Small Business distribution

[Pedro I. Sanchez]

Darryl Moore wrote:
> Pedro I. Sanchez wrote:
>> Darryl Moore wrote:
>>   
>>> Thanks Pedro, that looks very promising. I was also pointed to 
>>> http://www.contribs.org by someone else who made a private reply. Both 
>>> look great, unfortunately both also are targeted at windows 
>>> environments. I need something that is for a native Linux network.
>>>
>>> I'm going to look into seeing if ebox can be patched to make it work 
>>> better on a native Linux network, it looks to be a little closer to my 
>>> ultimate goal.
>>>
>>> cheers,
>>> darryl
>>>
>>>
>>> Pedro I. Sanchez wrote:
>>>     
>>>> 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,
>>>>
>>>>   
>>>>       
>>
>> Why do you say that e-box is targeted at Windows environments? It is a 
>> server, not a client, and it seems to me it fits well the "Application 
>> Server Component" I talked about before, even in a Linux-only environment.
>>
>>   
> It only supports SMB file sharing, not NFS. That makes using Unix file 
> permissions rather difficult. I'm not sure how it handles groups and 
> domains yet, but they too are probably windows domains and groups, I 
> don't know if they would be mirrored in unix groups too.  There are no 
> modules for handling repository mirrors, or Linux Terminal Servers. It 
> does use OpenVPN instead of PPTP though, which is good.
> 
> I'm not sure all the ways that it is designed for Windows networks yet. 
> but having SMB and no option for NFS is a big one, and certainly 
> identifies where their focus is.
> 
> cheers,
> darryl
> 

It is a Ubuntu box, so NFS is supported. I don't know if there is an 
e-box module to manage it but if this is not the case that could be your 
first contribution :-)

-- 
Pedro