of PHP 5.5, however, it's not enabled by default. It's a successor to APC cache--meaning APC cache is never going to be compatible with PHP 5.5 or higher
Opcache is also around 10% faster than APC, and more stable.
However, if you're on PHP 5.3 or PHP 5.4, you can still use ZendOpCache, and it should still be a bit faster than APC
vi /usr/local/lib/php.ini
Paste this under your extension_dir
Here's a simple command to optimize and auto repair all tables in your MySQL database.
mysqlcheck -uroot -p --auto-repair --optimize --all-databases
This is the same thing as using PHPMyAdmin, however, you don't need to do this one by one for each database, select all tables, and optimize--and not to mention if you wanted to repair a database prior to optimizing, it will take 2x as long.