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Installing and running without a web server

Discussion of the Cumulusutils tool and website generator.

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Installing and running without a web server

Post by DaveD »

Can this be done? I installed CumulusUtils on my desktop server where C(MX) has been running for years but want to test functionality before committing to a host server, if ever I do, as I am mostly interested in using CUtlils for my own purposes. Plus, my desktop contains all my jewels and I'm not sure that I ever want to open it up to the world in any fashion.

I see hints about this throughout the CUtils forum, but I'm not sure that this is directly discussed. If it can be done, just how?

Thank you in advance.
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Re: Installing and running without a web server

Post by HansR »

Yes, it can be done although it is not supported by me so you are on your own.
However, as you found, there are some who did this, you might contact them or they may jump in here.

I have the following remarks:
  1. Leave FTP disabled
  2. If you want to try CUtils modular, just run the module command take the file(s) and implement it in your website (or any way you wish to use it)
  3. If you wish to test the website, generate the website, create the lib and css directories under the utils directory and run directly from the cutils directory. For other test directories you will have to copy everything by hand or by your own procedure. Cutils does not have a file copy mechanism.
  4. To have the realtime features work you will have to either use the CumulusRealTimeLocation parameter or move the relevant files manually/procedurally to the utils directory.
An alternative method which I believe has been tried is to install a web- and ftpserver on your local machine and simply use that to talk to. I think @Andy used this method. If you think of eventually implementing a real website this might give you the right learning curve.

Anyway, as said above, I don't support this but if you ask questions somebody may jump in.
I do follow this, so other (technical) issues will be replied to.

Good luck.

[EDIT:] The map signature file should be send to the server anyway regardless if you have a website or not and so will be the download of the current map. If you test the website the map should always be present.
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Re: Installing and running without a web server

Post by broadstairs »

In terms of a local web server there is a package called xampp which installs Apache, PHP plus other things, Apache is the most common web server and you have all this running locally under Windows.

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Re: Installing and running without a web server

Post by AndyKF650 »

Yes I ran CUtils as a local web page visible by me only. I use a RPi to collate the data and then set up Apache 2 to get the /web/html/Cutils folder that can be viewed in a browser similarly to the CMX admin page. As Stuart mentioned for a Windows setup XAMP will be needed to set up Apache and php.

Setting up CUtils in the CMX folder on your source area is well documented in the wiki at "Creating a home web page on your web server". You need to transfer the files in the web and webfiles folder to your /web/html/Cutils folder just as you would for an externally hosted web site. You will need to set the host page in CMX internet settings to your local site. Running the utils/bin/cumulusutils.exe website command will start the set up of the local website.

I found that with perseverance, given that this was a completely new experience for me, I got the local web site working well and was able to start to modify it as I wanted. The only difficulty was that, since it was an internal only site, it was getting assistance when things go wrong but I muddled through with @Hans and learnt what worked and what did not. After a while I took the plunge and went for an externally hosted site which I have since developed to its current state.

To protect your data on a pc I would recommend using a RPi, it just sits on my desk 24/7 doing its job quietly in a low energy state.

I hope this helps a bit.
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Re: Installing and running without a web server

Post by DaveD »

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

At 78, new skills come slowly and don't hang around long unless really drilled in. So I will probably take the more direct route that will include running on a Windows machine, initially the desktop CMX is running on and, if I go public, eventually on an old Windows laptop. I've successfully avoided learning Linux for many years and really would rather not in the future. I've been looking at the RPi for a couple years now for another application, that of a WiFi connection to my standby generator so I can monitor it whenever I am away on a trip. That application requires no Unix/Linux skills; it is a simple install. The RPi, as neat as it is, isn't in my future otherwise. Plus, I need my desktop to be up 24/7 for multiple reasons.

I see the direct route as:
  • Set up CUtils off of the CMS folder (done!)
  • Building the local web server per Stuart's suggestion or something like that.
  • Generating the CUtil website.
  • Then I'll get it working locally, set it up the way I would like to see it, use it.
  • If all goes well, I'll move everything to a web server and open it up to the world.
I will do this slowly, stumbling forward and maybe having lots of fun in the process!

