[BlueOnyx:25704] Re: BlueOnyx 5211R Released

[Ernie]

Never mind,
it only gets stuck when I try and access the server via the FQDN, if I just
use the IP the wizard proceeds.

- Ernie.


> Hi Michael,
> I think followed your instructions for the manual install to the letter.
> 
> All seems to have installed, but when I go to the IP of the server, I see the BlueOnyx Setup Wizard, 
> but it just sits there saying "A crucial system component (CCEd) is still starting up and has not yet finished all setup related
> tasks."
> 
> Is there some other step I need to do in the console first?
> 
> 
> - Ernie.
> 
> 
> 
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > [ HTML-Version of this text:                                   ]
> > [ https://www.blueonyx.it/news/310/54/BlueOnyx-5211R-Released  ]
> > 
> > 
> > BlueOnyx 5211R has been released today! \o/
> > ============================================
> > 
> > After a 12 month development ordeal (starting on RHEL9 Beta!) BlueOnyx 
> > 5211R for EL9 (RHEL9, AlmaLinux 9, Rocky Linux 9) we finally have a 
> > release candidate ready to present.
> > 
> > We don't have an ISO image yet (will follow in the next few days), but 
> > we do have VMDK and VDI images as well as a procedure for a manual 
> > install of BlueOnyx 5211R onto an existing (minimal) install of RHEL9, 
> > AlmaLinux 9 or Rocky Linux 9:
> > 
> > https://www.blueonyx.it/5211r-manual-install
> > 
> > 
> > Differences between 5211R and its predecessor 5210R:
> > ====================================================
> > 
> > Let us start with some changes on the OS level: EL9 now ships with 
> > PHP-8.0.20 and "upstream" (RedHat) decided that this release was a good 
> > time to finally deprecate the PHP DSO module from their build. After 
> > all: Apache cannot use the faster HTTP/2 protocol if PHP is loaded as 
> > DSO module. We debated a bit back and forth if we should ignore this, 
> > make DSO or HTTP/2 mode electable and provide our own PHP DSO. In the 
> > end we bowed to the wisdom of the decision to deprecate PHP as DSO. The 
> > only benefit would have been the continued usage of DSO + mod_ruid2. 
> > But: Even mod_ruid2 is on its way out and can be considered as good as 
> > dead as far as the further development of it goes.
> > 
> > So this leaves us with HTTP/2 for Apache out of the box for BlueOnyx 
> > 5211R and we no longer need to use Nginx as HTTP/2 proxy. You still can, 
> > but there is no real reason to do so anymore. On the PHP side BlueOnyx 
> > 5211R can run Vsites now with suPHP or PHP-FPM (which is the new default).
> > 
> > The days when our PHP-FPM implementation had issues with .htaccess files 
> > are long gone, so PHP-FPM is the best choice anyway.
> > 
> > Under the hood EL9 behaves much the same as EL8 and there aren't really 
> > any new tricks to learn. While EL9 is newer than EL8, it doesn't blow us 
> > out of the water as far as OS related improvements go. Daemons and 
> > libraries are newer, OpenSSL 3.0 is now used for SSL, Python 2 had been 
> > deprecated and removed for good, but that's mostly it.
> > 
> > 
> > The new BlueOnyx 5211R GUI
> > ===========================
> > 
> > It looks the same as before, right? Yeah, but under the hood it's all 
> > new. That alone was a three months round the clock (weekends included) 
> > coding effort.
> > 
> > The new BlueOnyx GUI uses the latest CodeIgniter 4.2.10, brings its own 
> > PHP-8.1.12 aboard (installed in /home/solarspeed/admserv-php-8.1/) and 
> > AdmServ (now with HTTP/2) uses a separate AdmServ-PHP-FPM daemon to run 
> > the new PHP just for the GUI.
> > 
> > This unshackles the OS provided PHP from the GUI and you can do with 
> > that whatever you want. It may break your Vsites PHP implementation if 
> > you upgrade PHP yourself, but the GUI will still work as it now brings 
> > its own.
> > 
> > The new CodeIgniter 4 that we use made it necessary that all GUI pages 
> > were rewritten entirely to match the new format. This allowed us to do a 
> > thorough cleanup job and re-think how we did certain things before. The 
> > new GUI is leaner and meaner, has less baggage, a CCEd cache for 
> > speeding up certain very often used transactions and re-uses and 
> > combines function calls into a so called "BaseController" that is used 
> > by all GUI pages.
> > 
> > The end result is a 2-3x speed improvement of the GUI.
> > 
> > While the GUI still looks the same as far as optics go, here are some 
> > notable differences. Some of it has already been mentioned:
> > 
> > - GUI uses separate PHP-8.1 instance unrelated to OS PHP
> > 
> > - Vsite PHP options are now suPHP and PHP-FPM
> > 
> > - Net2FTP and its GUI integration has been deprecated
> > 
> > - Mailman functionality has been removed until a suitable EL9 Mailman
> >    RPM surfaces
> > 
> > - /root/network_settings.sh now requires you to set the server name
> >    as this is required for the new GUI.
> > 
> > - GUI now has a brute force login prevention mechanism.
> > 
> > - GUI now ONLY works via HTTPS (HTTP directly redirects to HTTPS).
> > 
> > - GUI CSRF protection is enabled by default.
> > 
> > - API and WHMCS module are fully working.
> > 
> > - Easy-Migrate for migrations to and from BlueOnyx 5211R is provided.
> > 
> > - Postfix is now the default MTA, although Sendmail can still be
> >    selected in the GUI.
> > 
> > - NTPd has been replaced with Chronyd.
> > 
> > 
> > What's next?
> > ============
> > 
> > Although BlueOnyx 5211R is now officially released, our plate is still 
> > full and these are the things that we need to tackle in the next 2-3 weeks:
> > 
> >      - Bugfixes (there may be some - there always are on a new release)
> >      - Rolling up of an AlmaLinux 9.1 ISO image of BlueOnyx 5211R
> >      - Porting existing BlueOnyx Shop PKGs over to BlueOnyx 5211R
> >        (AV-SPAM, PHP, Firewalld GUI, WebApps, Fail2ban and so on)
> >      - We will try to release some older PHP versions for BlueOnyx
> >        5211R as well for downward compatibility
> > 
> > That should keep us busy until Christmas 2022. However, the new GUI had 
> > us thinking a little "What if?"
> > 
> > Now what if we port this back to BlueOnyx 5210R as well?
> > 
> > The speed improvements are so dramatic that it's almost a crime that the 
> > older BlueOnyx 5210R should continue to drag an anchor until its EOL 
> > many, many years down the road. If we release (more or less) the same 
> > GUI for 5210R as well, then it would also make code maintenance a LOT 
> > easier for us. Both BlueOnyx 5210R and 5211R then would share 38 
> > identical modules and only a dozen would need to be maintained 
> > separately due to OS related differences.
> > 
> > We haven't yet decided if we do this, but it's likely.
> > 
> > 
> > So stay tuned and if you can: Give BlueOnyx 5211R a try and let us know 
> > what you think! If you know BlueOnyx 5210R, then you should feel right 
> > at home in BlueOnyx 5211R as well and we hope that you like the speed 
> > improvements of the GUI.
> > 
> > -- 
> > With best regards
> > 
> > Michael Stauber
> > _______________________________________________
> > Blueonyx mailing list
> > Blueonyx at mail.blueonyx.it
> > http://mail.blueonyx.it/mailman/listinfo/blueonyx
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