Running a DreamHost Wiki

Some beginning tips on running a wiki at DreamHost

I have figured out some stuff but not a whole lot.

What you get from dream host

• Seems basically to be a virtual Linux headless ( no graphical user interface ) server. You have a couple of ways of interacting with it:

• • Connect via ssh and use a terminal program to operate it in command mode

• • Connect via a FTP client and move files back an forth

• • Connect via a web browser and use some tools provided by Dreamhost.

My Environment

To understand my use it may help to know what my software environment is:

• Computer

• • Notebook i7 processor, 8 gig memory
  • OS: Windows 7 pro
  • Additional OS's running under Virtual Box 4.1.22 ( out of date )
    • Ubuntu 12.04 Set up with some directories shared with the Windows 7 host. "VirtualBox: Setting up an Ubuntu virtual machine" has some tips for setting up an Ubuntu virtual machine with VirtualBox.

Tools On Ubuntu

SSH

You need an SSH client program on your computer to interact in the most powerful way ( but not necessarily the most friendly way ) with the Linux virtual machine at DreamHost There seem to be a lot out there, one of the most popular seems to be PuTTY, I do not particularly like it and in general decided that interactions with the Linux server is better using a Linux client, so I do most of my work in a Ubuntu machine under Virtual box. This lets me get pretty much any Linux tool that runs under Linux, and for this purpose there seem to be more:

For my ideal SSH client I want it to remember all the log on settings so that I do not have to remember and type this administrative junk. I also want full cut and paste ability either from the Ubuntu environment or the widows environment. Again there is PuTTY and for me it is still not all I want.

SecPanel

is another ssh client and seems more functional for me, it is what I use now.

FileZilla

FileZilla is a file transfer program, I have found very useful. Transfer files either way, view, edit text files all gui based.

LocalSettings.php

You will get a file from dream host, keep a copy safe some place, it has parameters including passwords you will need to know. Its name is LocalSettings.php

TortoiseHg

While not absolutely necessary, DavidCary uses TortoiseHg on his local machine as a pretty GUI to talk to Mercurial on Dreamhost, when doing OpenCircuits back-end maintenance. Mercurial makes it much easier to tweak settings in LocalSettings.php, test them out, and when things go horribly wrong, revert to the previous known-good configuration. TortoiseHg and Mercurial also make it much easier to answer questions like "Hey, this thing over here was working a week ago. What changed since then?". The http://hginit.com/ website has a good introduction to using Mercurial from a command line; I think it is useful to skim through it even if you plan to always use Mercurial through a GUI interface like TortoiseHg.

Other References

• Welcome to MediaWiki.org Partarticurlarly see: Developing & Extending

• the DreamHost Web Hosting manual. In particular, the MediaWiki on Dreamhost page has a lot of tips for running MediaWiki at DreamHost. (MediaWiki is the software that supports the OpenCircuits, the DreamHost Web Hosting Manual, WikiBooks, etc).