Testing Percona Xtrabackup (innobackupex)

My last post dealt with the installation of the Percona Xtrabackup tool for use on a Mysql innodb database.
After some tweaking and help from the Percona Docs, the following is a test backup, prep and restore of the full database (not incremental).

This assumes a test environment, so please don't try this on a running production environment. Before the database can be restored, the existing one will have to be renamed or moved. The options for this are straightforward. Stop the mysql daemon and make a binary copy of the files, or rename the source folder.

0. Login as root/su

1. Prerequisite configuration items

Configure datadir and in my.cnf and reboot mysqld service

nano /etc/my.cnf

 --find section

[mysqld]
--add line
datadir=/var/lib/mysql
service mysqld restart

2. Run full backup of specific database
innobackupex --defaults-file=/etc/my.cnf --user=***** --password=***** --databases=mydbname /path/to/backup/

3. Prepare backup files
innobackupex --apply-log --user=****** --password=****** /path /to/backup

4. Restore backup
service mysqld stop
cp –r /path/to/backup /var/lib/mysql

chown –R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql
chmod –R 771 /var/lib/mysql
service mysqld start

-n

Installing Percona xtrabackup on CentOS 5.x

This covers the basic installation of the xtrabackup package on CentOS. This is necessary in order to take hot backups of a database using the InnoDB storage engine. By default, Mysql has no options to take a full hot backup of a live InnoDB database.

For more information,  please see Percona's website located here: http://www.percona.com/doc/percona-xtrabackup/

0. Login as root

1. Get rpm from Percona
(check your server version before installing, there are specific RPM’s for 32-bit and 64-bit)
see here for rpm list: http://www.percona.com/downloads/percona-release/

cd /tmp
wget  http://www.percona.com/downloads/percona-release/percona-release-0.0-1.i386.rpm

2. Install rpm (32-bit on this test machine)
Rpm –Uvh percona-release-0.0-1.i386.rpm

3. Check repo for package
yum list | grep percona

4. Install xtrabackup
yum install xtrabackup --nogpgcheck
I still have testing to do on actual usage, so I'll create a new post on tests of backups and restoring databases.

-n

Installing Moodle 2.x on CentOS 5.7

This particular entry deals with installing (not migrating) a base Moodle 2.x installation on CentOS 5.7. A few non-standard packages were recommended at the time of writing this, so some sub-entries were made to document those steps separately.

This assumes the base installation of CentOS 5.7 has been completed and the server has connectivity to the web.

Login as root/su

Note: This installation does not default to an innodb database, As I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment, I'll either update this post, or create a new one on converting the database to innodb.



0. Update OS
yum update -y

1. Install Mysql5.5
See this post: http://noveckg.blogspot.com/2012/01/installation-of-mysql-55-on-centos-5x.html


2. Install Apache
yum install httpd*

3. Install php 5.3 
See this post: http://noveckg.blogspot.com/2012/01/installing-php-53-on-centos-5x.html

4. Install php accelerator (for performance)
See this post: http://noveckg.blogspot.com/2012/01/installation-of-apc-on-php-53-centos-5x.html

5. Download latest tarball and install into webroot
cd /temp
download moodle latest: http://download.moodle.org/download.php/stable22/moodle-latest-22.tgz
tar xzvf moodle-latest-22.tgz
cd moodle-latest-22.tgz
cp –r moodle/* /var/www/html/

6. Create empty database in MySQL

mysql -u root -p yourpasswordhere
At the mysql prompt:
CREATE DATABASE mydbname CHARSET 'utf8';
GRANT select,insert,update,delete,create,drop,index,alter
ON mydbname.*
TO mymoodleuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'moodleuserpassword';
flush privileges;
quit;


7. Check web root permissions
cd /var/www/html
chown –R root:root *
chmod –R 755 *

8. Create MoodleData Folder (outside of web root)
mkdir /usr/moodledata
cd /usr/moodledata
chown -R apache:apache *
chmod –R 700 *

Note: Check here for security recommendations: http://docs.moodle.org/20/en/Security_recommendations

9. Setup Config.php
use instructions from here for a new installation: http://docs.moodle.org/21/en/RedHat_Linux_installation

10. Configure Apache to read from Moodle Data
nano /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.confAdd to end of file

[Directory "/usr/moodle/mymoodle"]*
DirectoryIndex index.php
AcceptPathInfo on
AllowOverride None
Options None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

[/Directory]*
*substitute the [] with <> !!
11. Setup the Moodle Cron
nano /etc/crontab
add line
*/5 * * * * php /var/www/html/admin/cli/cron.php

12. Moodle!
Open up a web browser on the server and hit: http://localhost/admin
Install and configure as desired.


Happy Moodle-2-ing !

