Small Business distribution

[Darryl Moore]

Pedro I. Sanchez wrote:
> 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 :-)
>
>   
Agreed. I left a message to that effect on their forum, and am looking
through their development material now.
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