Starship Python is Moving!

On September 1, 2003, the machine that has been hosting Starship Python (courtesy of Zope Corporation) will be shutdown. Consequently, Starship is being transferred to a new machine, kindly provided by Stefan Drees. This page exists so the Starship admins can keep track of what tasks have to be done, what tasks have been done, and who's taking care of what. Also, the Starship user community can track the progress of the transfer here.

If you're a Starship admin, feel free to update this page. Otherwise, please email webmaster@python.net if you want to add stuff to our to-do list.

Tasks for old Starship

• determine disk usage patterns (ie. which directories use up the most space, and which users are responsible for those directories)

  BR[done: gward 2003/08/09]

• browbeat top disk space users into cleaning up

  BR[partly done: gward 2003/08/10; but some of the top users @python.net addresses bounce]

• find out which users no longer have a valid @python.net email address, and then run the

  following loop:BR

    for each user with no known forwarding address:
      if (user is "well-known" in the Python community) or
         (user has anything meaningful on starship):
        google to try to find a recent email address
        contact the user and ask:
          do they still need their starship account?
          what's their preferred email forwarding address?
          what's their SSH key (preferably SSHv2)?
      else:
        remove that user's account and all of their files

  BR[assigned: gward]

Tasks for new Starship

• upgrade to Debian 'testing' (sarge)

  BR[done: sdrees 2003/08/07]

• give the machine a proper hostname

  BR(will have to be in python2.net domain for now; once DNS service is transferred to a new provider, we can give it a python.net name -- anything but starship.python.net, of course!) Proposed proper hostname: drydock.python2.net BR[done: sdrees 2003/08/10]

• get email services working

  BR(hmmm: testing this stuff will require have at least one real user on the system. I guess I'll create a temporary throwaway account rather than transfer real data over yet.)

  • install Exim 4 packages (critical path) BR(from unstable? or are they in testing yet?) BR(tismer says: use exim-tls -- but is that necessary with the new exim4 packages? BR[assigned: gward]

  • configure/test Exim (critical path) BR[assigned: gward]

  • get elspy working with Debian Exim packages (critical path) BR(recompile necessary? or just fix elspy to work with dlopen() patch?) BR[assigned: gward]

  • install Courier (critical path? ask crew)

    BR(SSL daemon only) (IMAP only? or POP too?) BR[assigned: gward]

  • configure/test Courier

    BR[assigned: gward]

• web services

  • install, configure, and test Apache (critical path) BR(with mod-proxy, mod-rewrite, and mod-ssl, please!) BR[assigned: sdrees]

  • install, configure, and test Zope (not critical path) BR(Zope 2.7 preferable; note that Debian testing has Zope 2.6.1) BR[assigned: sdrees]

• install, configure, and test ProFTPd (critical path)BR[assigned: sdrees]

• install, configure, and test Mailman (critical path)

Tasks for python.net DNS

• find/select a good DNS provider (critical path) BR(sdrees uses schlundtechnologies.com and has no complaints about it and has initiated transfer of python2.net to schlundtechnologies.com, no ip change ) BR(gward uses dyndns.org and has no complaints about it)

• transfer python.net domain to new DNS provider (critical path) BR(currently the DNS servers are at zope.com/baymountain.com, and Starship admins cannot edit the python.net DNS records) BR[assigned: tismer (he owns the domain!)]