OpenVMS VAMP Board

When I went to start using Joomla I found out that the multi-dot filenames had been mangled by unzip. I tried using the jar program in the Java distribution to unzip/unjar the zip file and got the same result.

Essentially, you'll see an error something like... The trick to getting jar working right is to make sure the java$filename_controls logical is set correctly. Out of the box that logical is set to -1, which means it will do the underscore for multiple dots translation, and a host of other fun file tricks. By defining the logical like so... you turn off all the dot replacements. Look at JAVA$FILENAME_CONTROLS.COM in the Java COM directory for a full explanation of what numbers do what for filename translations.

Once I reset the logical, I did the following to unjar the zip file. and did a full reinstall.

Now I can at least bring up the main Joomla demo page.

After installing I was having a hard time getting logged into the admin account. Seems that all of the joomla tables use the MyISAM engine, which has been reported to have problems on VMS. The jos_users table, which keeps the usernames, passwords, etc, for joomla in my installation, was getting wiped out pretty regularly.

Here is what I did to change the joomla tables to InnoDB engine.

After unzipping the installation, but before using the GUI install script... And change all the MyISAM references to InnoDB. Then when you use the GUI install it will create the tables with the InnoDB engine.

Also, one thing I found handy is that when the install is complete it will insist that you delete the installation directory. Instead of deleting it I just renamed it. That way, if you want to redo the install, all you have to do is rename it back.

Over the past couple of weekends I installed the current Joomla and MySQL releases on my home test box, a DS10L 6/466 with 1GB of memory, KZPBA disk controller and Ultra-40 disks. The information from this topic was crucial to getting it all working, and pretty reliably so far. The 'JAR' unpacking, and .SQL files update to change the table type took care of all the critical issues, so far.

Two of the three remaining issues are related to the general antiquity of the provided MOD_PHP from HP. One is the documented need to use the 'old' password mechanism in MySQL; the other is an error in "PCRE" not supporting UTF-8. This latter was also experienced by some folks in the LAMP world when PCRE was not 'compiled in' to PHP, but was in an external module. I don't know if that correlates to my VAMP arrangement.

I sure hope the expected upgrade to MOD_PHP comes out this year...

Performance is, at best, leisurely. Even when the test client is on the same LAN as the server, the response is not very fast. I'm not certain if its I/O or CPU/memory bound as this point but will be running monitors to make that determination (and I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who has worked to optimize Joomla, or more general PHP performance on their VAMP systems).