I am trying to install OpenEnterprise using a web hosting account on Enom.com. The install kept failing after several attempts and I posted server logs with enom support. Their response left me with questions about drupal requirements and modifications that I could not find the answer to.

First, here is what happened and the logs:
I'm trying to install drupal on a hosting account, but am having problems with script timeout and the server having some problems aparently thinking some install actions are an attack when opening a logfile. I'm just installing the Open Enterprise install profile as directed.

[Wed Mar 14 19:27:36 2012] [warn] [client 69.131.112.123] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 40 seconds 
[Wed Mar 14 19:27:36 2012] [error] [client 69.131.112.123] Premature end of script headers: install.php 
[Wed Mar 14 19:35:49 2012] [warn] [client 69.131.112.123] mod_fcgid: read data timeout in 40 seconds 
[Wed Mar 14 19:35:49 2012] [error] [client 69.131.112.123] Premature end of script headers: install.php 
[Wed Mar 14 19:45:01 2012] [error] [client 207.46.13.147] File does not exist: /var/www/vhosts/advancedspaandpool.com/httpdocs/robots.txt 
[Wed Mar 14 19:45:04 2012] [warn] [client 69.131.112.123] mod_fcgid: stderr: ALERT - Unable to open logfile: /var/log/suhosin.log (attacker '69.131.112.123', file '/var/www/vhosts/advancedspaandpool.com/httpdocs/drupal/modules/syslog/syslog.module', line 102)

Response from Enom:
1. We will need to know what you need the FcgidMaxProcessesPerClass set to. We may be able to increase the number of processes, but we will need to know the exact number the CMS will need.

2. The inability to access the log file is usually caused by using FastCGI over mod_php. We recommend that you run the PHP as an Apache module, as it allows the script to run with higher permissions. Have you tried to run the page as an Apache module, and if so, are you getting the same results?

Where I need your help:
1. I do not know what the drupal install requires for FcgidMaxProcessesPerClass. Can you advise me on how to resolve this issue?

2. Can you point me to more information to help me with #2? Specifically I want to know how to "run the PHP as an Apache module". I wasn't sure how to proceed to resolve this issue, especially given the restrictions of their hosting account which uses a Parralles control panel. It's not like I have root access to modify the Apache install. I have no direct access to php.ini either. My background is IIS primarily, so I wish to learn all I can to work in this in a linux server environment, and avoid newb questions.

3. If you can recommend a reasonably priced host that does an effective job at hosting the OpenEnterprise distribution, please let me know. At some point I would like to co-host my own, but not yet.

Thank you

CommentFileSizeAuthor
#20 module_install_ftp_error.jpg221.1 KBdroopy_pal
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Comments

randallknutson’s picture

Thanks for trying out Open Enterprise! I hope you can find a good host to get it installed.

1. I have no idea what this means. This is not something I've ever had to deal with on any of our servers.

2. This is a major configuration change and would need to be done by them.

3. You should try out pantheon (www.getpantheon.com). They have a one click installation of Open Enterprise. Just make sure you enable "On Server Development" before you install apps.

dgamache’s picture

Thank you Randall.
I will continue to explore the issue with Enom. I will however try out Pantheon; It looks quite promising. This would end up costing my clients quite a bit more, but if I can turn better web applications faster, my clients, and me by extension, will benefit. If anyone can speak to Drupal requirements further, I'd love to hear. Also, I'll post what I find here if I do end up learning some relevant system configuration settings.

jghyde’s picture

Enom gives you the answer above, albeit cryptically. There are two ways to run PHP. One from FastCGI, which is where that error is originating, and the other as a mod_php. If you re-setup the server itself to use the mod_php instead of Fast CGI, I bet the FcgidMaxProcessesPerClass question goes away. I believe FastCGI has better performance, but will probably be negligible with any Drupal 7 installation without a full external caching stack like Mercury.

Randall makes a good point about using Pantheon. Pantheon has the caching stack built for Drupal. To quote David Strauss (a founder of Pantheon and 4 kitchens), "there is no reason, or small enough web site size, that doesn't need to be on the mercury stack." In other words, while Pantheon may be a little more expensive than non-specialized hosts like Enom, the performance you'll get from Varnish, Memcache, and APC far outweigh the costs.

