Wondering what’s been happening with the offline problems and loss of some posts? Here’s DU’s sys admin, Marc Perkel, to explain it all.
And for those who keep popping off in the comments to posts about Windows or Mac, tell us again why Linux is the future and we’re all idiots for not seeing the light?
Here’s what’s happening.
In order to spread the load and increase capacity I was trying to move the MySQL server to another computer with the main server handling the web and the second server running the MySQL database. Even though I have 8 gigs of ram in the main server every now and then for some reason I can’t explain memory usage soars the the server quits working due to high load.
Most all applications talk to MySQL through “localhost” that resolves to IP address 127.0.0.1 port 3306. Normally moving this service is trivial. I just shut down the database on the main server, move the database to another server, start it up there. Then I set up an SSH tunnel that pipes requests from the main server to the new server by intercepting requests and transporting them over TCP. Generally this just works.
However…
The morons at MySQL decided to redefine the meaning of “localhost” and when an application uses “localhost” the client libraries force it to be redirected to talk to the Unix socket /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock instead of the TCP port. Why they did this is crazy beyond belief but there’s no way to override it short of downloading the source code and fixing it and recompiling MySQL which is the standard answer that you get whenever you complain too much about Open Source.
I however don’t give up so easily. I found a Linux utility called “socat” (socket concatenate ?) that allowed me to create a fake Unix socket and pipe it to a TCP port. And it worked – for a while. But it wasn’t reliable. As long as I was awake and in front of the computer it worked fine. But as soon as I went to sleep it shut down. So I wake up to a mailbox full of “my web site is down”.
So – I put it back on the main server till I find a real solution.
But – this is yet another example of why open source will never fully replace paid for software. If you have a commercial product people can call up the vendor and scream at them to fix bugs. When I sold commercial software and someone called me needing something fixed or added I usually had it the same day. However in the open source world you have a lot of people who have a highly inflated sense of importance who think their software is the greatest thing that was ever written and it’s crap!
What it comes down to as far as I can tell is the VI editor that comes with Unix causes brain damage. I’m totally serious about this. The VI editor absolutely sucks. It’s years behind editors I got with DOS 20 years ago and is an example of how to make an interface that totally sucks. I have refused to learn this editor because I find it offensive. I do most all my editing with a Windows editor, Textpad, and I run Samba on the Linux boxes so that I can mount them from Windows. That’s because there are no good editors in the Linux world. Other than that I use Pico which is a great little Unix editor for quick and dirty but still isn’t up to the kind of power I had in DOS or even CP/M (Wordstar) which is a better editor than any text mode editor in the Unix world.
I’m still waiting for Linux to catch up to CP/M!!!
My theory is that when people use VI it lowers their standards as to what good software should look like and causes their minds to physically alter in a way that leads to VI syndrome leading to delusions that their little piece of shit software is the greatest program in the world and that they are just so superior to microsoft that it’s just a matter of days before Microsoft collapses and everyone accepts Linux as God.
But what the open source world doesn’t get is that Windows programs actually WORK! If you want to install a windows application you download it, click NEXT, AGREE, NEXT, NEXT, NEXT, FINISH and the program is running. In the Linux world this almost never happens and when it does you’re almost sure that something has to be wrong. In Linux you have to edit cryptic config files with poor documentation. Then you try to run the application, get an error, Google the error, and go back and edit again. After many hours you might have it working or you might have to give up.
Out here in the real world localhost = 127.0.0.1 everywhere EXCEPT in MySQL. Not only did they hard code the bizarre behavior but have no way to override it. In fact they do the opposite. Whatever you set the configuration to they override it and force you to use the Unix socket. So doing something that should be simple becomes a nightmare. And you can’t talk to them because they have VI syndrome.
Man…..
You just don’t get the dream….
you have sold out to the man!
Peace-on brother!
I sympathise, I truly do – and I also agree that you’ve hit upon the stumbling block in Open Source, which non-coïncidntally turns out to be the classic Immovable Object; the human ego.
But by-the-bye, I couldn’t help but notice; the only choices are linux and Windows, have I got that right? As Spock was occasionally heard to say, “Fascinating.”