Are there any major holes in this approach? Additional suggestions?
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Re: Installing and running without a web server

Post by HansR »

I think that is a good summary of the above.
Let us know how you get along and don't hesitate to ask if hit a dead end.
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Re: Installing and running without a web server

Post by sfws »

DaveD wrote: Mon 25 Jul 2022 3:15 pm Building the local web server per Stuart's suggestion or something like that.
HansR could mention you don't need PHP, nor a database server, for CUtils web pages, so actually all you need is a "web server" (and a file transfer server), not a full package, and you might find https://aprelium.com/ easiest for you, although there are other web servers available if you search for "web server on Windows".

Microsoft Windows offers a "IIS" web server, as an optional "feature", which is used by some people on this forum, although I would not recommend it for you.
broadstairs wrote: Mon 25 Jul 2022 6:34 am In terms of a local web server there is a package called xampp which installs Apache, PHP plus other things, Apache is the most common web server and you have all this running locally under Windows.
The XAMPP package mentioned, although excellent, is over complicated for your context of a private server not connected to internet. One possible simpler package of apache2, PHP, plus other things, is available at http://www.uniformserver.com/ although there are others.

This Wiki page is likely to confuse you, but some points within that page just might contain answers to subsequent questions.
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Re: Installing and running without a web server

Post by DaveD »

Moving forward, I resurrected an old W10 laptop, but discovered it was dead and spent a day or two diagnosing that. I finally was able to reimage the SSD (the boot partition was cleared for some unknown reason) and am now setting it up the way I like it. Step 2 I will start fiddling with web server code, probably trying aprelium first, unless there is a consensus that it should be something else.

Step 3 I plan to put a static copy of CMX and my 10 or so years of Davis history on that laptop, along with CUtils. Before I go there, I need to know whether I can get by with old data to make this work. I will not be moving my CMX data collection operation to the laptop until and unless I am ready to go public. Can this happen?

I would be willing to invest in a David WLL device to run in duplicate, but they are currently damn near unavailable except for a few at prices higher than normal retail. Some of the out-of-stock dealers say they will be available in September. I talked with a Davis support guy a couple weeks ago and he agreed that the reason for the availability problem is electronic component shortages. Ditto for the RPi, as I continue checking on its availability at reasonable prices for my standby generator monitor.
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Re: Installing and running without a web server

Post by HansR »

@DaveD: OK. Remember you not only need the webserver but also an FTP server for CUtils to work (there is no file copy facility) or you need to find another way to get the files where you want them.
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Re: Installing and running without a web server

Post by DaveD »

Progress. Yesterday I got it running locally in the LAN by simply going to the local IP address from a browser in another device. It looks good and consistently works, with real-time updates every few seconds. It could have been running a lot sooner, but I was bumbling through IT areas about which I was totally unfamiliar. But I've learned a lot and that was and is one of my objectives with this project.

One of the first things I learned, but only after scrutinizing the Wikis, was that CMX continues running on my desktop and the website alone resides on the laptop. That is good news, as I feel that the desktop is a lot more stable than the laptop, and I back it up every night to a couple USB drives, swapping them offsite regularly, and back up the important stuff, including my CMX records, to the cloud weekly.

Details: I resurrected the old Windows 10 laptop and installed Aprelium's Abyss web server and the FileZilla FTP server there. Both were fairly straightforward understanding and configuring with a lot of research and reading. Abyss has a nicely laid out instruction guide. FileZilla offers a link to ftptest.net, which I used and which helped me through getting it set up right.

I stumbled through getting the webroot right on the Abyss web server, thinking that it was Abyss's install folder (Hans warns about the need to understand all this in the CUtils Wiki). It turns out that when I finally defined it as the htdocs folder off the Abyss install folder, that part worked OK.

But not before I had a big problem with the cumulusutils.exe website operation actually transferring the output to the server. I had defined both FTP and local save and the local save was happening, updating every few seconds as configured. A close look at the install log finally told me that the website generation was configured with DoUploadFTP as false. That is in the cumulusutils.ini and it took a while. If I have a single suggestion, it is that perhaps Hans might consider putting that into the wiki. That is the only change I had to make to the .ini file to make it work, although I also turned on Ftplog.

