Linux Migration

On Jan 3, 2017 the Penn State Personal Web Space Service (personal.psu.edu) will begin its transition from AIX (Apache 1.3) to Linux (Apache 2.4). Between Jan 3rd and Jan 5th, it will be served by both Linux and and AIX servers. The AIX servers will be taken out of service on January 5th. If you only serve static content on personal.psu.edu, your content should not be affected. If you only use the supported CGI scripts on personal.psu.edu, your content is very unlikely to be affected. There are two cgi scripts that will not be supprted going forward: ph.cgi and ncsa/imagemap. If you have a need for server-side imagemaps (ncsa/imagemap), contact the IT Service Desk.

If you are serving content via your own CGI scripts on personal.psu.edu, your content may not function the same way under Linux as on AIX. For testing purposes, you can currently access the linux servers via the name: personal.test.psu.edu. To test your code and pages on the linux servers just replace personal.psu.edu with personal.test.psu.edu in your URLs. The name personal.test.psu.edu will go away shortly after January 5th. It is for short-term testing only. Your production content should continue to use the name personal.psu.edu.

Most scripts will require no changes or very minor changes to work on both AIX and Linux. Compiled binaries will not work on both AIX and Linux and will need a wrapper script that runs the appropriate binary based on they current architecture in order to function during the transition period. After January 5th, the AIX machines will be taken down and only Linux binaries will be needed.

If you need help getting your installed CGIs on personal.psu.edu to run under both AIX and Linux, contact the IT Service Desk. This change is being tracked via the Service Now change request: CHG0039568.