-noveck

Installation of APC on php 5.3 (CentOS 5.x)

My previous blog entry used Eaccelerator as a php cache, but it does not appear to be actively maintaned.
http://bart.eaccelerator.net/

In my research for a suitable and robust alternative, I recognized that a lot of large sites were using APC, and it was compatible with my desired application (Moodle)

APC (Alternative PHP Cache) is a free, open, and robust framework for caching and optimizing PHP intermediate code. (taken from: http://pecl.php.net/package/APC)
  
In order to avoid installation conflicts from the base repository, it was much simpler to compile the APC package from source for the php 5.3 on a CentOS 5.x installation.

0. Login as root

1. Go to temp folder and download the latest tarball cd /temp
wget http://pecl.php.net/get/APC-3.1.9.tgz

2. Extract to temp
tar xzvf APC-3.1.9.tgz
cd APC-3.1.9

3. Configure and Install
**amended on 05-07-2012, added pcre-devel install as suggested by yaroslav.
yum install pcre-devel 

phpize
./configure
make
make test
make install


4. Create APC config filenano /etc/php.d/apc.ini
Add to file

extension=apc.so
apc.enabled = 1
apc.shm_segments = 1
apc.shm_size = 64M
apc.max_file_size = 10M
apc.stat=1

Further information on advanced tweaking of configuration items here: http://www.php.net/manual/en/apc.configuration.php
5. Restart the webserver
service httpd restart

6. Check to see if APC was installed properly
nano /var/www/html/phpinfo.php

Add to file

< php
phpinfo();
?>
 
Save and Exit

Launch from web browser: http://yourserver.com/phpinfo.php
The APC configuration item should be found on the page.

7. Install the APC monitor

Copy APC Monitoring file into web root
cp /temp/APC-3.1.9/apc.php /var/www/html/

(There are options to secure this file, see the website for further details: http://pecl.php.net/package/APC)

Check the APC monitor

Launch from web browser: http://yourserver.com/apc.php
*A page should load displaying cache information and host status.

That's it. A quick and painless method of installing the APC Cache for php 5.3 on CentOS 5.x.

-Noveck

Installation of php 5.3 on CentOS 5.x

CentOS ships with php 5.1 by default, at the time of this entry (January 2012). The php 5.3 packages are available in the base repos, but the older version needs to be removed first to avoid any installation conflicts.

This entry does not involve any migration and assumes a new server is being deployed.

0. Login as root



1. Verify current version of php
php -v

2. Remove previously installed php and modules (if applicable)
yum erase php*

3. Install php 5.3 and modules
yum install php53*


4. Verify correct version of php is installed

php -v

Installation of Mysql 5.5 on CentOS 5.x

This particular sub-entry focuses on installing MySQL 5.5 on CentOS 5.7.
For reference, CentOS ships with MySQL 5.0.77 by default, at the time of this entry (January 2012). This entry does not involve any migration and assumes a new server is being deployed. Nonstandard repos are required (remi and EPEL)

0. Login as root

1. Remove previously installed MySQL (if applicable)
yum erase mysql

2. Install additional repos

Navigate to temporary directory
cd /tempInstall EPEL repo
wget http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm

UPDATE 11 MAY 2012: The above URL is sporadic. Please use this alternative if the original does not work. - http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm

rpm -Uvh epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm

Install remi repo
wget http://rpms.famillecollet.com/enterprise/remi-release-5.rpm
rpm -Uvh remi-release-5.rpm

3. Ensure the repo contains MySQL 5.5
yum --enablerepo=remi list mysql mysql-server
4. Install MySQL 5.5
yum install --enablerepo=remi mysql*

5. Start MySQL and configure to start on boot
service mysqld start
chkconfig mysqld on 

6. Run mysql upgrade script
mysql_upgrade -u root -p

7. Change Mysql default Password 
/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password 'yourpasswordhere'

8. Check to ensure mysql 5.5 is installed.
mysql --version


That's it! MySQL 5.5 should now be installed. Dont forget to tune your server:
http://noveckg.blogspot.com/2011/04/some-mysql-database-tuning-from-non-dba.html

-noveck

2012 - The end of...

..the world?

Maybe not, but certainly I plan to make it the end of Moodle 1.9 on my production systems. Or at least get a head start on planning a migration strategy from 1.9 to 2.2.

In other news, CentOS recently released version 6 on December 20th, 2011, so I'll take that opportunity to build a fresh new test environment CentOS 6.2, php5.3, mysql5.5 and of course Moodle 2.2


Look out for a fresh Moodle 2 installation guide on CentOS 6, coming soon to theaters near you.