Enough of this. I will follow up with another entry about moving forward. Thanks you to Hans and others for a nice tool!
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Re: Installing and running without a web server

Post by DaveD »

Moving forward:

I would like to get to my website from outside my LAN without a registered host address and there are various thoughts out there about whether this can happen. I have not been able to do this over my phone with WiFi turned off, going via mobile. All I get when I enter the WAN IP address is my cable modem logon screen. Any ideas among the folks on this forum about whether this can be done? I do plan to register a host, but later, after I get it working right. I believe the Windows firewall port opening and the cable modem port forwarding has all been done correctly for both Abyss and FileZilla.

I plan to do a lot of customization, including rearranging dials, eliminating most of the "feels like" temperature metrics, setting up a permanent dew point dial (the really important measurement of moisture in the atmosphere), etc. But especially I would like to add additional daily wind rose options--at least for today and yesterday--and need to reconfigure the wind rose wind speed ranges to lower values. My Davis anemometer is 15 feet above grade in the back of the partial clearing where my home sits, among trees over 100 feet high, so winds are at most about 20 MPH and usually in the 1-3 MPH range, even in mild storms not often going above about 15 MPH (while not a good indication of winds in the area, what I see is, of course, an accurate view of air movements that affect me). I haven't looked yet and may ask for help in specific areas later, but would like to know now in general terms just how difficult it may be to do these things.
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Re: Installing and running without a web server

Post by philpugh »

You could try connecting to a specific internet port and have your router forward that connection to your system providing the web pages. The one problem is that if your internet provider changes your IP address (which they tend to do from time to time here in the UK) then you may not be able to determine this address remotely (e.g. from your phone).

A better solution - but at a small cost - would be to obtain an internet domain name from a supplier of DDNS (Dynamic Distributed Name Service) which tracks such IP address changes. They aren't all that expensive and indeed there are free services about; but if all you require is remote access for yourself this would be sufficient.

Do a search for free DDNS and have a look.
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Re: Installing and running without a web server

Post by DaveD »

Oh! That was easy. Port 80 is the default listening port for a web host (I believe?); I forwarded it in the modem (also router in this case) and it worked. Instantly. I thought I had opened it earlier, but not. Thank you for this.

But that brings up another concern, that of security. This web server laptop has nothing else of value on it, but it does have access to the root drive on my desktop. I'll be looking closely at security generally, but if there are immediate concerns, I would like to know what they might be.
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Re: Installing and running without a web server

Post by HansR »

DaveD wrote: Wed 03 Aug 2022 12:31 pm A close look at the install log finally told me that the website generation was configured with DoUploadFTP as false. That is in the cumulusutils.ini and it took a while. If I have a single suggestion, it is that perhaps Hans might consider putting that into the wiki. That is the only change I had to make to the .ini file to make it work, although I also turned on Ftplog.
I am pretty sure it is somewhere but I will elaborate a bit more on that parameter (and the relation with the copy files config in CMX)
DaveD wrote: Wed 03 Aug 2022 12:57 pm I plan to do a lot of customization, including rearranging dials, eliminating most of the "feels like" temperature metrics, setting up a permanent dew point dial (the really important measurement of moisture in the atmosphere), etc.
OK, let me know if you encounter any problems. And I don't think it will be very easy to set up a Dew Point only dial. Creating new dials is something which requires some true programming around the gauges. That cannot be done through CumulusUtils.

For the Wind Rose you should start here.
In general: do you clean the anemometer regularly? My experience with the Davis one was that the spiders were able to get it to a stand still. Also you might consider using the correction in CMX.

Nice detailed reporting of your project. Looking forward for the rest.
(as you may have guessed, I will say nothing about the internet things, definitely not about security but you pick the right point of attention. Probably that is why normally people go to regular providers :) )
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Re: Installing and running without a web server

Post by HansR »

HansR wrote: Wed 03 Aug 2022 3:33 pm And I don't think it will be very easy to set up a Dew Point only dial. Creating new dials is something which requires some true programming around the gauges. That cannot be done through CumulusUtils.
But having said that: if you choose the dew point (or any of the other possibilities) the choice is stored in a cookie and kept. So the default is always the last setting. My guess is you want to stay with that but don't hesitate to study the gauges. Please note that the gauges library of CUtils is a heavily pruned version of the CMX official gauges library. They are not exchangeable.
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