Alan's Ramblings - Meninos Oldham category

Hosting a community website using Solaris and Tomcat

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 02:54:59 GMT

Outside of work I'm also a member of a Community-based Samba band, Meninos do Morumbi Oldham, along with my son James. Like most people in the IT business, once people figure out what you do you inevitably get requests to help with anything related to computers, and I got collared to set up a website for the group. I started looking around for hosting providers, and my original choice was bluehost.com, based on the recommendation of my colleague Phil. However, the membership management application I'm also developing is written in Java, which mean I really wanted to run Tomcat on the site as well, and bluehost didn't offer that option. Finding a hosting provider who would host Tomcat at a reasonable price proved incredibly difficult - the costs were way more than a non-profit like us could afford. Eventually I stumbled across mod3, a UK-based hosting provider who offer a Solaris 10 zone for the princely sum of £9.95 per year, plus pay-as-you-go for network bandwidth, disk space etc. The fact that they were running Solaris appealed to me, and I was happy to risk the £10 involved out of my own capacious pocket ;-) The base hosting package also came with 660Mb of usable disk space, which was plenty for our needs.

After purchasing the site domain name and hosting I started to think about what I wanted to put on the site. You get 64Mb of RSS memory with a base zone config, which meant I needed to be fairly careful with what I ran on the site. As I said, I knew I'd probably want use Tomcat at some point, so I began to wonder if I could run the whole thing with Tomcat alone. From previous experience of setting up similar websites before, I know that setting up the site is relatively easy, the real problem is providing content, then keeping it up-to-date and relevant. I also didn't want to become the bottleneck for making changes to she site, which pretty much meant that I needed to use some sort of Content Management System, so that I could give other members of the group the ability to edit content. Nearly everyone in the organisation is a non-IT type (one of the attractions of the group for me ;-), so whatever I used had to make editing easy - requiring that people hack on raw HTML was a non-starter.

As part of the day job I'm looking at the possibility of using a CMS for part of the OpenSolaris website, so I'd already been looking around at what was available (and free!). I didn't need an 'Enterprise level' CMS - features such as versioning, content staging, multilingual support or workflow management weren't necessary, what I needed was something easy for users to understand, and that didn't have huge resource requirements. And being written in Java was a bonus, as it meant I could then run it under the Tomcat instance I already knew I was going to need for the membership management stuff.

My final choice was MeshCMS, and I've been extremely happy with it. It hit all the key requirements that I had - simple to deploy (single WAR file, no database required), easy to customise, structures the site using the directory/subdirectory paradigm that any PC user is already familiar with, has an integrated WYSIWYG editor for editing content, and the clincher - has very modest resource requirements and fits inside my 64Mb RSS constraint. MeshCMS has been exceedingly well thought out - designing the look and feel of the site involves just modifying a single JSP template, which is then applied to all the pages. The site navigation menus are all automatically generated from the layout of the directory hierarchy used to store the page content, and most-frequently accessed pages bubble to the top of the menus. Linking to other pages in the site is easy - the integrated editor provides a dynamically-generated list of pages that you can select from. The editor even provides a list of the styles defined in the site stylesheet for you to select from - a feature that Roller (the package used to run blogs.sun.com) could well do with emulating.

Having decided on the CMS, the next task was to see if I could minimise Tomcat's footprint as far as possible. Tomcat runs as a normal Unix process, and so doesn't have permission to open low-numbered ports (below 1024), which is why by default it runs on port 8080. Webservers normally run on port 80, and using that port requires root privilege. The Apache webserver gets around this problem by starting up as root, opening port 80 then switching user to the webserver user before starting to serve pages. However Tomcat is written in Java, so Unix-centric mechanisms like switching user aren't an option. The normal way to get around this is to put Tomcat behind Apache, using the mod_jk module to shunt traffic between the two. However because of my memory constraints, I wanted to avoid using Apache if at all possible. There are a number of fairly vile hacks for doing this for Linux, including stuff such as firewall or userland port redirection, but most of them suffer from various problems.

However because I was running on Solaris, I had a far better option. I was already intending to run Tomcat as a SMF service, and one of the lesser-known features of SMF is that it is integrated with the Least Privilege mechanism in Solaris 10, which allows you to grant elevated privileges to normal user processes in a controlled way. This meant that allowing Tomcat to open port 80 simply required granting it the net_privaddr privilege:

    <method_credential user='meninos' group='staff' privileges='basic,net_privaddr' />

The really neat thing is that I didn't have to give the meninos user the net_privaddr privilege permanently, it only needs it for the duration of the service start method. The full service manifest is available here if you want to use it yourself.