Plus, your problems in this issue queue will just go away. http://getpantheon.com/

Acquia also hosts on a mercury-like stack, choose the "Dev Cloud" option for small sites. It's a bit more expensive, like around $200/mo. http://acquia.com

dgamache’s picture

Hi Joe,

Thanks for your post. I had gotten reply from Enom last night:

They cannot provide the information on what the FcgidMaxProcessesPerClass is like I asked, but have uploaded a useful file to display the PHP and module information. I browsed the modules installed and foung that the most interesting piece of information besides version numbers.

They asked, "Have you attempted to run the installation with the site set to run the Apache rather than FastCGI?" This morning I followed this advice: "Please change the web hosting settings to use Apache and try to run the installation of Drupal. To change this, log into your hosting control panel, click on Domains, and select the domain. Once the next page loads, click on the Web Hosting Settings icon. Scroll down to the PHP support and change the drop down from FastCGI to Apache."

With all that, it seemed to hang after installing the comment module during install. After a long time I nudged it with a refresh. It went further then stuck again. I nudged it and it finally died with a link to view errors which led to a blank page.

... Then your post came in Joe. OK... I'm done killing myself and am setting up with pantheon. I did call aquia yesterday and left a message for sales. Despite having friends at Aquia, I'm starting with Pantheon.

Thank you very much. I really want to get to work now.

dgamache’s picture

I spent the day Saturday with pantheon. I'm impressed with the workflow. The whole Git and team support is great. It's evident that the pantheon team is working to improve the documentation and support me even though I have not paid anything yet. Install was fast and I felt close enough to the metal that I knew it was doing what I wanted. I ran into problems in that core was not up to date and several apps were unhappy. I made the mistake of updating the apps to find that the system broke further because of the need for core updates. Core did not have an automated install yet, so I posted to pantheon support, and started to set up the rest of my local devevelopment environment so I could push a core update.

While waiting for file transfers, I googled further and found WebEnabled.com. I kicked the tires quickly and found tons of distributions for a variety of cms's. I found openenterprise and installed it. While I didn't get to watch the progress, it still managed to install quickly and more importantly correctly. I really like your install profile, this seems to be working well. WebEnabled has versioning an i believe team environment. environment. I am going to continue with this for now unless you have cause for concern. I'm out of time with my customer. But I'm comforted by the fact that I can readily export from their environment even to pantheon I believe. One other point is that the starting price does not force me to make any pricing changes to start.

I think I'm off and running with your distribution. Thank you!

PS pantheon did get back to me regarding core lagging, and they may have resolved the issue but I had to get things moving to keep faith.

randallknutson’s picture

Status: Active » Fixed

I believe I saw the support request come back and made the patch to update core.

I'm very glad that our distribution is helping you so much and that you are finding the good support out there for hosting. We've worked with several hosting companies to add our distribution as an option.

dgamache’s picture

I've ended up on webenabled. THings got off to a fast start and have been going well. I have not needed any support from them until now that I've tried to enable more than the one Rotator APP that is enabled. SEO Essentials and a few others are on my list.

My question is this:
Question: How do I install APPS in Drupal OpenEnterprise. It wants me to supply FTP authentication, but I don't think plane FTP is availaible to me on webenabled.

I was told that this was a known bug in OE and that some users said you can get rid of it by temporarily disabling the update module.

I'm not sure how to do that effectively so I'm googling for workarounds, so far this is all I've found related: http://drupal.org/node/1517596

Can you offer any assistance?
Thanks!

jghyde’s picture

it's a Drupal feature, not bug, to get around permissions problems in the sites/default/files directory.

When the web server cannot save the file pulled from the app server, it tries to FTP it for you, thinking that you'd have write permission via FTP where you don't have web server write permission.

Not sure if web enabled allows, but if you can chmod -R 775 sites/default/files the FTP feature may go away.

I run into the same problem when deploying OE and apps on my local environment. The same trick fixes it.

