The District’s main server http://www.dist228.org or http://www.geneseoschools.org has been powered for years by a Mac Pro G5 standalone machine.  This unit was top of the line in its day with a 1.5 gigs of RAM, a G5 1.6 GHZ processor, and a SATA hard drive with 80 gigs of storage.  Unbelievably this unit is actually water cooled and is the only Apple water cooled computer that I have ever seen.  To the credit of Apple this machine has worked well and continues to run although the hard drive has shown signs of wear and will soon fail.

Old Webserver Mac Pro

At one point in the School Districts history student records were managed with PowerSchool, to power this program a rack mountable XServe G5 was purchased.  This unit has 4 gigs of RAM, dual G5 PPC processors at 2.3 GHZ, and three drive bays with a RAID storage controller.  PowerSchool no longer exists here in District 228 (and rumor has it will no longer be supported anywhere in 6 months – This project once was owned by a startup, then Apple, then sold to Pearson in 2006) and thus this server has not really been used for anything or than storing student transcripts for its brief time in service.

This little used PowerSchool Server has the perfect specs for an excellent web server more RAM, more processing power, better storage capabilities.

Steps taken to Move the WebServer to New Hardware

1. The Project consisted of backing up existing Web Server. (Simple used TimeMachine on external Drive).

2. Fixing the XServe needed a new Power Supply, needed to be upgraded from 10.3 to 10.4 so that it was able to restore a backup from 10.5.  Most time consuming step,  since the XServe was running 10.3 Panther, it had to first get upgraded to 10.4 before it would accept or run installer to restore a time machine image.

XServe G5 PowerSupply (135.00$ GSX Price)

XServe G5 Internal – New Power Supply Installed

3.  Restore Backup Image to XServe

4.  Fix the Apache Configuration on new server (install new PHP module 5.2).  Good to run latest stable builds of Apache and PHP when moving to a new system.

5.  Test new system (fix minor errors, PostFix problems, permission errors)

6.  Go Live and Power Down old Server.

Site is up and running on the XServe and is working well.

New Webserver Rackmounted at the Middle School

Recently, actually very recently as in last night and today I noticed that the DNS servers for my home service provider were down(ISP Mediacom).  Mediacom does a good job with internet service in this area but they have had a little trouble from time to time.   After a couple of quick network tests I determined that the problem is with my ISP’s DNS servers.  This is not the first time I have noticed that their DNS servers have been comprimised so I decided to look for an alternative solution.  For most users simply wait and your ISP will promptly fix this issues but for those of you who are a little more hyper like myself and want a fix that will work without calling tech support, read on.

First off for those reading this who are not familiar with the functions of a DNS server (Domain Name Servers) here it is in a nutshell.

Computers like numbers and not names, therefore when you tell your computer to visit www.yahoo.com a DNS server translates this name into a number (IP Address) which your computer likes.

Okay so maybe I overly simplified a bit but this at least gives the basic premise.

So if you can visit Yahoo by clicking on this  http://www.yahoo.com then your DNS servers are working perfectly.

If you cannot visit Yahoo by the using a domain name but can visit by using this link http://69.147.114.224 then you have a DNS issue.

Google now offers free dns servers that work regardless of you ISP (in most cases) and are fast and efficient.  Also they are easy to remember

Google Free DNS Servers

8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

To fix a pesky home internet connection or for another useful tool to help troubleshoot overall Network (Specifically DNS server issues) it is nice to have these free servers available.

If you suspect that you may have trouble with DNS, simply edit your Network Configuration leaving DHCP intact but clicking the box to fill out manually DNS servers.

Here is how it may look on a windows machine:

Or better yet simply change your DNS settings on your home wireless router and all computer connecting to it will use the new DNS server.

Look for the WAN connection under your wireless routers setup utility.

If you are a network administrator and maintain your own DNS and DHCP services, having google’s DNS servers listed as a secondary or even thrid option in DHCP is also a good way to provide a little extra if something ever goes amiss.