FAQ

Alternate deployments

Can I try ERM while running Windows ?

Evectors does not provide any Windows based environment to run ERM into. However, with a good deal of patience, there's no reason why you should not be able to run ERM within a Cygwin environment. If you do succeed, tell us about your experience at foss [at] evectors.com, we'll be happy to add a specific README to the project.

Can I try ERM while running Linux ?

There is no reason why you shouldn't, provided you instal all the pre-requisites detailed in the README file. Indeed, all of Evectors production sites are deployed under a Debian distribution. Evectors provides a VMware image file at http://foss.evectors.com with everything ready to roll. You may also run ERM under Amazon EC2 by launching an instance of public AMI 'ami-1a8c7073', tagged 'Evectors ERM vs 1.0'.

Can I try ERM while running Mac OS 10.5 Leopard ?

Well, you can if you really want ity, but make sure you are installing Xcode 3.1.4 (the latest Leopard compatible version) with gcc 4.0.1, and are using the bundled Python 2.5. You should also compile mod_wsgi from its source as the library referenced in the README is optimized for 10.6.

Installation

MySQLdb issue: Library not loaded: libmysqlclient.16.dylib
MySQLdb issue: Library not loaded: libmysqlclient.18.dylib

MySQL packages for Mac OS X are not very consistent in where they instal their payload. Chances are your system is looking to retrieve the library from /usr/local/lib (hardly unreasonable), while MySQL installed it in /usr/local/mysql/lib or some other specific location.

• First try locate libmysqlclient to find out.
• Then enter export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/mysql/lib/ or whichever path was reported for libmysqlclient before running the MySQLdb installation sequence again.

MySQLdb issue: EnvironmentError: mysql_config not found

Again, a MySQL package installation issue. Python is looking for mysql_config in /usr/local/bin, while it probably hides in /usr/local/mysql/bin.

• Confirm mysql_config's location by running locate mysql_config, then edit the site.cfg file in the MySQL-python-1.2.3 directory.
• Uncomment #mysql_config = /usr/local/bin/mysql_config, update the path to mysql_config as needed, save, then run the MySQLdb installation process again.

Running in VMware

How do I start a local virtual machine ?

• Download the latest image file from http://foss.evectors.com.
• Unzip the archive, either into your VMware Virtual Machines directory or anywhere you please.
• When prompted, click 'I copied it'. The VM should be up and running within seconds. It is set up to obtain its IP address through DHCP.
• For more information, checkout http://foss.evectors.com/README_VMware.txt.

How do I access the ERM API Explorer ?

• in the VM session, login as root, password entitymanager.
• enter ifconfig eth0 to display the VM's IP address.
• Open 'http://vm_ip_address/api/explorer/' in a new local browser page.

Running in Amazon EC2

How do I open a terminal session to my new ERM instance ?

• Check out the instance's 'Public DNS' name in the EC2 console.
• Enter ssh -i /path_to_my_private_key root@public_dns_name in a local terminal session.

How do I access the ERM API Explorer on my new ERM instance ?

• Check out the instance's 'Public DNS' name in the EC2 console.
• Open 'http://public_dns_name/api/explorer/' in a new local browser page.

I can't access the instance I have just launched

So I've located the latest public AMI for Evectors ERM, and launched an instance from my AWS account, using my usual key pair and default security group. The AWS EC2 console reports the instance as 'running', it displays its 'Public DNS' name, the system log reports sshd and apache2 have launched.

However, running ssh -i my_private_key root@public_dns_name in a terminal session, as well as accessing 'http://public_dns_name/api/explorer/' from my browser just hang and eventually time out. What gives ?

• Most likely cause: your AWS default security group is not set up to let TCP traffic through from all sources (0.0.0.0/0) on ports 22 and 80.
• Click the 'Security Groups' link in the EC2 Dashboard, select 'default group', then click the 'Inbound' tab, and review the 'TCP ports' list.
• Create missing rules for SSH and/or HTTP accordingly.