Joe

junkbox’s picture

even with 777 on sites/default/files the FTP option still shows up. While the FTP 'fallback' may be a feature of Drupal, the inability of OE to write to said directory is most definately not a feature. Google around a bit, there are many people having problems installing OE apps, and with no alternative but to install via apps, most modules/apps for this profile don't work thus rendering the profile itself pointless. If people have to piece together the package anyway I don't see how this profile helps at all.

August1914’s picture

It looks like the problem is rights to create directories / write files to sites/all/modules (where the oe app is trying to install modules)

maybe what you want is
chmod -R 777 sites/all (instead of sites/default/files)

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.

sunilpimenta’s picture

Fatal error: Class 'context_condition' not found in /home/sunilpim/public_html/oe/profiles/openenterprise/modules/defaultcontent/plugins/defaultcontent_condition.inc on line 3

what should i do to correct it.

also when i install default content i get the above error

please help

sunilpimenta’s picture

Fatal error: Call to undefined function context_get_plugin() in /home/sunilpim/public_html/oe/profiles/openenterprise/modules/defaultcontent/defaultcontent.module on line 496

when uploading content for slideshow

August1914’s picture

install and enable project/context; it is missing as a dependency in enterprise_rotator.info

droopy_pal’s picture

Unfortunately, right now the one-click install of Open Enterprise on www.getpantheon.com fails if you choose any Open Enterprise applications to be installed. It manifests as an "FTP Error" and you'll find several discussions if you google. The pantheon support crew know about it, but it hasn't been solved for over 30 days, as the problem is really in Drupal, it apparently has to do with file permissions in the local_install.php module and is not a trivial fix.

droopy_pal’s picture

This issue was first registered in March.
April, May, June, July, August... it's still there.

The dreaded "FTP error" is showing up everywhere where OE is implemented.
At the root is the file permissions issue in sites/all.
As amazing as Drupal the drupal devs are, I sure wish this can be taken care of.

droopy_pal’s picture

Randall,

Unfortunately, the OE install on pantheon has been broken for over six months.

It has probably cost OE & pantheon hundreds, perhaps thousands of users.

It's manifesting in all hostings where FTP is disallowed, including major hosts like Pantheon, godaddy and webenabled

The root cause seems to be the /sites/all permissions issue, which then defaults to the dreaded install "screen of death" screen called "FTP Error".

I guess I'm saying it's time to tackle the /sites permissions issue :)

Thanks for awesome code.

droopy_pal’s picture

getpantheon.com chief developer confirmed the issue a few days ago:

http://help.getpantheon.com/pantheon/topics/cannot_connect_to_ftp_server...

randallknutson’s picture

droopy_pal,

I realize that there are challenges around installing any drupal distribution with Apps. This is a very complex problem though and if done right it works every time as it does when we do the install for our clients. I've tried adding documentation and such for how to do it right so hopefully that helps. If anyone wants to debug and figure out what is going on in these specific instances, I'm accepting patches.

As for pantheon, they do have an issue during the initial install but if you enable "On Server Development" and then install apps after installation it works just fine. This is not something I can fix.

Randall

droopy_pal’s picture

FileSize
221.1 KB

Randall, the assertion that "On Server Development" works on pantheon is unfortunately wrong - reread the link.

To further confirm, I have just created a clean site on webenabled.com with Open Enterprise.

As soon as I installed the first module ("blog"), I got the dreaded FTP server error again.

Which confirms the issue is not Pantheon specific.

Screen dump is attached.

The issue is very easy to reproduce on a webenabled account - create fresh OE, then install module.

droopy_pal’s picture

Screencast of ftp issue showing up on clean Open Enterprise module install on webenabled.com: http://merqio.dev3.webenabled.net/drupal_ftp_issue.avi

droopy_pal’s picture

Open Enterprise fresh install is *still* failing with "FTP Error".

Happening on both getpantheon and webenabled.

The assertion is wrong that enabling On-Server-Development fixes the issue. It does not.

droopy_pal’s picture

Priority: Normal » Major
Status: Closed (fixed) » Needs work

This issue was first registered in March.
April, May, June, July, August, September, October... it's still there.

DMDU’s picture

Issue summary: View changes
Status: Needs work » Closed (fixed)