Small Business distribution

[Pedro I. Sanchez]

Darryl Moore wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Last week I posted draft network spec which I suppose was too detailed
> in many ways and not detailed enough in others as I didn't get any replies.
> 
> Attached is a point form list for a basic small business network I'd
> like to provide. The basic setup includes a minimum of 2 servers (for
> service redundancy) and any number of workstations
> 
> I'd like to work with anyone on completing this. If we can come up with
> a basic standardized set up then it would be helpful for all of us as we
> could say that it is supported by other vendors too.
> 
> Here is what I'd like to do, and perhaps I should set up a wiki to do
> it, if anyone else wants to help.
> 
> 1) decide if this assortment of applications and servers are the most
> ideal for most small businesses, make any changes to the list now.
> 2) develop scripts to install all these application on a clean Ubuntu
> installation.
> 3) develop scripts to customize them after deployment.
> 4) decide what additional scripts are needed for puppet and nagios and
> write them
> 5) decide what additional utilities businesses might need to do basic
> administration. An easy way to add/remove LDAP user & groups and manage
> group directories comes to mind.
> 
> I'm not a Linux Professional (YET) but I seriously think there is some
> potential here, and am working hard to both get my Linux certifications
> and build this system. A week ago it sounded like there was a lot of
> interest in this. I am hoping there still is.
> 
> cheers,
> Darryl Moore
> 

Have you looked into e-box (http://ebox-platform.com/)? It is 
Ubuntu-based and comes with a web interface for admin functions that 
facilitate installing/uninstalling software.

You can extend e-box to cover any software that you want via a plugin 
architecture. In this way, rather than spending time in developing your 
own scripts to manage software you could contribute plugins to the e-box 
project.

On the other hand, my approach to SME's would have different components, 
each likely being a self-contained solution, with integration services 
becoming an added value for my services company:

o Network component (firewall, NAT, VPN, DNS, DHCP, etc.),
o VoIP component (asterisk, freeswitch, etc.),
o Application server component (mail, collaboration, LDAP, CRM, etc.),
o Client component (OO, mail client, etc.).

Cheers,

-- 
Pedro