Practical Web Management

Christopher GutteridgeIWMW 2009

Christopher Gutteridge?

Full time webmaster/manager for Southampton Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) since 1997

ECS hasWebteam of 3(ish)10 Infrastructure webservers running 310

sites.100 research webservers.

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Find out what's actually going on

Work out what you are supposed to be doing

Fix what's not working

Expand and optimizewhat's working

Improve ways of knowing what's

going on

…repeat until promoted

1. Know what's going on2. Have a plan3. Be pragmatic

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What does an IWManager do?

Same as anyone at a University should be doing!

Doing or Facilitating: Teaching Research Communication of Research via

Publications (and websites)EventsWorking with Industry

Where we were failing

Losing research output sites "go away" or software bit-rots

Dropping the ball on basic requests Not shutting down broken unloved sites Finding out about issues via user reports Not knowing what software we're running

Wiki's, blogs etc. Unable to perform basic security patches

Team not sharing information Not knowing who owns a website

Solutions to Problems

Technology,Policy

&Culture

Problem: Dropping the ball

Basic tasks:Create a new websiteCreate a MySQL DBSet up a wikiSet up a blogCorrect an error on a page

Solution: Dropping the Ball

Identify standard essential tasks Create simple web forms for each

Ask all the questions in one go Manage expectations

Web form submits to a queue Shared web account Task management system DON’T NEGLECT THIS QUEUE

Create scripts!

Research Communication

Most Researchers only think as far as the next funding bid.

It's our problem!We provide continuityBetter to plan from the start, than pick

up the pieces after each project ends.Or worse, let it rot.

Problems of Preserving Research

OutputWebsite maintenance

patching wikis and blog softwareWeb 2.0 sites (Flickr, Twitter, Blogger,

YouTube, Slideshare)Orgs I.P. beyond your control

Short term/external DNS registrationsConferences and ProjectsCostsMoving sites

Soloution:Maintaining Tools

Provide central blog & wiki servicesPlan how to "fossilise" dynamic sitesEncourage use of central services and

wiki/blog software suitable for fossilising.

Solution: Offsite Content

BlogsProvide hosted blog serviceWordpress is a good choice

TwitterNo best practice yet

Solution: Offsite Content

Youtube, Slideshare, FlickrEncourage staff to also deposit this

content in the IR (Institutional Repository)Make the IR provide the cool features that

have driven users to use external tools

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Embeddable slide-shows and streaming video coming soon to…

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Solutions: DNS Registrations

Web team registers domains for projects, requiring X years payment in advanceAt least 3 years beyond end of projectConferences maybe 10 years or moreGood use for a request form

Monitor DNS entry for each website

Problem: Who owns a site?

Whom to forward queries toTrying to shut unwanted sites downTo see where resources are being usedWho to bill about DNSSecurity Issues

Solution: Website Database

Built from comments in apache config.#meta owner=cjg23r,dsc93#meta type=project

Script to build webpage report periodicallyJoin against your list of current users to

see when a site is a candidate for deletion.Keep config. files in version controlGenerate useful reports

Discovering webservers

Ask the firewall manager about port 80Virtual Servers are causing a

proliferation!

Problem: Waiting for complaints

UnprofessionalHard to manage workloadOften would have been easier to fix

earlier

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Solution:Build a batcomputer

Nagios is a good starting placeNeeds to be actively looked after

Usually "champion" moves on and it rots

Monitor failures and uptime

What to Monitor…PINGHTTP & HTTPSHardware (Disks failing etc.)BackupsHTTP from external siteHTTPS Certificate expiryMySQL ServersRivals?

UptimeMonitor your webserver uptimeMonitor things beyond your control

which make it unavailableExternal connectivityBuilding power

Don't bother getting your uptime (much) higher than the things beyond your control!

Some Benefits of Monitoring

You and your team know what's going on

Fix problems before they cause harm(nobody will call you a hero anymore)

Uptime graphs help make pragmatic decisions, and justify them

Provide management with facts and figures about what you do

Standardisation FeverStandard solutions are Good

Enforced standardisation can be very Bad

One Size does not always fit all!

SummaryDon't try and be a heroFind out what's going onKnow where your job isHave a planBuild a Batcomputer