BlueOnyx Modernization Update for 5212R, 5211R and 5210R

We just finished another round of systematic updates for BlueOnyx 5212R, 5211R and 5210R, which are aimed at improving speed and reliability of the GUI interface. During testing we noticed GUI pages loading between 10-50% faster than before - depending on the amount and complexity of CCEd calls to CODB.

Updated RPMs containing these improvements are now available via YUM/DNF and updated installation media is also being prepared.

Faster Backend Performance

Core parts of the BlueOnyx Configuration Engine and CODB have been improved to make object lookups faster and reduce unnecessary full database scans.

This improves responsiveness in all GUI areas such as user management, virtual site management, system settings and service configuration.

Modernized PHP Integration

The legacy cce.so PHP module has been ported over for modern PHP versions, including PHP 8.1 and PHP 8.3 compatibility and has been reactivated in the admserv-php service that the GUI uses.

Basically the old cce.so was rewritten from scratch to replace deprecated Zend API calls, argument definitions were added, and the build process was modernized to use phpize and configure.

Improved Backend Communication

BlueOnyx can now make better use of different backend communication methods:

• Native cce.so PHP extension for best performance (default)
• API-based communication where available (fallback if cce.so is unavailable)
• Socket-based fallback for compatibility (fallback if cce.so and API are unavailable)

Improved Session Handling

Session handling has been improved with optional Redis or Valkey support, while keeping file-based sessions as a fallback for reliability.

Native i18n support in PHP via i18n.so

The BlueOnyx GUI uses i18n to localize the GUI in nine different languages. In the past the Zend API PHP module i18n.so was used for this, but changes in PHP made it obsolete and (like with cce.so) we were initially unable to modernize the module. Hence it got replaced by a PHP Class in CodeIgniter, which replicated the i18n.so functionality in native PHP code.

This legacy i18.so PHP module has now also been ported over for modern PHP versions, including PHP 8.1 and PHP 8.3 compatibility and has been reactivated in the admserv-php service that the GUI uses.

The alternate i18n support via PHP Class remains as a fallback if i18n via PHP module becomes unavailable.

General speed increase of i18n.so vs. the i18n PHP Class: It is 1.65x faster - per translation. As each GUI page has many text strings that get translated individually this also results in a nice speed boost.

Bug Fixes and Stability Improvements

This work also includes fixes and improvements in user and group handling, service quota handling, statistics account creation and backend diagnostics.

Summary

These changes make BlueOnyx faster, more robust and better prepared for current and future platform requirements, while preserving the familiar BlueOnyx workflow.