Vrolijk's place

The Linode server has been running nicely lately and it is time to start setting up the content side using Drupal. To do this safely it would be nice to have a development server available locally. As the Linode itself is running on User Mode Linux, the logical thing is to setup an UML machine at home and mirror the main server setup to that.

So how do we set it up ?

I just found out that the servers in the Atlanta data centre have suffered a long power out and that my server has been down and rebooted twice. Let's hope that this won't happen too often.

Edit: I found out on the forum that it was a combination of events that caused the power out to be so severe. They did have a duplicate UPS but the hosts still went down. Murphy strikes again.

For those interested; the little animal is a Jerboa, member of a group of rodents with powerful hind legs. They look like little kangaroos and can be found thoughout the deserts of central Asia. British troops had one as mascot.

Recently a species of Jerboa was photographed and filmed for the first time in history. This particular species has enormous ears to complement their hind legs. (see http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00253/jerboa_385x185_253... and check wikipedia for more info.

So, I have spent almost two weeks worth of evenings on configuring and setting up my server. The time has now come to give some thoughts on where to take this further. The basics are up and seems to be running smoothly.

To recap what I have now;

• A virtual private server running Ubuntu
• Websites and mail for two domains
• Drupal as CMS on the two sites
• Subversion and websvn for versioning
• Automated off site backup and some other useful titbits

I have been thinking about creating a more permanent home on the internet than my domestically hosted, adsl connected server could ever be. Now that I have also taken a step towards being more independent in a professional sense (by moving into freelancing), I have deemed it time to set up a small corner for myself on the web.

I will be documenting my progress as much as possible and will write updates now and then.

So what will I put up here ?