Aqualab.ch serves as a development and testing platform. Service is unreliable! Do not host stuff that must work on this server.

Connecting with SSH/SFTP

All users access the server with the same account 'aquaverde'. It helps to add your SSH-key to the list of authorized keys so that logins are automated. Furthermore, to have painless interaction with Github, ssh-agent should be forwarded.

If you haven't yet, create a key-pair and register it with Github

To automate logins, add your key to the list of permitted keys on the dev-server:

ssh aquaverde@aqualab.ch 'cat >> .ssh/authorized_keys' < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

configure your Git by adding these to your ~/.profile:

export GIT_AUTHOR_NAME="Aquaverde Committer"
export GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL=test@aquaverde.ch"
export GIT_EDITOR="pico"

and tell your SSH installation that you would like to forward your git settings and  credentials:

cat >> .ssh/config <<ECONF
Host aqualab.ch
   SendEnv GIT_*
   ForwardAgent yes
ECONF

Now you should be able to log into the dev-server and push and pull from Github without entering a password.

ssh-add
ssh -A aquaverde@aqualab.ch

Creating a dev-site

When connected with ssh aquaverde@aqualab.ch, new development sites may be created with

devsite create sitename
devsite create sitename git-url

these sites are then available under the domain sitename.aqualab.ch. Use http://sitename.aqualab.ch to access the website. If you pass a `git-url` the URL will be cloned into the directory.

Removing a dev-site

Type 

sudo devsite destroy <sitename>

to get rid of it. The site's directory will be archived in /home/aquaverde/archives before the directory is deleted.

Keeping an eye on the webserver logs

When connected with ssh aquaverde@aqualab.ch you can read the webserver logs under /home/aquaverde/logs. It's best to keep this open while working:

tail -f logs/access.log logs/error.log

Backups

You'll find hourly file-backups under /var/backup and daily DB-backups under /var/lib/automysqlbackup.