There’s a saying I’ve heard that goes along the lines of “it’s a poor workman that blames his tools.” I hope you aren’t actually paying him money to do this.
This guy comes across as a lazy fool with an ego problem. It’s great to hear that he’s so unconcerned about the quality of his work that he refuses to learn how to use tools on his systems (like editors), and can’t quite grasp the concept that “localhost” means “local to that host”, not “local to some other host via an SSH tunnel”, which frankly to me sounds like a kludge brought about by not wanting to spend the time to do the job properly.
Find another guy while you still can.
What I’m finding is that open source has a similar lifeline as commercial software only the timeline is stretched. Hence you eventually get the same sort of de-evolution. Firefox is currently going into this phase. Every couple of days I have to go to the task manager to shut down Firefox as it gets into a funk and hogs too many cycles slowing down the operation of the computer. The product has been getting progressively worse. This is due to both creeping featurism and normal software entropy.
Why don’t you get this working instead of wasting so much time typing your inane blather.
“But what the open source world doesn’t get is that Windows programs actually WORK!”
I used to say the same thing about Windows software sucking back when I used it. I started using Linux and since then felt that Linux programs actually work. When I clicked NEXT, AGREE, NEXT, NEXT, NEXT, FINISH in Windows I would always hold my breath to see that blue screen, program crash, or just have the whole computer lock up on me. Yes, Windows programs are made to be easy. Same with Mac. They are tailored for the average user.
If you want to use Linux, you need to have a great deal of computer knowledge, otherwise you’ll never get things working. It took me ages to get my Linux server up and running, but since then, it’s run for nearly a year with hardly any administration on my part. The second server I set up took a short time to get everything configured and it’s been running (constantly) for over 200 days, again with hardly any user administration.
As far as technology and user control goes, Linux is the future. As far as ease of use for the average computer user, Linux will probably forever be decades behind MS and Apple.
I just love a good tech rant, this one is a doozy, and bears repeating:
“My theory is that when people use VI it lowers their standards as to what good software should look like and causes their minds to physically alter in a way that leads to VI syndrome leading to delusions that their little piece of shit software is the greatest program in the world and that they are just so superior to microsoft that it’s just a matter of days before Microsoft collapses and everyone accepts Linux as God.”
True, so true.
What a retarded rant.
Yeah, go ahead and call microsoft and scream about a bug you found in sql servers… see how they react.
Just because YOU are an admin out of his league doesn’t mean there isn’t anything wrong with the tools.
I saw a guy with a pneumatic hammer trying to pound in nails. They were going in all funky and he exclaimed these new fangled “air tools” are all total CRAP and nothing like this happened when he used the great steel hammers he was used to.
It must be refreshing to your customers that you know so much and are so good you refuse to learn anything new. Too bad your results speak otherwise. …
#6 “As far as technology and user control goes, Linux is the future. As far as ease of use for the average computer user, Linux will probably forever be decades behind MS and Apple.”
This is what is known as an oxymoron… sort of like Government Intelligence.
Linux will never be the future as long as ‘Linux will probably forever be decades behind MS and Apple’…Period.
Is it really so hard to make software that doesn’t rely on badly named config files, doesn’t rely on manual configuration, and can install without having to read tea leaves? How hard is it to make a GUI or html config to edit these same files? Or do I need to understand this crap in order to be part of the ‘club’??
Any tried to install VMware server on Fedora? Now, go install on Server 2003, no contest. Vmware server on 2003 is up and runnig in 10 minutes. In 10 minutes on Fedora, I was on google trying to decode the install process and dependencies. It is worse than the Davinci code. And no it didn’t blue screen and fire and brimstone did not smite me from the heavens.
As long as this is true, linux will be relegated in the mainstream to appliance type apps or preconfigured virtual machines, which will require no install or configuration.
I have to chuckle over True Believers who comment as if Marc was intern who just wandered into DU. He’s been a consistent and reliable provider for John – and others – for years, if not decades.
