CentOS Moodle and SQL Anywhere

So for some reason my place of employment is using a SQL Anywhere database and some time ago someone said, hey let's have this talk to Moodle since the user information is already in there.  
The guy in charge of the technical aspects of our Moodle stuff at the time said, "No!" - He also might have said some other things, but no was definitely the main point.
However, he left, maybe 2 years or so ago.  

Then I got put in charge of Moodle (the back end technical stuff mind you, not the actual courses and content - that's not anything I want to deal with).
I was asked the same thing and decided, "what the hell, I'll try it."

God I wish I hadn't done that.

Anyway, it's been working for a while, basically without issue until about 6 weeks ago and that's when I realized everything I thought I knew was pretty much wrong.

So basically it seems that Moodle doesn't use the native SQL Anywhere PHP module at all. Instead it only uses the native client (in our case on CentOS 6 - used to be CentOS 5) 
Seems it only uses ODBC via ADODB, as best I can tell.

Anyway, I had been going through all this trouble using an older version of PHP to maintain compatibility with the PHP module, now as I know rather needlessly. - I've been wanting to use PHP-FPM, but for some reason couldn't get it working correctly with the module provided by SAP (formerly Sybase).

The other problem I ran into is I couldn't find a newer version of the SQL Anywhere Client and only this one from 2011 http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1087327 which is mostly because I was searching for Sybase and not SAP - I accidently found this newer one http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-35857 and as soon as I installed it all my problems (well a lot of them) went away.

Basically at this point I am just using UnixODBC (or at least the files it creates/uses) along with the Linux Client linked above with some minor tweaks and it kind of works.   Most of the remaining issues are random back end issues, but thankfully other people are fixing those.  

All I can say is if you're thinking about doing this, don't.  
You can, just be aware it is quite a head ache.

I must have spent 6 weeks and countless hours troubleshooting all these seemingly random error message and doing all kinds of crazy things.  

Oh and did I mention we had some 65 vhosts on one server and we were using Apache not nginx.  The server was pretty well spec'd out, 8 cores and 48GB of ram, but it didn't help.  Seems that older Linux client was having some kind of memory leak or the authentication module in moodle talking to it.  Either way the new Linux client for SQL Anywhere made the memory leaks go away, but now I have setup some 56 Virtual machines, (as I discovered some of those vhosts were no longer live/active). They are a bit paltry, 2 cores, 2 GB of Ram and 80 GB of Hard disk space, all running CentOS 6.5, PHP 5.6 Apache 2.2.7 and Moodle 2.7.2+ as of now.  I'm running the SQL Anywhere 12. I am also using the EPEL, remi, CentALT, and RepoForge repositories.

I'd like to eventually switch them all to use PHP-FPM as that is what Moodle seems to recommend.
At this point I don't even have the SQL Anywhere module installed and both enrollment and authentication are set to ODBC and I've run into no real issues. 

At present time these are my only cron entries per server

*/5 * * * * . /root/.bash_profile > /dev/null 2>&1; /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/main/admin/cli/cron.php > /dev/null 2>&1
*/5 * * * * . /root/.bash_profile > /dev/null 2>&1; /usr/bin/php /var/www/html/main/enrol/database/cli/sync.php > /dev/null 2>&1 

I'll explain that shortly.
In /etc/ I have an odbc.ini and an odbcinst.ini the first containing the DSN information and the second the location for the driver

[SQLAnywhere12]

Description = ODBC for Sybase SQL Anywhere 12

Driver = /opt/sqlanywhere12/lib64/libdbodbc12.so

Setup = /opt/sqlanywhere12/lib64/libdbodbc12.so

FileUsage = 1

Trace = yes

TraceFile = /var/log/odbc.log 

Then through trial and error I had to make the following changes/additions to my systems:

Edit web server environment variables to include location of sybase client (For this particular server edit /etc/sysconfig/httpd – see below)

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./opt/sqlanywhere12/lib64:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

/opt/sqlanywhere12/bin64/sa_config.sh

export SQLANY12=/opt/sqlanywhere12

--

Symlink the odbc and odbcinst files to /usr/bin/.odbc.ini and /usr/bin/.odbcinst.ini respectively – I am not sure if this has to be done every time, it may be specific to our server.

ln -s /etc/odbc.ini /usr/bin/.odbc.ini

ln -s /etc/odncinst.ini /usr/bin/.odbcinist.ini

For good measure I also added the following symlinks

ln -s /etc/odbc.ini /var/www/.odbc.ini

ln -s /etc/odbc.ini /sbin/.odbc.ini

ln -s /etc/odbc.ini /usr/sbin/.odbc.ini

ln -s /etc/odbc.ini /bin/.odbc.ini

This lets apache know where to find the odbc settings on our server

--

Symlink the libdbodbc12.so.1 file to libodbc.so.1 and libodbc.so.2 in the /opt/sqlanywhere12/lib64 directory

Be sure to be in the /opt/sqlanywhere12/lib64 directory first

ln -s libdbodbc12.so.1 libodbc.so.1

ln -s libdbodbc12.so.1 libodbc.so.2

This fixes some php errors

--

Symlink the ibdbodbc12_r.so.1 file to libodbc_r.so.1 and libodbc_r.so.2 in the /opt/sqlanywhere12/lib64 directory

Be sure to be in the /opt/sqlanywhere12/lib64 directory first

ln -s libdbodbc12_r.so.1 libodbc_r.so.1

ln -s libdbodbc12_r.so.1 libodbc_r.so.2

This fixes some php errors

--

It was also helpful for testing to add

source /opt/sqlanywhere12/bin64/sa_config.sh

to /root/.bash_profile

Also running source /opt/sqlanywhere12/bin64/sa_config.sh in the terminal helps.

