[rt-users] New user considering to use RT + FreeBSD port for 3.8

[Kenneth Marshall]

I would like to add some personal comments to Mike's response.

On Fri, Nov 07, 2008 at 03:06:26PM +0000, Mike Peachey wrote:
> Joe Mailinglists wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > 
> > We've been using Horde+whups system for helpdesk in our University
> > for the past 3 years.  We recently upgraded it from a very old version and
> > everything got hosed.  We are planning to move to a better ticketing system
> > that is more stable and can be upgraded later without breaking the existing
> > infrastructure (databases, etc.).  I heard good things about RT.
> 
> Good. I'm a big fan of Horde when it comes to IMP and Kronolith (as soon
> as non-personal calendars can be given sane names not random hashes) -
> but for ticketing RT is always the way to go.
> 
We have been very happy with RT as our ticket system.

> > 
> > My questions to you guys are the following:
> > 1) We use a FreeBSD system.  I see that there is a port available (rt36) for
> >     version 3.6 but none for 3.8 yet.  Is it ok if I go ahead and
> > install rt36 now
> >     and later on upgrade to rt38 whenever it is available?  If not, do
> > you suggest
> >     that I manually download the latest version of rt3.8.1 and then
> > install it
> >     from the source?  Which method is safer/easier for upgrades in the long
> >     run?
> 
> I always recommend a manual install. While some are much better than
> others, trusting your installation to someone else just means that when
> you need to know something about the way it's installed, you end up
> having a lot of trouble finding out.
> 
> Manual installation not really difficult.
> 
> Also, I definitely recommend you use 3.8.1 not 3.6.x
> 
I also recommend a manual install and 3.8.1 as well. We are in the
process of upgrading to 3.8.1 currently.

> > 
> > 2) If FreeBSD systems are not well supported, we can also move to a Linux
> >     system.  Is it better to use a Linux system?
> 
> It really doesn't matter what the operating system is so long as you
> have a webserver with FastCGI or mod_perl and a database, preferably MySQL.
> 
> My personal preference is Slackware Linux 12.1 + Apache 2 + mod_perl 2 +
> RT-3.8.1 but your choices are endless.
> 
I think that your database choice should be based on what expertise
you have available in house. One other consideration is that MySQL does
not currently support full-text indexes with InnoDB tables (the kind
used by RT). Both Oracle and PostgreSQL do and there is a wiki item
on how to use full-text indexing with RT and Oracle and we will be posting
a similar item for PostgreSQL once we have finished our testing/upgrade.

> > 
> > 3) I've been reading that RT is memory intensive.  Is 2 GB enough?  This
> >     machine also runs the DHCP server.  Do you guys recommend to have a
> >     separate system for RT?
> 
> That's really fine. It's not *that* memory intensive. I have had two
> installations running side by side on a primary DNS and DHCP server that
> also runs multiple MySQL instances and other things besides on it and it
> was fine.
> 
Note: RT was developed using MySQL and is more well-tuned for it in
many places. The performance difference between MySQL and other DB backend
choices has narrowed and other backed may offer options that are not yet
available with MySQL, my two cents.  The bottom-line is that you should
choose the backend based on what you can support in-house.

Ken

> > 
> > I hope these questions belong to this list.  If not, can you please
> > point me to
> > the correct list?
> 
> You found the right place.
> 
> -- 
> Kind Regards,
> 
> __________________________________________________
> 
> Mike Peachey, IT
> Tel: +44 114 281 2655
> Fax: +44 114 281 2951
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