Posted by John Nichel on 09/16/05 22:33

2wsxdr5 wrote:
> Brian Dunning wrote:
>
>> I got a 12-hour invoice from a consultant who was tasked to do the
>> following:
>>
>> - Install a Red Hat machine from absolute scratch for PHP/MySQL/Apache
>>
>> - Copy over some MySQL databases
>>
>> - Have mod_rewrite working via htaccess, and have wildcard DNS
>>
> I'm a programmer, not a sys admin, I don't think this would take me more
> than 6 hours, maybe 8. Even given that I have never set up mod_rewrite
> or DNS. I think in 6 to 8 hours I could easily figure that part out. I
> have copied many MySQL databases from machine to machine and that takes
> almost no time unless the db is huge and or the machines are slow. If
> you have the Red Hat install disks, a fast computer with compatible
> hardware, and all the information I needed to complete the task, the
> install of Red Hat and the other software you want would take the
> longest time. Unless I had to do this on location, and therefore
> couldn't work on other things, I would have a hard time charging for
> most of that time. In my case though, I would be using that time to
> research how to config mod_rewrite and DNS. I have to admit it may take
> me longer than I think to figure out DNS config. However, if I already
> knew that part I say 4 or 5 hours tops.

The OS install will take between 1 - 3 hours, depending on the machine.
Setting up mod_rewrite to work via .htaccess is simple; compile it in,
and make sure it's allowed to work via .htaccess in the httpd.conf. Not
really sure what the OP meant by wildcard DNS, but if it was just
*.mydomain.com, the zone file nor the Apache config are all that tough.
Copying over DB's...fast as the machine can copy. These are all the
easy, quick tasks.

Building Apache/PHP can take some time depending on what you want
included. Vanilla installs of the two I can do in under 30 minutes, but
once you start including modules, you may or may not have to install
other software to meet the dependencies of those modules. Then there's
whether or not he wants SSL, mm, or other modules in Apache. And we
haven't even touched on init scripts, or security...that's all part of
getting this stuff up and running. No offense, but if someone's doing
this in 6 hours, I would be worried about the job not being complete.

--
John C. Nichel
ÜberGeek
KegWorks.com
716.856.9675
john@kegworks.com

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