Revo manager doesn't like virtual server

My host moved my MODx site to a virtual server using OnApp Cloud and Xen, whatever that is. Manager hasn't worked right since, though the web site is fine. It's as if I lose privileges in Manager whenever I try to change anything. I can generally edit resources in IE9 if I keep clearing IE9 cache. But in Firefox as soon as I click a resource to edit it I can see the resource but everything is dimmed out and I have no access to anything, plus the navigation pane disappears.

I found two settings on the server that don't agree with MODx documentation for server requirements: magic_quotes_gpc and register_globals. So I turned both off in the .htaccess file but it made no difference.

I prefer to use Firefox because things don't render well in IE9. And BTW, this MODx site doesn't render well in IE9. What's up with that?

Here's my server info:

* PHP version and how it's running (suexec, mod_php, CGI, etc.): php_libphp5
* Apache version: 2.2
* Operating System and version: centos 5.3

Database:

* MySQL version: 5.0.77
* List of any tables over 1MB in size - That's not something we support, you can find it via the mysql manager.

Virtualization:
* it's on onapp using xen

Hello,

Did you change how the sessions were stored for MODX? I know MODX works fine on Xen virtual servers (and onapp for that matter).

Quote from: AMDbuilder at May 10, 2012, 12:13 AM

Hello,

Did you change how the sessions were stored for MODX? I know MODX works fine on Xen virtual servers (and onapp for that matter).

No - how do you change the way sessions are stored?

And why would I have changed the way sessions are stored? My web site host moved the site to the new environment. So would I say to myself, "well, in that case I think I'll change the way sessions are stored."

See if anything here helps: http://bobsguides.com/modx-troubleshooting.html



I've seen other report of trouble with MODX on "cloud" services. Here's one: https://forums.modx.com/thread/?thread=10992&page=1



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PLEASE, PLEASE specify the version of MODX you are using.
MODX info for everyone: http://bobsguides.com/modx.html

Quote from: BobRay at May 12, 2012, 10:53 PM

See if anything here helps: http://bobsguides.com/modx-troubleshooting.html

@BobRay - I'm going through the troubleshooting steps and getting hung up on clearing out core/cache. I couldn't do it myself - "unable to delete." I tried CHMOD to 777 - "unable to change permission, file has different UID (103)".

I had the server host clear out the cache directory last night. This morning it had folders in it again. I attempted login to Manager from Firefox. Login was successful but permissions lost immediately and more folders appeared in cache directory. I can't delete the contents of cache. Why is Revo creating files in this directory that I can't remove? Maybe this is my problem rather than sessions being stored by OnApp/Xen.

Quote from: kirkhuyser at May 16, 2012, 08:43 AM

I'm going through the troubleshooting steps and getting hung up on clearing out core/cache. I couldn't do it myself - "unable to delete." I tried CHMOD to 777 - "unable to change permission, file has different UID (103)".

I had the server host clear out the cache directory last night. This morning it had folders in it again. I attempted login to Manager from Firefox. Login was successful but permissions lost immediately and more folders appeared in cache directory. I can't delete the contents of cache. Why is Revo creating files in this directory that I can't remove? Maybe this is my problem rather than sessions being stored by OnApp/Xen.

Any PHP application writes files as the user PHP is executing as in your server environment; in this case this is the same user as the web server, likely a www-data user or similar. If your hosting control panel does not provide access to manage these files, you would need to use the Files tab in the manager or another PHP application for managing files to access and manipulate those files.

There are many hosting solutions for running PHP as a specific user account to avoid this issue of file ownership, and many modern hosts use one of these solutions. But many still don't, and this is the resulting limitation...

@opengeek
My hosting control panel does provide a File Manager, but I can't delete from there either. I can't CHMOD from there as stated above. I can't delete or CHMOD from Cyberduck. All I can do is get my hosting provider to delete for me, but going through BobRay's troubleshooting steps is tediously slow when I have to ask my hosting provider to delete the files every time I try a new troubleshooting solution.

The problem with using file manager in MODx Manager is some that are deleted just come right back.

I'm confused about things that are being cached in core/cache and things being cached in tmp directory specified by my php_value session.save_path entry in .htaccess. I was on the latter track trying to troubleshoot why my permissions don't persist in Manager when I got sidetracked on this core/cache problem.

There are many hosting solutions for running PHP as a specific user account to avoid this issue of file ownership, and many modern hosts use one of these solutions. But many still don't, and this is the resulting limitation...

@opengeek
My hosting provider is not sure what it is he needs to do. Are there any specific solutions? Frankly I'm not sure if the old non-vps server allowed me to clean out core/cache because I don't think I ever tried it. And maybe this core/cache issue is distracting me from the real issue - losing permissions while doing things in Manager. I was just trying to go through Bob's troubleshooting steps and the core/cache thing was getting in my way.

Hello,

Sorry, I missed the earlier responses! I think Jason is on the right train of thought in that the way your hosting is configured, the files aren't all owned by you which creates issues.

Could you ask you host how php is configured to run on the server? (cgi, fcgi, dso, suphp, etc?) Typically shared servers use suphp which avoids the ownership problem, with other configurations being used depending on server load/demands.