Liferay ISO/VM image package

[Hitoshi Ozawa, modificado hace 12 años.]

After looking at several Liferay installation in production, I was a little bit disappointed to see that many of them were really not setup properly.

I think most middle to large installation are using Apache - Liferay - MySQL installation. In Japan, JBoss is the most popular application server.
I was thinking of creating an iso image and/or vm image of each of these servers in a clustered environment.

This reminds me of a story I heard about how MS Windows certification came to be. It's very easy to setup a MS Windows Server - just insert
a CD-ROM/DVD into a drive and answer few questions. After the installation, MS Windows server will startup but it not really production ready
and there were many problems which were degrading the MS's image.

I think Liferay is suffering from similar problem - it's very easy to install using the package install, but it's really not production ready. You really
need some understanding of Apache, application server, Liferay, database to setup a production ready system.

I was wondering how much interest there would be to have a production ready Liferay system distribution.

I, also, have a detailed setup instruction with screenshots and parameter list sheets for each of these servers.
I've found that these instructions, however, are still not sufficient to some users - they named they Liferay server "localhost" and they
were having problem connecting to "localhost" Liferay server from their pc's. Some users were having problem when they mis-entered a
command.

Your opinion would be appreciated.

[Ravi Kumar Gupta, modificado hace 12 años.]

Its a good idea of distributing VM / ISO of Liferay with proper configurations. It can be distributed as a Ubuntu/CentOs/Fedora VM. I just think in place of using any MS softwares for this Open source linux distributions can be used.

BTW which software is popular for VMs.. virtualbox or VMWare or some other?

[Hitoshi Ozawa, modificado hace 12 años.]

You're right about MS. I can't use it because I won't be able to distribute it freely.

Most of our users are using Redhat or CentOS so I'm thinking about using the default kvm because it can be choosen when installing
the OS - the less there is to manually install, less the problem.
Nevertheless, I'm currently using VMWare inhouse so that's still another option.

The file size is about 4GB each but with today's Internet, I don't think it would be too much of a problem (or is it?)

I know there are some Liferay images in VMWare's market place site, but it just seems to be Liferay's bundled installation extracted on to
a VM. I can't think of any benefit from that because extracting Liferay's bundle isn't too much of a problem.

[Ravi Kumar Gupta, modificado hace 12 años.]

hmm.. VMWare is good, reliable. But I dont think 4GB is the size going to be. Should be 2-3GB, anyways even 4GB now is not a problem to download.

I agree that providing just bundled LR is not of much help. Rather it can be configured to use Apache, MySQL/Postgre/Ingres , SSO etc. Any more integrations which can be provided that you think.. ??

[Hitoshi Ozawa, modificado hace 12 años.]

I've cut all the GUI and unnecessary software from the OS installation but I don't think I can get JBoss/Liferay into 2GB.
Most users here want Apache - JBoss/Liferay - Mysql with OpenSSO. I'm also thinking about Alfresco and Jasper.

May be also Zabbix or something else to monitor. Do you have something to recommend?

I can cut the installation time and cost to more than 1/10 of the current market price for installation and also improve
on the quality of the system.

[Ravi Kumar Gupta, modificado hace 12 años.]

Adding Alfresco and Jasper is a good idea but i m not sure about putting everything in one system.. Resource crunch.. :|

I believe putting Mail Server, Chat Server will not harm the VM. For small scale applications we can put most of the things in one VM; that should not be a problem. But for large number of users that is not a good idea at all.. i have experienced it before.

In case of large applications can we not provide a set of VMs?? Putting different servers in different VMs and provide a script to set up the IPs and other small configurations. What do you think?

[Hitoshi Ozawa, modificado hace 12 años.]

I'm not putting everything into one server. That won't make too much sense. Most of our users want cluster also. I'm creating different VM for each different server.
Example: one for apache, one for JBoss/Liferay, one for MySQL.
As you stated, by a "system", I'm referring to a set of these servers.

I've seen some installation where there were apache and JBoss/Liferay on one server. This doesn't make too much sense unless static content if also moved
to the apache server to increase performance. I think most user separate apache and JBoss/Liferay because they put apache in DMZ and JBoss/Liferay
inside the firewall.

[Ravi Kumar Gupta, modificado hace 12 años.]

Sorry that I did not interpret that correctly..

I will try setting up VMs this weekend.. hopefully I might need some help regarding setup.

One Question though: Are you going to put the VMs somewhere for public access.. ??

[Hitoshi Ozawa, modificado hace 12 años.]

That's a good question. I have to find somewhere where I can upload.

[Ravi Kumar Gupta, modificado hace 12 años.]

What about VMware Virtual Appliances I dont know if that's the right place. But I can see so many VMs already available. http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/

[Hitoshi Ozawa, modificado hace 12 años.]

I'm involved with Redhat so would prefer to use a KVM solution even though we have one of the largest vmware installation in Japan.
I want to move forward to offering something different.

[LUCAS STICKLER, modificado hace 9 años.]

The company, I am currently working with, is moving from Drupal to LifeRay Ent. for a one-stop solution. They plan on using it as a CRM, CMS, and DMS. I was wondering if you happened to make up a copy of LR that was set up for VMWare in a CentOS environment with TomCat? If so, could you send me the link? I have been having a heck of a time setting it up to work like what I've been hearing about. My lack of experience in this type of environment is very prevalent. I have been solely working on Windows systems for 6 years, but with the Migration to a CentOS environment, I have definitely lost my touch.

[Olaf Kock, modificado hace 9 años.]

The message you're answering to is from August 2011 - so I assume that there's not too much activity to expect.

As of OS migration from Win to Linux, there's nothing much that we can help with. It's the first thing to get right if you manage an internet-facing server. As of Liferay's setup and securing it, you might get something from my 4-part series on securing Liferay, starting here with chapter 1, later chapters linked from there.

[LUCAS STICKLER, modificado hace 9 años.]

Thank you, Olaf. I am starting it now.