[Mailman-Users] separate web server

[Richard Barrett]

At 15:13 08/02/2002 +0800, you wrote:
>Hi All,
>
>I have two servers that work as http and mail, I already have mailman 
>already working on my mail server and right now its also running apache. 
>How am I going to reconfigure my mailman to run on a different web server 
>and mail server? I have read mailman
>documentations but there is no detailed explanation on how to do it. Any 
>reference you may give or is there anyone on the list kind enough to give 
>me instruction on how to do it?

Mailman's INSTALL document contains a hint as to how to split mail 
distribution and web GUI on different machines. It has a couple of comments 
that relate:

<quote>
     ....
     Make sure that you have write permissions to the target
     installation directory, and permission to create a setgid file in
     the file system where it resides (NFS and other mounts can be
     configured to inhibit setgid settings).
     ...
     - If you plan on running your MTA and web server on different
       machines, sharing Mailman installations via NFS, be sure that
       the clocks on those two machines are synchronized closely.  You
       might take a look at the file Mailman/LockFile.py; the constant
       CLOCK_SLOP helps the locking mechanism compensate for clock skew
       in this type of environment.
     ....
</quote>

In other words you need to use some file sharing mechanism so that both the 
mail server and web server can access the Mailman files.

At a basic level all you have to do is:

1. ensure both servers can access the mailman install directory using NFS.

2. ensure the uids and gids are common to both systems.

3. get Mailman working on your mail server.

4. ensure the information in the httpd.conf used by the Apache server 
refers to the mailman file path as it sees it through NFS.

5. adjust as necessary to get it working.

Most of this is straight UNIX admin stuff and what you do in detail depends 
on how your local network is run. For instance:

1. have you already got NFS in use for file sharing on your LAN.

2. are you are using NIS for distributing passwd, group and automount maps.

3. are you using something else for distributing information, LDAP for instance

I'm not trying to palm you off but there are so many variations on how 
networks and sharing/distribution can be set up that a single, simple 
step-by-step guide is more difficult to write than you might imagine.

If you have UNIX guru then I'd discuss the problem with him. Otherwise you 
will need collect the information about how your network is setup and ask 
again if you are still having problems doing it yourself
.

>
>
>Thank you very much in advance.
>--
>Lito A. Lampitoc
>Foundation for Communication Initiatives                phone:+63(2)8941345
>CodeWAN 
>Project 
><http://www.codewan.com.ph>http://www.codewan.com.ph
>--
>Things which matter most must not be in the mercy of things which
>  matter least" - Goethe.
>