I try to avoid having to play Dr. Frankenstein; so, I’m perfectly happy to rely on the easy stuff like OS X. It’s why I walked away from MSoft products after 21 years. BTW, nice smartass remark on Cranky Geeks, this past week, John – about Leopard and Vista.
The mindset that translates hobbyist OS into enterprise solutions is grounded in Fantasyland. Can it be done? Yes? But, you still have to wonder why, sometimes.
Okay, if open source sucks and M$ is so wonderful, how do you explain Google’s success with their Linux servers. Maybe the sysop doesn’t know his job. (awaiting the flames for that one)
Specifically addressing the MySQL socket issue this is nothing new as MySQL has been using sockets for localhost connections for at least a couple of years now. It’s not as if this is some new change that breaks a bunch of stuff.
Second, if applications connect with 127.0.0.1 instead of localhost it uses the TCP connection or many applications can be set in their individual setup to connect to another host for database service. I realize that changing individual customers’ setups is not feasible in a hosting environment but it is supported.
Third, like most things people dislike about computers there is a reason sockets are used! In your view it may or may not be a good reason, but it is a reason. The bottom line is socket connections are faster. People want responsive applications and that means quick database access times. Making a socket connection is faster than setting up a loopback TCP connection, end of story. In fact, one could argue that more connections between services on the same host should use sockets to speed things up.
You could argue that there should be an alternative syntax for using sockets and leave localhost as a TCP connection to 127.0.0.1 but I think you would still have the same problem. Developers of the software used by your customers would all suggest that if possible the customer use a socket connection “to improve speed” and so chances are most of your customers would and you would be left in the same ultimate position.
While I understand the rant was written at a time of frustration it’s important to know there’s another side to the story as well as their usually is.
Well, you have the source, if some behaviour is not to your liking you can:
1) Read the implementation
2) propose or make a change
Future generations also can look to the source to get up to speed and become productive maintainers and developers.
The welded shut approach puts a lot of hope up there in Redmond that they will have the stewardship to do the right thing for you as time progresses. Heaven forfend the closed source widget you depend on becomes a money loser.
#4 – normal software entropy? You must mean Vista.
#3 – you must be in management.
Those of you knocking the sysop, beware of Mr. Suck Up, er, Fusion.
When I was the editor at InfoWorld back in 1981 Marc was already a well-established Networking guru selling utilities for Novell.
I would think that nearly 30 years of dealing with this crap that he probably has more standing than those anonymous ankle-biters on here that just claim he’s lazy.
Open Source has its place, but I am not sure what the place is. I’m also not sure what the right model is for Open Source. It’s definitely not the nightmarish GPL version 3.
This is just like arguing over Ford vs Chevy vs Dodge…
the people who are interested in what is going-on under the hood – and like to tinker with the internals – probably love linux & gnu.
the people who just want the damn thing to run – and could give a shit about what is under the hood – are left with the choice of windows or mac.
One side or the other claiming superiority is pointless.
Open source only really works when you see people as God– not Linux or some other entity as it. What I mean by “God” is that highest ___________ that you love.
I agree that there are people who place themselves as God (ego) and open source suffers. Putting others first and serving them is the highest form of religion.
Open source works if there are people like above participating in it. In America, money is King so usually, people get treated as a by-product of relationship with money.
Among common people participating in open source, it would only work in Japan.
Dodge?
How is hard coding parameters an OSS problem? Commercial as well as hobbyist programmers have been making that kind of mistake for years. I remember when games were hard coded to look for a specific directory or folder. Those games ran on Windows. In fact, until Windows XP, it was hard to install Windows on anything but the C:\ drive. If you install enough Windows software, I am sure you will encounter the hard code error. Blaming this kind of error on OSS just shows that the person does not have that much experience with software.
I am not sure what the purpose the rant about Vi solved. There are other text editors for Linux like SciTE, Kate, Emacs, Vim, Nano and many others. Kepp trying other editors.
While trying other software give PostgreSQL. May be it will work better for you.
