When creating slave web site from a template, I've got various errors, but with no predictable behavior. That is creating successively a few web sites (let's say 6) with site id id1, id2, id3, id4, id5, id6 sometimes work, sometimes fail but with different errors. Obviously I create all sites with exactly the same template, there are no such prefix, no such directory links, etc. So one should expect to find the same problem each time.
Could it be some (random) time out in the installation script with a wrong way to catch errors ?


Here is a list of possible errors I've got.

(0) ------------------
Sometimes it works. Creating both the directory structure and the database prefix

(1) ------------------
Unable to create the symbolic link [multisites] -> [/home/megaplan/public_html/JOOMLA_MASTER/multisites].

Note that the option "Create the deployed directory is checked" and that the deployed directory is set to "/.../{site_prefix}" where the directory "/..." is 777. Suprizingly enough the other symbolic links are created and usually this one as well.

(2) ------------------
Sometimes I've got no error at all but the database tables are not created! Please note that I DO NOT CHANGE anything in the template or the database between the creation of the various site.


(1) ------------------
JDatabaseMySQL::query: 2006 - MySQL server has gone away SQL=SHOW TABLES LIKE 'master\_users'

Call stack
# Function Location
1 JSite->dispatch() /home/megaplan/public_html/JOOMLA_MASTER/index.php:43
2 JComponentHelper::renderComponent() /home/megaplan/public_html/JOOMLA_MASTER/includes/application.php:191
3 require_once() /home/megaplan/public_html/JOOMLA_MASTER/libraries/joomla/application/component/helper.php:156
4 JController->execute() /home/megaplan/public_html/JOOMLA_MASTER/components/com_multisites/multisites.php:70
5 MultisitesController->saveSlave() /home/megaplan/public_html/JOOMLA_MASTER/libraries/joomla/application/component/controller.php:684
6 MultisitesViewSlaves->saveSlave() /home/megaplan/public_html/JOOMLA_MASTER/components/com_multisites/controller.php:242
7 MultisitesModelManage->deploySite() /home/megaplan/public_html/JOOMLA_MASTER/components/com_multisites/views/slaves/view.php:884
8 MultisitesModelManage->duplicateDBandConfig() /home/megaplan/public_html/JOOMLA_MASTER/administrator/components/com_multisites/models/manage.php:3544
9 MultisitesDatabase->copyDBSharing() /home/megaplan/public_html/JOOMLA_MASTER/administrator/components/com_multisites/models/manage.php:2184
10 MultisitesDatabase->createViews() /home/megaplan/public_html/JOOMLA_MASTER/administrator/components/com_multisites/classes/multisitesdb.php:2383
11 JDatabase->loadResultArray() /home/megaplan/public_html/JOOMLA_MASTER/administrator/components/com_multisites/classes/multisitesdb.php:1045
12 JDatabase->loadColumn() /home/megaplan/public_html/JOOMLA_MASTER/libraries/joomla/database/database.php:1565
13 JDatabaseMySQL->query() /home/megaplan/public_html/JOOMLA_MASTER/libraries/joomla/database/database.php:850
14 JError::raiseError() /home/megaplan/public_html/JOOMLA_MASTER/libraries/joomla/database/database/mysql.php:515
15


Here is the detail of my configuration
Linux / Apache/1.3.42
Joomla 1.7.2
mysql 5.0.92-community-log
php 5.2.9
Version 1.2.68 (Latest available: 1.2.68)
Patches definition Version 1.2.72 (Latest available: 1.2.72)

Here is the template I use from the front end where I fill the site_prefix

* To site ID: {site_prefix}
* New DB Prefix : {site_prefix}_
* Deployment folder /.../{site_prefix}
* Create the deployed folder: Yes

I've managed to solve the issue "JDatabaseMySQL::query: 2006 - MySQL server has gone away" by contacting my provider. They increase the "wait_timeout" MySQL setting so I've got no more this error.

But repeating the exercice above (creating t10, t11, t12, t13, t14, t15, t16 ...) I've got twice at the beginning the error "Unable to create the symbolic link [multisites] -> [/home/megaplan/public_html/JOOMLA_MASTER/multisites]" and the next web site went ok. Strange behavior.
Now I still get the error "[multisites] -> [/home/megaplan/public_html/JOOMLA_MASTER/multisites] error."

Has you seems to have "random errors" that let me suppose that you may have timeout during the creation of the slave site. Perhaps the maximum executiion time is too small and can not be increased dynamically by JMS to get more time to create the slave site.

So I think that the script is interupted due to timeout during the processing.


Concerning the "symbolic link error message" this mean that the link can not be created beacuse you already have a link with another value or that you have a physical directory present instead of the link.

Yes, the random aspect was due to timelimit. Actually not of the script but waiting time of mysql. This is fixed. For the link problem, no, there is no such link before and the directory is writable, the target is existing. I use a linux system and there is no problem with links. Just for to be absolutely sure, I've run the hello test. It went successfuly.

May be I'm looking in the wrong directory? The error messages do not provide enough information. What is the exact meaning of
[multisites] -> [/home/megaplan/public_html/JOOMLA_MASTER/multisites] ?
That is, I guess that the target is the second parameters, but in which directory does the script attempt to create the "multisites" link (just to be sure).
What is strange is that sometimes in fails on "media" and sometimes in other directory.
It is difficult to diagnose what happen because one cannot figure out if this is an error and then the process fail, if only the first error is displayed, etc.

It seems that what is missing (or at least I didn't find it ) is a log with detailled information. It would be more than helpful...

Thanks

The meaning of the link is the same as the one that you have with a SSH terminal command "ls -l".

This mean that you want to create a link "multisites" that point (->) to the "path given"
and that either you have a link with another path or that you have a physical directory or that you don't have permission to create the link.
The link is attempted to be created in the "deploy folder".

JMS does not create log file.

Yes I understand that this is a symbolic link (hence ln -s etc.).
I've not set any value in the "deploy directory". Can I be sure that the default is then "multisites/xxx" when xxx is the site id? I mean, there is no link there and there is no problem of permission.
Thanks for your help.