two seperate projects this weekend.  first mod_gzip which is an apache
module to speed up serving static and dynamic mime(text/.*) web content.
the second is the compaq smart array configs for linux.
before i go on much more i'll cover the following bits: the server
is running redhat 7.3 linux with all the updates on a compaq dl380.
the client is running the same on a compaq laptop.  pretty much everything
is stock redhat 7.3 - and i'm consciously trying to stick to that.
there's a tutorial on linux.ie for it (thanks donnacha) but since i'm
not an apache person this only got me part of the way.  step by step,
that should compile and install fine, so add the following to
your apache configs.  i've included comments to explain where they
should go.  my apache config is split among many files (which is
# put this after the last LoadModule line
# this just needs to go below the obove two lines.
LogFormat "%h \"%f\" %{mod_gzip_result}n %{mod_gzip_input_size}n %{mod_gzip_output_size}n %{mod_gzip_compression_ratio}npct." mod_gzip_logs
and after you've viewed some pages and check
/var/log/httpd/compression_log in order to see if it's working.
if you have /server-info avilable you should see that mod_gzip
is loaded.  a compressed line and a non-compressed line might look
roo "/.../ssl_glossary.html" OK 15092 4726 69pct.
roo "/.../ssl_template.head-num-7.gif" DECLINED:EXCLUDED 0 0 0pct.
compaq smart array config:   (WARNING: YOU NEED A JVM FOR YOUR BROWSER)
i searched on google for "compaq smart array configuration linux" and
got a slew of hits.  one of them was a click away from this page:
i downloaded the rpm.  installed it. and ran the server per the
instructions.  note, the -R enables remote connections.  if you're
running the browser locally, run it without the -R and connect
i found that galeon didn't work.  mozilla did.  i suspect it's because
pop-ups are disabled in galeon config, but i might be wrong.  it uses
java which is slow and memory hungry on this laptop.  feel free to
try galeon with pop-ups enabled if you want to.
so, point mozilla at http://yourserver:2301/ .  login as
administrator/administrator and change your password.  then go back
to the main page and click the little drive array graphic towards
the bottom.  configure your array as you want (i had to add a disk).
save your changes, and exit.  to stop the server, just do this:
in my case the drive was now accessible.  i started the process of
making the file systems by partitioning the drive.  i knew what
it would be called, but a grep for ida on the output of dmesg
and from there i built the filesystems and so on.