Going from Wordpress to mynt.

Purpose:

  • smaller footprint, tune down vps (mysql & apache + my bad tuning skills = ram gets eaten up)
  • write posts in markdown
  • use CLI for faster editing
  • posts in git
  • local preview for free

Bonuses:

  • getting to know a python project (mynt)
  • trying out nginx which is recommended for static content
    • before: mysql & apache processes hanging around, using 500 mb ram with near 0 load
    • response time (with wordpress cache plugin) was 2.49 s for 100.55 KB split on 17 requests (front page)
    • $ ab -n 1000 -c 5 http://iamnearlythere.com/ crashes
  • take the opportunity to learn less for a redesign, fits with the pregeneration. also, include responsive design (octopress = good influence)

Good to have:

  • rsync for deploying
  • log 404's
  • nice source syntax (see examples on mynt's web)

Procedure:

  • Install mynt, requires xcode on osx (for "watchdog" -- an, in my eyes, unnecessary dependency)
  • Export all posts from wordpress (I got an XML file out of 3.3.1)
  • Run $ ./wp2mynt.php export-file.xml (wp2mynt.php is on github)
  • Modify the theme a bit (far too many h1 used, for example)
    • Get a pattern from subtlepatterns.com
  • Upload it to a new /var/www/directory-here, add a virtual host section to apache's config with ServerName test.iamnearlythere.com. Forgot to register test.iamnearlythere.com as an A record at my DNS registrar, 30 min wasted.
  • Install nginx and set the default mimetype to text/html since I was silly enough to use the URI form of url.com/post-title which made mynt generate posts as files without extensions which by default are served as application/octet-stream by nginx ("want to download this?") and served as text/plain by apache.
    • The request dropped to 6 requests at 190 kb, totalling 1.47 s.
  • Since the machine now no longer needs apache or mysql:
  • Make sure nginx does start on boot: http://articles.slicehost.com/2007/10/17/ubuntu-lts-adding-an-nginx-init-script (I had to replace the nginx path with /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx)
  • Allright, I'm done.. ish. When using $ tail -f /usr/local/nginx/logs/error.log I notice a bunch of stuff I missed. Redirections here we go
  • Also, create a Makefile for generating, testing and deploying the blog (mynt generate; rsync)

Result:

  • Memory on vps could be turned down from 768 MB to 128, without tweaking nginx. Currently using about 20%.
  • $ ab -n 10000 -c 25 can be run without any problems what so ever

Conclusion:

I'm pretty sure I suck at micromanaging apache & mysql. And that nginx is pretty fly with static files.

Also, a hiccup: I issued a 301 redirect in one case, and it went badly -- my nginx non-ninja-config-skils made me issue a recursive redirect loop. 301 responses are heavily cached by browsers, I had to delete the cache after removing the direction out of the config file. Do not make this mistake during 'live hours' or with a heavily trafficked page.