So, if you are ever in the Greater Manchester area, check out our performances page on the website and if you get a chance, pop by and hear us play ;-) We were out busking in Manchester yesterday, and for once the weather was kind, despite the time of year :-)

May bank holiday busk

Mon, 01 May 2006 11:35:46 GMT

As I'd explained in a previous post, Meninos do Morumbi Oldham, the Samba band of which my son James and myself are members are going to be busking in Manchester on the last weekend of every month, with the money going to a housing project in Sao Paulo. Yesterday it was that busking time of the month again ;-) Kickoff was 11:30am at the junction of St Mary's Gate and Market Street, outside M&S in Manchester. We had an even better turnout than last time, especially of the dancers - Yay for the dancers! ;-). Unfortunately someone was already playing where we played last time, so we moved up to the other corner of M&S.

The M&S store manager appeared as we were setting up, but she was OK with us playing there after Leon explained we were only going to play 2 sets there before moving on up Market Street. Between when we started at about 12:00pm and when we finished at around 4:30pm we moved steadily up Market Street towards Piccadilly Gardens, playing a couple of times at each spot. On a couple of ocassions we caused Market Street (one of Manchester's main shopping precincts) to almost come to a standstill with a crowd of several hundred listening to us play, which was cool :-) Leon has been busking in Manchester for many years and he made a point of asking the street traders if they were OK with us playing before we started - the nice people in the burger van on the corner of Market Street and Spring Gardens got a large 'thank you' cheer as a result. Unfortunately the weather forecast was wrong and the Weather Gods frowned on us, so we got a bit wet as the day progressed, but hey, it's Manchester after all :-)

We ended up in Piccadilly Gardens and I didn't think we would draw much of a crowd there, but people quickly appeared as we started to play - well I suppose we are rather loud :-) After we'd finished playing we took some photos for the band website that is going to be set up for us by the person who did the Brazilian Meninos do Morumbi website, if you haven't already done so you should check it out - click through the entrance page and click on the 'English' link on the bottom right of the page for all you non-Portuges speakers :-) After humping all the kit back down Market Street to Ian's van some of us decamped to a nearby hostelry to drink a well-deserved pint or two (sitting outside in the rain, under the 'sun' umbrellas over the tables - how very British ;-) before a curry in the Northern Quarter and then catching the train home.

April Fool's busk

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 09:40:32 GMT

On Saturday we invaded Manchester for our first ever busking session - and all for a good cause. Eraldo (the guy in the red jacket in the photo above) comes from Sao Paulo in Brazil where we was a member of Meninos do Morumbi, a fantastic youth-focussed Samba school in Brazil. One of the things he did when in Brazil was to raise funding to rebuild the house of one of the kids who attended Meninos - many of the kids come from the favelas, and live in pretty grim conditions. He and the other tutors of Meninos do Morumbi in Oldham teach us all for free, and in return they asked that we give up one Saturday a month to either busk or play at a performance, with all the money going to a charity that they are setting up to help improve more people's housing in Sao Paulo. I think it's a superb idea - many of the bands who busk in Manchester do so for themselves, but to be honest when the money is split between all the players it probably doesn't provide more than a couple of pints each. And as Eraldo, Ian (white jacket, above), Holly (between Eraldo and Ian), Leon and Emily all give their time for free I think it's only right that we reciprocate and give something back in return. The fact that the money is going to Brazil is even more of a bonus - after all it's their music we are playing.

We started at about 11:30am and played through to nearly 3:30pm - certainly the longest I've ever played. The weather was typically April - a series of heavy showers with sunny spells in between, so we got wet a couple of times. We were on the corner outside M&S, and the weekly protests were going on - first the Palestinian faction turned up, shortly followed by the anti-Iraq war protesters, finally topped off by a group carrying Israeli flags. It's a regular occasion - about half a dozen police turned up out of nowhere and tried to politely keep the two sides out of arm's reach of each other. The sight of two men standing 5 feet apart bellowing at each other through loudhailers seemed to neatly sum up the entire Middle East situation. However I did think the air horn that one of the Israeli supporters kept letting off whenever one of the other side tried to talk was an arms escalation too far. At one point one of the policemen sidled over to us and asked if we could play really loudly and we were only too glad to oblige. It had the required effect - whilst we were playing they all shut up - well, they didn't have a hope in hell of being heard over us. I felt quite the child of the 60s ;-)

The plan is for us to busk every month, so we've got quite a few dates lined up:

Sunday 30th April, outside M&S in Manchester, 12:00am - 4:00pm
Saturday 20th May, outside M&S in Manchester, 11:00am - 3:00pm
Sunday 20th May, Oldham Carnival (May Parade)
Saturday 24th June, busking, location TBD
Saturday 29th July, busking, location TBD
Saturday 26th August, busking, location TBD

So come along. And bring money :-)

First Meninos do Morimbi - Oldham gig

Sat, 28 May 2005 09:09:03 GMT

Today I played my first Samba gig with the Oldham branch of Meninos do Morumbi, as part of this year's Oldham Carnival. Meninos are a Brazilian group from São Paulo in Brazil, and at the moment three of their teachers, Eraldo, Sivuca and Adriana are over in the UK teaching a group in Oldham, set up by Leon and Ian, that I've been going to since the beginning of the year. Meninos do Morumbi in Brazil is a quite remarkable organization. Set up by Flavio Pimenta it 1996, it provides training in Samba and other styles of music to 4,000 kids between the ages of 7 and 18 in São Paulo, as well as a wide range of other activities. The association is largely run by the kids themselves, and provides over 1,000 meals a day for the kids, for example.