--

Open port 2638 on the system firewalls (in our case iptables)

Add the following line to iptables

-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 2638 -j ACCEPT

--

Something I forgot to mention the last time, was for this to work you have to symlink /opt/sqlanywhere12/bin64/sa_config.sh to the /etc/profile.d/

ln -s /opt/sqlanywhere12/bin64/sa_config.sh /etc/profile.d/sa_config.sh

be sure to chmod +x /opt/sqlanywhere12/bin64/sa_config.sh first or else it won’t run!

That adds the client config to every logged on user's path. ( I think)

--

On the moodle server under Site Administration -> Plugins -> Authentication -> External Database and Site Administration -> Plugins -> Enrolments -> External Database make the host name matches the DSN the Database type ODBC

DBNAme, DBUser and Password should remain blank as the odbc file store this information.

All the other database stuff, as it pertains to the Table names and fields, isn't related to my part of the setup. Someone else figured that out.

--

Another important step is that SELInux be disabled – it just gets in the way – there is documentation on the CentOS website on how to accomplish this. Now I am sure you can get this working with SELinux enabled, but I was far too lazy to figure that out.

--

Which reminds me that it is a good idea to have strace installed on any system we do this with, it is an invaluable debugging tool.

E.g. ps auxw | grep sbin/httpd | awk '{print"-p " $2}' | xargs strace 2>&1 | grep ini

The above runs a strace on apache this let me know that apache was looking for the odbc ini files in a different location and made the creation of the symlink necessary and resolved the issue.

--

Additionally Google is your friend - most of the time the errors you get tend to be specific but if you search for parts of the error messages or know what keywords to include or exclude you can usually always find someone else who had the same problem and how to fix it.

49ers Kickoff Season With A Win

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From: "San Francisco 49ers" <newsletter@email.49ers.com>
Date: Sep 7, 2014 6:30 PM
Subject: 49ers Kickoff Season With A Win
To: <benjamin.warriner@gmail.com>
Cc:

49ers beat Dallas in their first regular season matchup - get your postgame coverage now.

FULL COVERAGE →

Twitter Recap Today's game highlights you don't want to miss: San Francisco 49ers   @49ers After a 4-yard TD run by @elguapo, the #49ers lead 28-3. #SFvsDAL San Francisco 49ers   @49ers GREAT INTERCEPTION BY @pcox16! #SLAPHANDS San Francisco 49ers   @49ers INTERCEPTION @PatrickWillis52. #SLAPHANDS San Francisco 49ers   @49ers Reid returned it 48 yards to the 2-yard line. 1st and goal #49ers. #SFvsDAL San Francisco 49ers   @49ers TOUCHDOWN @VernonDavis85. #SLAPHANDS San Francisco 49ers   @49ers The fumble was forced by @Dskuta51 and the #49ers take an early 7-0 lead. #SFvsDAL San Francisco 49ers   @49ers FUMBLE, RETURNED FOR TD BY @Cullyinthehouse! #SLAPHANDS

GEAR UP →

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This country makes no sense sometimes...

Not to be a "Debby downer", but why this http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/6/5/at-least-two-shotatseattlecampus.html I just don't get it

So far, blah...

I haven't been able to do anything I wanted to do.

Work and life don't seem to care if you're on a diet.

What I can tell you though is at the end of a long stressful day a glass of wine is nice.

Even cheap supermarket wine that you bought because a recipe called for white wine and you bought the cheapest bottle they had, that wasn't Boone's Farm.

Anyway, I think so far the most exercise I've gotten has been cleaning.
Surprisingly though mopping and sweeping can cause a morbidly obese gentleman to sweat, a lot.

The important thing is, and this is something you need to tell yourself everyday: this is a long slow process.

There is no quick easy fix to weight loss - its a change in lifestyle.

I am not getting thin overnight or anytime soon for that matter.

The first next step to weight loss

So now that we've decided to try to lose weight the important part is how to do it.

I am going to use Sparkpeople - A site I have used off and on since 2006 - to track my calories.

I don't really like any of the other stuff they do.

I'll also be using Endomondo Sports Tracker for my walking. - An app I've used on and off for the past two years or so.

When I move to something other than walking I may eventually use another app, but for now this should work for me.

That being said this morning will be devoted to cleaning up the house, which somehow got worse than I wanted it to.

Sometime this afternoon we'll go for a walk and perhaps Evie will ride her tricycle.

We'll see what happens, as today's high is only 82 and it should be overcast.

I am not sure if I'll fail at this again, but I figure why not give it another try.

So you're fat, no I mean you're REALLY fat...

and you want to lose weight.

Well let me tell you, I am there. This is me - that fat guy writing this right now.

28 years old, 5'11" and 330lbs.

So how does one go about losing weight?

Simple!

Get off of your fat ass and do stuff.

Sitting around all day, watching TV, working, listening to music and doing things online aren't going to suddenly cause the pounds to drop.

Start small.

Get up, take a walk outside.

Walk in your back yard or wherever you have outdoor space.

Too hot outside?

Walk around your house, clean up at the same time.

Point is, stop sitting there like a fat lazy bastard and do something.

Thanks, you'll appreciate the effort later on when you're not so fat and clothes fit better.

Or better yet you can buy clothes at normal stores.