Server administrator

Overview

I've been asked to give a talk on the specified topic by the track co-chair. Since I am now running large scale Drupal installs for over two years (mainly drupal.org) I have learned a few tips about making your Drupal code run fast and not give your server a hard time which I want to share.

Agenda

* Drupal caching in core
+ Drupal 5
+ Drupal 6
+ Drupal 7
* Mistakes to avoid when programming Drupal
* Tips and tricks.
* Different cache backends.
* Other stuff (basic server config)

Goals

I'd like attendees to gather an understanding for why caching is important and the pitfalls that may occur.

Resources

General familiarity with Drupal is going to be helpful.

Overview

At Drupal for NGOs in London, UK, strong interest was expressed in sharing development practices for Drupal development.

So let's do it!

We'd like to share some of our experiences and ideas with you, and find out how you guys deal with things like auto-deployment, developmen-staging-live syncing issues and the use of version control systems to protect and distribute your work.

Agenda

* We'll share with you our workflow and development best practices
* Hopefully you guys will share yours!

Goals

We hope everyone will walk away with more tools and techniques for deploying, and maybe come to some kind of agreement on best practices for Drupal workflow.

All in all I think this could be a very productive session.

Resources

We require no resources, but we might print out a little write-up regarding our experiences and techniques to hand out during the session.

Recap of the conference, farewell until the next Drupalcon.

Some 40 Indymedia sites worldwide are now using Drupal, with different approaches to solve some of the general and specific requirements of their sites and collectives.
Other collectives are currently migrating their sites from other CMSs to Drupal.

Agenda:
* exchange ideas and updates face-to-face, sharing what's done
* Discuss and develop the survey
* discuss ideas for a basic install profile

http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Devel/ImcDrupalDevUsingList
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Devel/ImcDrupalDevModules#How_IMCs_use_Dr...

Overview

Running a Drupal business, especially with responsibility for staff and balance sheet, requires a shift in the way you support Drupal open-source.

There is less opportunity to focus on drupal.org, and the result is that SME Drupal enterprises are often in the dark about is happening in similar businesses - even though the attitude towards open-source (knowledge sharing) has not changed.

To be effective, a company must make compromises: the move to D6 will come later, employees are not always open-source enthusiasts, and the lead developers need to justify what they consider best-practice (and document it) rather than 'just doing it'.

This session is based on a review of Em Space's current practices. We seek up to 2 additional companies (5+ employees) who are willing to share and compare.

Agenda

* Preferred contrib modules
* Using a code repository
* Managing live sites
* Ready for Drupal 6?
* Design and theming best practices
* Working with Design and Advertising companies
* Support and training
* Contributing back to Drupal

Goals

To get a clear sense of how other Drupal houses are using Drupal, to un-earth many varied and successful techniques.

Overview

Tuning the Drupal stack continues to be an exciting combination of science and art. New options for cloud computing and infrastructure services like content distribution networks allow performance load to be distributed. The art of offering your users the right combination of features without creating a performance impact is a design challenge.

Agenda

* Performance tuning the Drupal stack
* Tuning images, CSS, Javascript for front end optimization
* Outsourcing your performance load
* Performance load testing
* Scalable architectures for peak loads
* Performance improvements in Drupal 6 and Drupal 7

Goals

The goal of this session is to learn best practices from a panel Drupal performance experts. We will review the latest tools, techniques, and architectures for ensuring your Drupal site stays fast and can scale under a variety of of loads.

Resources

http://groups.drupal.org/high-performance
http://groups.drupal.org/node/12823

Overview
The MySQL Server is a very widely used open source database system and often used as the storage backend for Drupal sites.
Creating backups and maintaining a secure installations are two very common tasks for any Drupal administrator.

In this talk, Lenz will provide useful hints and suggestions on how to improve the security of a MySQL installation and how to properly perform backups of the databases and tables. The session will cover both tools that are included in the MySQL server/distribution as well as common tools/facilities provided by the operating system (Linux in particular).

Agenda

• Improving MySQL Server security
  • On the server side
  • On the OS level
• MySQL Backup methods
  • Logical
  • Physical

Goals
Users attending this session should take home some useful hints on how to secure their MySQL installations and how to perform proper backup.

Overview
MySQL is a popular open source database system and often used as the backend for Drupal installations. This session will give an overview about different solutions and technologies available to make a MySQL Server system highly available.

After the theoretical part, a practical demonstration of a HA cluster for Drupal will be performed. With the help of Red Hat Cluster Suite, we will build a HA solution using MySQL replication. If time permits, we will then extend the solution to use shared storage device.

Agenda

• Introduction to HA, Terminology and general concepts
• Overview: MySQL HA solutions
• Replication: Topologies
• Heartbeat, Block device replication (DRBD)
• Shared storage/SAN
• MySQL Cluster
• MySQL Proxy
• Open HA Cluster
• Red Hat Cluster Suite (incl. practical demonstration)

Goals
Attendees will gain more insight into how MySQL Server setups can be made more fault-tolerant and how to ensure high availability. The practical part will provide an insight into how the RHEL Cluster Suite works, what you need to build a High Availability solution and configuration basics.

Overview

Drupal 7 will feature a newly rewritten database layer providing improved database abstraction, portability, and scalability features. This session will cover the thinking and architecture behind the new layer, with an eye toward understanding how it fits into the larger scheme of high-performance Drupal sites. There will be some discussion of code, as well as words of advice for others looking to revamp one of Drupal's core systems.

There will be some code in this session, but you should not need to be a hard-core coder to follow it. This session will also serve as a lead-in to this code track session, which is aimed more at programmers.

Agenda

* Database abstraction: Why it's hard and even an unsolvable problem.
* The old Drupal approach, and why it's not good.
* The new Drupal approach, and why it's awesome.
* Leveraging the database on your own deployments.
* Request for feedback on some of the more big-iron-targeted parts of the new feature set.
* Recommendations for other core developers on how to (not) revamp Drupal subsystems.

Goals

After attending this session, you should have a good idea of ways to leverage the new, modernized database system for your own sites as well as how to go about making major changes to Drupal's infrastructure.

Resources

Knowing the basics of SQL servers before attending would be a good idea, for context.

Overview

Google has shown us that search matters. Drupal's core search has strengths as well as weaknesses. What are they and how are the weaknesses being addressed? What new search options have emerged, and how does one evaluate them?

Agenda

* Core search in Drupal 7: What needs to be done?
* Minnesota Search Sprint: What got accomplished and where does it go from here?
* Xapian, Sphinx and ApacheSolr: With so many third-party options to choose from, how does one evaluate and decide?
* Search and Drupal.org: What special needs does Drupal.org have, and how can we improve things now and in the future?

Goals

Increase focus on improving core Drupal search. Increase awareness of alternative solutions. Increase awareness of different search features, such as faceted searching. Encourage more collaboration amongst developers.

Resources

* http://drupal.org/project/apachesolr
* http://drupal.org/project/xapian
* http://www.sphinxsearch.com/
* http://groups.drupal.org/node/4102 (Search group on g.d.o.)