How difficult would it be to host multiple Koha libraries on a single server? The scenario could be: There are 3 small libraries in the same town that want to use Koha to manage their individual library collections. They combine their efforts (and money) to get a single server up and running, but still want to display the information individually (different web addresses for each library, etc). How difficult would this be to create? How many libraries could be hosted on one server? (example 2.4 Ghz P4, 512 Mb Ram, 80 Gb HD, etc). Would multiple installs of Koha be necessary, or could the config files be modified to have on install and then have the MySQL DBs be structured to handle the different libraries? Are there any "issues" about this type of hosting? Thanks, Greg Greg Lambert, JD, MLIS Project Manager Amigos Library Services, Inc. 5000 Gulf FWY Building 9 - Univ. Business Park Houston, Texas 77023-4600 713/923-2373 x225 office 877/707-1577 toll-free 713/923-2192 fax 281/433-9145 cell lambert@amigos.org http://www.amigos.org
Hi Greg On Wed, Aug 27, 2003 at 03:46:45PM -0500, Greg Lambert/Amigos said:
How difficult would it be to host multiple Koha libraries on a single server?
The good news is, not that hard at all :-) One of the katipo servers has 4 different koha's running on it.
The scenario could be:
There are 3 small libraries in the same town that want to use Koha to manage their individual library collections. They combine their efforts (and money) to get a single server up and running, but still want to display the information individually (different web addresses for each library, etc).
How difficult would this be to create?
Its not too bad, you need a different database, and a different /etc/koha.conf file for each koha install. And you need to edit the C4/Context.pm file to set the koha.conf for each koha to use.
How many libraries could be hosted on one server? (example 2.4 Ghz P4, 512 Mb Ram, 80 Gb HD, etc).
It depends entirely on how big the libraries are, and more importantly how many transactions they each do a day. The spec above sounds fine for 3 small libraries.
Would multiple installs of Koha be necessary, or could the config files be modified to have on install and then have the MySQL DBs be structured to handle the different libraries?
You could do it with 3 databases, 3 config files, but they all share the same perl and perl modules plus html::templates. Its probably better to have separate installs though, which would allow you to easily change the templates for each koha to make each library have its own look.
Are there any "issues" about this type of hosting?
This is the solution Id go for if I wanted to run 3 separate catalogs. However if I wanted to run a union catalog over the three libraries, id go for a single Koha install, and use Koha's concept of branches to deal with the separate libraries. I think it depends on the aim, do they want patrons to be able to search a catalog and find books in all 3 libraries. Or would they rather have 3 separate catalogs. Chris -- Chris Cormack Programmer 027 4500 789 Katipo Communications Ltd chris@katipo.co.nz www.katipo.co.nz
On 2003-08-27 21:46:45 +0100 Greg Lambert/Amigos <lambert@amigos.org> wrote:
How difficult would it be to host multiple Koha libraries on a single server?
There is some support in the 2.0 installer for making multiple Koha installations easier, but you might like to consider using branches. Hrm, would views allow queries of a catalogue built from combining holdings of multiple koha installations, in theory? {Of course, I'm a "DB design wonk" for even thinking about such features. :-( } -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know. http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ jabber://slef@jabber.at Creative copyleft computing services via http://www.ttllp.co.uk/
participants (3)
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Chris Cormack -
Greg Lambert/Amigos -
MJ Ray