As well as switching bands I've also switched from playing Surdo (and hiding at the back of the group) to playing Tamborim (and being on display at the very front!), and I don't mind admitting it's proving to be a real stretch for me. Not only is the Tamborim played fast, it also has some fiendishly long and complicated patterns, plus we have to move around doing some dance steps and play the instrument everywhere from down by our knees to up over our heads - as we are at the front and have the smallest and lightest instruments we have to provide a bit of visual spectacle as well as volume ;-) It's taking me a while to get the hang of it, but I'm really enjoying the challenge. Anyway, here are a couple of photos of us playing in Oldham town centre - I'm second from the left in the red top.

We are playing again tomorrow in Oldham - first taking part in a parade and later on we will be playing a set on our own. It should be a good day, as long as the weather stays fine! If anyone fancies having a go themselves, it's a really friendly crowd and everyone is welcome, especially kids - my youngest son Mark (8) has started going, as well as James, and there are lots of other kids there too. Not only is there percussion training, there's also dance, and best of all it is completely free! Rehearsals are at every Monday at 6:15pm in The Gallery in Oldham, next to Sainsbury's.

It's Hare again

Sat, 14 Feb 2004 08:48:23 GMT

For a bit of a change I decided that for today's patrol I'd park up at Snake Summit and walk down Lady Clough to where it joins Ashop Clough, walk up the Snake Path to Ashop Head the back along the Pennine Way to Snake summit - a nice leisurely walk. After getting off the road I dropped into Lady Clough woods:

There used to be a lovely walk along the banks of Lady Clough and when Mark was a toddler it was one of his favorite places. Unfortunately we had some bad floods in 2002, and it damaged the footpath quite badly. In particular the footbridge over Lady Clough was undercut by the water, and in some places the river changed course and swept the path away. The woodland is owned by the Forestry Commision, and I must say I'm very disappointed in them, after nearly two years the bridge is still not repaired and rather than repairing the old footpath they've chosen to reroute it through a thick part of the woodland, cutting down trees to make a new path. It's not been used very heavily and already it is a muddy morass in places. 0 out 0f 10, Forestry Commision!

Once I got to the confluence of Lady Clough and Adhop Clough I turned right and headed up Ashop Clough to the old shooting cabin at Upper Gate Clough, where I had lunch.

There used to be lots of these shooting cabins all over the Dark Peak, and they were used to shelter and feed the gentry who came to shoot the grouse. Most of the moors were closed to the public until the National Park was formed in 1951, and in fact confrontations between Gamekeepers and Ramblers were common, culminating in the Kinder mass trespass in 1932. Most of them are now derelict either due to neglect or because they have been pulled down, although a few still survive (not this one though!)

My original plan was to walk up the Snake Path to Ashop Head and then back along the Pennine Way. However I had bags of time, so I decided I'd sneak up Kinder (I hope none of the Hayfield or Edale Rangers read this, as Kinder is their patch! :-) I made my way up the line of Grouse butts that lead towards Fairbrook Naze, and as I was getting my breath back, er - admiring the view I mean, about half way up, I noticed this Mountain Hare a few yards away.

It looked distinctly unconcerned, so I slowly crept as close as I could to it without it running away. It is around this time of year that the hares begin their nuptuals, and they become a lot more active and visible. I saw this one and one other, but one of the other rangers out on patrol on Bleaklow had counted in excess of 60 today. The hares were introduced for sport (i.e. shooting) in the 1830's, and they seem to have thrived. Most of the other introductions iin the UK have failed, so this is the most southerly outpost of this species. They are the same animal that you see in all those Arctic nature programs being chased by Arctic Foxes.

I got to within about 10 feet, and at that point I judged that from the quizzical look he he was giving me I'd got as close as he was going to allow. I'd have liked to have got a better shot, but my camera has only a fairly weedy zoom. Once up on the top I walked westwards along The Edge (the northern edge of Kinder is called 'The Edge', and it is in fact the edge of the plateau - all very confusing).

Carrying along the edge of The Edge (see, I said it was confusing!) past Nether and Upper Red Brooks, I got to the Boxing Gloves, so called for a rather obvious reason.

And from there I carried along to Ashop Head and Mill Hill. As I was walking up to Mill Hill I passed a guy who I'd seen earlier by the cabin I stopped at for lunch - he was most confused because he'd seen me walking eastwards down the path, and now I'd appeared in front of him about 3Km west of where he'd seen me last. After the usual pleasantries and the "What do the Ranger Service do?" conversation I beetled off down the Pennine Way back to Snake Summit, only to find when I got back to the Briefing Centre at Bottoms that the gate was locked and I couldn't get in! These Assistant Rangers can be so unreliable at times, can't they Andy ;-)