By doing the whole NEXT, AGREE, NEXT, NEXT, NEXT, FINISH thing to install your programs in windows, you’re installing more than you hope for. With linux software you at least know somebody spend lots of time making a program and wants to really share it with people. In windows most of the time when you get a “free” application, it may actually come bundled with adware/spyware, that “sponsor” the program so that it comes at “no cost” to you. Of course, its only gonna cost you your bank account, credit cards, and/or ssn. Weird nobody pointed this out. Anyways, if you think linux is a primitive os, Why are u using linux in the first place.
I’m sorry to say this, but Marc Perkel, you’re a pretty sorry excuse for a sys-admin. The simplest solution would be to have your programs use the direct IP (or some DNS alias) on the MySQL server. Instead you decided to play around with socket forwards? What kind of formal training and certification do you have? Sounds like next-to-none.
I almost want to send you a cheque for the price of Microsoft Server and a MSSQL license so that you could get some perspective with “paid” software.
The thing that really makes me laugh the most is your use of the term “paid”. You think Microsoft (or whoever) will give you free support just because you bought their software (especially for scenarios as specific as yours)? The only free support you’d get is an automated email reply with a link to their FAQ pages.
At least with MySQL you have a community that you can relay your problems to. That community is then able to come up with a solution and implement it (since MySQL is open-source). Since Microsoft’s code is closed-source, the only entity that can fix a problem is Microsoft.
Your loudest point seems to be the lack of paid-for support for open-source. Which is a joke in itself, since MySQL does offer paid-for support services for their free software.
I’ve been a network admin for 12 years now, all of them on unix/linux system, and after reading this post, all I can say is WTF? This guy does not know what he is doing. Anyone with ANY MySQL experience would never set it up the way he is, and expect it to work.
Do yourself a favor, buy a couple MySQL O’Reilly books, spend a weekend reading them, and then try again.. Because at this point you are doing it wrong, and it is just going to cause you more frustration.
Good luck with it. And if you find you can not figure it out, hire some one who really knows what they are doing to either teach you how or help you along.
-Fratm
I use an editor called joes own editor (JOE) which comes with linux. It will emulate VI or wordstar or any of several other choices. I use WordStar mode. Your right, VI sucks, but there are other editors on the box.
Let me get this right, you couldn’t find a good editor so Linux sucks editors so Linux sucks.
My I.T. friends live nightmare lives because of the security problems in Windows.
And the medical dictation clerks at the hospital I work at HATE Mac because of it has no reliable dictation software.
It seems to me that people are spending too much time bitching about software issues on each platform. If you hate the platform….here is a real stroke of insight…..don’t use it!
#4 “Every couple of days I have to go to the task manager to shut down Firefox as it gets into a funk ”
Well now I know its not just me, I have been getting that too and I haven’t gone crazy with add-ons either – just the basic stuff you would have with MS iExplorer.
Open source software / OS? Its like the old British MG motoring outing – one expects to be tinkering under the bonnet before, during and after – that makes the day. The MG was for the motoring hobbyist – nothing more.
Cheers
As long as I was awake and in front of the computer it worked fine. But as soon as I went to sleep it shut down.
I see where the problem is… you piped the data from the fake Unix socket to the through-you-routine to the TCP port… so, if you’re asleep, no data flows… wasn’t that freaking obvious?
Seriously dude… if you’re so against the ways to do things in Linux… why do you even bother? Choke up money to pay for MS Windows and MS SQL Server licenses and you can spend the rest of your life as a happy Microsoft drone… no need to know the inner workings of anything.
#20,
Impala.
Oh another thing,, the term Sysop, went out in teh 80’s when BBS’s died. Lets show we know what we are talking about here, and call him the System Administrator..
Maybe thats part of the problem, you hired a Sysop to do a System Admins job?
DU should be ashamed for posting this article, it just makes you all look bad. And I don’t mean the anti open source stuff, but just the fact you have a talentless Sysop running you system instead of a real System Admin.
-Fratm
This post truly made me laugh, thanks. I haven’t seen an ignorant script-kiddie whine this much in a long time. I would seriously urge you to find a new sys-admin.
any technology admin that “refuses” to learn something is a poor excuse for a technology admin.