CSuite Workshop - February 10, 1998

February 3, 1998

February 17, 1998

CSuite Workshop Index

Topics:

• Idle Logout Daemon
• CCN Account Deletions
• Log Processing
• Editing Special Files
• Halifax Update

Idle Logout Daemon

Topic List

CCN Account Deletions

• Need to be more careful about deleting accounts that have been marked for deletion, and have subsequently returned to good standing, and are again in arrears.
  -> DT
• There is also a need for immediate deletion for certain special cases.
  -> future
• It was noted that recovery of such deleted files would in some cases be delayed, as it requires root access to restore the user's file ownership and permissions.

Topic List

Log Processing

• The current practise is based on "agelog", a routine to successively rename older (daily) logs, and finally archive them after a week.
• Work required includes these areas:

  tq, var/log/idled

  rotation is needed, and archiving.

  info/recent

  this is generated by the IP install process; the query defaults to listing results for the specified area over the previous 10 days, we should purge any entries over 30 days old. Archiving the record is an option. A reason for poor performance included the search through several years data to find the most recent entries.

  log/webstats

  data on page hits is collected daily, and kept for 30 days.

  At month end, the data are summarized;

  Daily data should then be purged, with optional archiving.

  log/mail

  log/test*

  private/registration/...

  registrations not activated within 30 (?) days should be purged.

  remove from matchdb

  remove from pending

  remove registration data

• We should develop a general facility to manage disk space and maintain the logs. This would probably involve
  • gzipping the archived data,
  • moving the gz files to a staging area, and
  • sending the files to a storage device, e.g. tape.
  • sunset for data that has failed to be archived before disk is full or after specified period.
  A configurable policy, to define the staging area, the storage device, and sunset limits in case the operators fail to store and remove the staged data.

Topic List

Editing Special Files

The plan is to use a master script, with a configuration file to define relevant parameters to control usage of the command.

The configuration file would likely contain

# planned format for suedit.conf (only root writable - fix up the details :-)
# tag | path | mailto | log | userlist
suedit | ..suedit.conf | root | /root/log/suedit.log | root
money | private/../money | $TREASURER | /root/log/money.log | blaine,djm

The script would create a temporary copy of the file, with locking, run pico-p, create a diff on exit, accept a comment, send the diff and comment to the specified mailto and log file, and return the updated file to the normal location.

Example: $ sudo suedit money

To complete this we need the patches for pico -p, so the user cannot change the file name (with root privilege!) -> CG

Topic List

Halifax Update

We need to create some test accounts and put it through its paces, although everything should be considered volatile. David Murdoch and Kassiem will run the automated test scripts.

All problems should be reported through CSuite RTS.

Chris will try to use halifax as a mail server with IMAP access to the mailbox. Performance timings are needed. An optimistic view would have us put in an MX record for chebucto to handle mail through halifax as soon as next week.

The CVS archive has been reorganized. Since our 1.0 CD image is in transit to be pressed, the 1.0 branch is now frozen. A Special CD will be burned with the 1.0 image and 1.0 CVS branch. Differences between 1.0 and 1.1 will be examined by Jamie, to make sure we don't lose anything. Changes necessary to run on Solaris will be integrated back into CVS.

Topic List

February 3, 1998February 17, 1998