php.net Mirror Network Status Update

    Greetings, folks;

    There are a few things I'd like to discuss today, including the
network status, upcoming changes in requirements, new features, some
beta tools, and more.  For those of you who don't have the time,
patience, or desire to read a somewhat wordy message, a summary is at
the end.

    == NETWORK STATUS ==

    First and foremost, thank you all for your continued support of
the PHP project.  Your outstanding efforts in providing the hardware,
network, bandwidth, and - most importantly - management of the systems
is what truly makes the php.net network one of the absolute best
all-around mirroring networks.  I'm proud to work with each and every
one of you; it may be a voluntary effort, but none of you are any less
than completely professional at all times.

    As of about an hour ago, more than 85% of the network is now
buzzing under the new round-robin DNS setup announced earlier this
year.  With only a handful of mirrors that had yet to add the
ServerAlias (or equivalent) directive for CC1.PHP.NET to their web
server configuration, the changeover was very smooth.  In fact, the
only major potential glitch so far (knock on wood) was a typo I had
committed myself in the code that generates the BIND entries for the
php.net zone file --- and that was discovered and corrected before it
had the chance to manifest into an actual issue.  Great job, all of
you.

    Despite working with literally dozens of maintainers directly, on
an almost seven-day-per-week basis from April through the entire month
of September, we did still suffer some casualties.  We're down to 88
mirrors as of this morning.  That's the lowest number of active
mirrors we've had in years.  However, some of these mirrors were
systems that should've been removed anyway.  For example, some were
virtually zombie mirrors, with no accurate contact information or
communication with the maintainer or provider.  Others were systems
that had been "grandfathered-in" with regard to sponsorship; prior to
the requirement, in open source fashion, that the mirrors not be used
primarily as a source of advertising for unrelated companies,
products, or services.

    This summer, I clocked almost 700 man-hours - the equivalent to
almost one full, sleepless, round-the-clock calendar month - working
with many of you to get this stuff together, and am pleased to have
had the opportunity.  You're a truly unique and wonderful group of
geeks.... but that doesn't mean I'll miss the extra hours spent
sitting on my butt or talking on the phone or Skype, or any of that
other stuff.  ;-P

    == IRC CHANNEL ==

    As a reminder for those of you who don't already participate: we
run an EFnet channel for official mirror maintainers at #php.mirrors.
Right now, the channel is open, but it may be changed to a private
channel sometime in the future, depending on the general consensus of
those who use it; if we determine that the discussion contains
information of a nature that should not be public - such as security -
the channel may be locked so that only active, official maintainers
are permitted entry.

    == STATUS BETA TOOL ==

    Those of you who don't yet participate in the IRC channel probably
do not yet know, but a new tool is now in beta.  A couple of months
ago, I wrote the PHP Global Network Infrastructure Health page, which
regularly monitors the health and status of all mirrors, and displays
data such as availability, active status, compliance, and more.  It
also gives (sometimes incorrect or incomplete) information on the
mirror, its maintainer, the sponsor, the physical location (guessed),
some network statistics, and other general information.  You can view
this at http://status.php.net/.  Suggestions are welcome via the
mirror mailing list at [email protected], and bugs should be
filed at https://bugs.php.net/ as a "PHP.net Systems Operation
problem."  This will couple it in with mirrors and systems.

    == UPCOMING CHANGES IN REQUIREMENTS ==

    Starting this month, we will be requiring OpenSSL be installed and
available to PHP.  Only a handful of sites do not have OpenSSL right
now, and I'll reach out to each of you individually to get everything
in order.

    == NEW/REACTIVATED FEATURES ==

    Also starting this month, we'll be reactivating some missing
features, improving existing things, and adding new stuff to the
mirroring program.  A few examples:

        * Adding IPv6 support
        * Reactivating the weekly status email
        * Improving synchronizing via the RRNs
        * Adding a monthly email reminder with an automated bounce-checker

    == OTHER POINTS OF NOTE ==

    Some other things going on:

        * Repairing the glitch in the mirroring script showing
incorrect sponsorship and official status
        * Miscellaneous additions and improvements made to our backend
management
        * Updating the mirroring requirements page at http://php.net/mirroring
        * Mark Scholten (NL1 and the European RRN) added a new IRC bot
to the room to notify of list emails

    == SUMMARY ==

    To go over it all one final time (or to sum it all up for those of
you who don't feel like reading all of the above), a summary:

        * We've switched to round-robin networking, rather than static
CC.PHP.NET and CC2.PHP.NET hostnames.
        * You're encouraged to join the official IRC channel on EFnet
at #php.mirrors.
        * A new tool is now in beta: status.php.net.
        * OpenSSL will be a requirement for all mirrors.  I'll be
working with the few maintainers who are missing the extension.
        * Several features are being introduced, reintroduced, or improved.

    And lastly - but most importantly - thank you all again.  It's
sometimes a lot of work to maintain this program and give the visitors
the best possible experience, but you guys make my job look easy, and
I really appreciate that.  Keep up the great work, everyone, and be
sure to drop me a line if you have any questions, suggestions, or
anything else you'd like to discuss.

-- 
</Daniel P. Brown>
Network Infrastructure Manager
http://www.php.net/