That depends on what is broken. We have over a hundred active users, many of which have several tools in diverse states of completeness or repair. Generally, when something is broken, contact the author of that something - Toolserver administrators usually can not fix it. The matter is different when the Toolserver as such has a problem - for example, when one of the servers is down. In that case, write an email to ts-admins(a)toolserver.org. You can also find us on IRC, in the channel #wikimedia-toolserver.

Aude schrieb: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2009-05-25/WikiPr… ) Great Idea! I'll try to answer the questions below, maybe River can add more info. Or anyone else, for that matter, I'm sure I'll forget something important. I'm not quite sure though if the toolserver blog should be on the planet... raising awareness is definitly good. On the other hand, status reports like "replication failed, will fix tomorrow" is not so helpful in the aggregated feed. But I guess we could change it to a filtered stream when people complain. The Toolserver, or more accurately, the Toolserver cluster, is a project by Wikimedia Germany that allows interested programmers to work with a live copy of the wiki databases. The Toolserver is used mainly to provide specialized web based tools to the wiki communities, but also to run bots and similar services. The Toolserver is also open to researchers that want to study wikimedia's projects. The Toolserver cluster, is located in Amsterdam, has several types of machines. Maily, there are three: * the database servers, which contain a live copy of all the wiki databases - however without the full article text. Article text is stored in compressed blocks on a special cluster. There is a copy of this in Amsterdam, but it is not accessible directly to toolserver users. The main reason for this is that these compressed blocks may contain private data. * then there is the web server, where users can provide web based tools. This is what the wiki communities usually see. * and there are the login servers, machines where programmers can run bots and other "offline" scripts, or run commands directly. The Toolserver is run by Wikimedia Germany, it is funded entirely from donations. The Wikimedia Foundation helps with hosting the machines in Amsterdam. I am an employee of Wikimedia Germany, and I'm responsible for planning the toolserver budget, among other things. I also have root access, and can approve new accounts, but I'm a lousy system administrator. So mainly my role is planning and organizing. I am of course also a toolserver user and provide several tools, the most well known of wich are probably CatScan and CheckUsage. To be honest, I don't know the details of the very beginning. I only joined when it was already up for a couple of months. But I believe that there was some frustration by people who had the skill to develop helpful tools for the wiki communities, but did not get access to the main server cluster, for security reasons. So the idea arose to create a place for such people to work with the data. Wikipedians (or anyone else, actually) can request an account by simply stating what you want to do there. The requests are reviewed by DaB (and sometimes by me), and if the project falls into the Toolserver's scope (which is: supporting Wikimedia and, more recently, OpenStreetMap projects), seems technically feasible and complies to our terms of use, the request is granted. Until now, account requests have been handled at <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Toolserver/New_accounts>. However, we are currently reworking the process, to make it more swift and more transparent. The terms of use for the toolserver are defined by <https://wiki.toolserver.org/view/Rules>, the conditions for account approval are at <https://wiki.toolserver.org/view/Account_approval_policy/en>. It's the user's responsibility to comply to the rules, that is, to do no evil. There are no hard limits on resources, users are asked to be considerate. Heavy tasks that slow down the system may be killed by an administrator. Generally, we try to address problems on a case by case basis, directly with the user. That depends on what is broken. We have over a hundred active users, many of which have several tools in diverse states of completeness or repair. Generally, when something is broken, contact the author of that something - Toolserver administrators usually can not fix it. The matter is different when the Toolserver as such has a problem - for example, when one of the servers is down. In that case, write an email to ts-admins(a)toolserver.org. You can also find us on IRC, in the channel #wikimedia-toolserver. The latest hardware order included five servers, three of them for the Toolserver cluster: * we are replacing our oldest database server, which has been constantly overloaded recently. * we are putting user data (home directories) onto a new machine and move other things around a bit. In the end, there will be a second login server, for running bots and the like. * and last but not least: the map toolserver, a place for the OpenStreetMap community to develop exciting new projects. In addition, two servers are provided for integrating "live" interactive maps ion wikipedia articles, based on OpenStreetMap data. We are mainly working on the reliability of the toolserver - for instance, we hope to have two copies of every wiki database in the future, so tools using that data can keep running even when one system fails. Generally, we are trying to make the Toolserver cluster a mature part of the Wikimedia landscape. We should all say thanks to River, our senior system administrator, for keeping the Toolserver running! -- daniel _______________________________________________ Toolserver-l mailing list Toolserver-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/toolserver-l

I'm not quite sure though if the toolserver blog should be on the planet...

On the other hand, status reports like "replication failed, will fix tomorrow" is not so helpful in the aggregated feed.

The Toolserver, or more accurately, the Toolserver cluster, is a project by Wikimedia Germany

The Toolserver cluster, is located in Amsterdam

I believe that there was some frustration by people who had the skill to develop helpful tools for the wiki communities, but did not get access to the main server cluster, for security reasons. So the idea arose to create a place for such people to work with the data.

It's the user's responsibility to comply to the rules, that is, to do no evil. There are no hard limits on resources, users are asked to be considerate.

River Tarnell schrieb: organisational Yes, which is what toolserver users read. But we have an increasing need to inform "ordinary" weiki users about what'S going on. Because they are using the tools as part of normal site operation. The blog would be an easy< way of doing that, I think. Tag the planet-relevant posts with a specific tag and leave the tech-info

Do tools get signalled when they use too much memory? Or just killed?

Increasing cooperation would be cool. One thing that might help is to promote a "toolbox", that is, a shared library of utilities to be used and maintained by everyone. I suppose we should also rethink our permission model for svn repositories. Without a shared repository, cooperation is much harder.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Bryan Tong Minh: i don't think allowing anyone to commit malicious code to any other user's tools by default is the wiki principle.  that's more like the "please compromise my account" principle.

Bryan Tong Minh: i don't think allowing anyone to commit malicious code to any other user's tools by default is the wiki principle. that's more like the "please compromise my account" principle. - river.

i don't think allowing anyone to commit malicious code to any other user's tools by default is the wiki principle. that's more like the "please compromise my account" principle.

But what when individual tools break? Which ones are important enough to try and keep running (even when people leave).

But what when individual tools break? Which ones are important enough to try and keep running (even when people leave).

On Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 12:25, Daniel Kinzler&lt;daniel(a)brightbyte.de&gt; wrote: Are you talking about toolserver breaking as a whole or individual tools breaking? The first can indeed be covered by blogs/signpost/Aude's interview. But what when individual tools break? Which ones are important enough to try and keep running (even when people leave).

Il giorno 14/giu/09, alle ore 12:25, Daniel Kinzler ha scritto: I've just written a description of the Toolserver on the Italian Wikipedia: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Toolserver "I'm Outlaw Pete, I'm Outlaw Pete, Can you hear me?" Pietrodn powerpdn(a)gmail.com _______________________________________________ Toolserver-l mailing list Toolserver-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/toolserver-l