Business Desktop proposal, Any takers???

[Darryl Moore]

Hi Daniel,

I was originally going to use 8.04, but the next LTS distribution will
be coming out (i think) for 10.10 which will still be in the life span
of 9.04. So if I have to upgrade in 10.10 anyway, what does it matter if
I'm upgrading from 9.04 or 8.04?

Besides, I've found there are so many things that just simply work
better in 9.04. Both on the server and on the desktop side. There really
was no compelling reason to go with 8.04 when we are currently smack dab
in the middle of LTS releases.

Here are some of the highlights of what I am trying to do.

-------

DNS/DHCP

All computers have dynamic IP and their host names are registered with
the local DNS server,
System is scalable via different subnets and sub domains. All different
subnets have their own unique subdomain and own DNS/DHCP servers. This
allows all hosts to be name addressable across the entire network. There
are two DNS and DHCP servers for every subnet. These could be the same
physical servers as used for HA-NFS

High Availability NFS

Using DRBD to create high availability file servers, (one per
subdomian). Home directories for all users stored on HA-NFS and
directory structure is predetermined as well. (works well!)

Backups.

Done nightly via rsync to a remote server. DSL will serve most small
businesses well for this. If they need additional bandwidth then I'd
install a MLPPP DSL connection fairly cheaply.

Authentication

Authentiction is done via LDAP and possibly Kerberos (don't have Kerbeos
working yet though). LDAP is also used to store corporate directories.

VPN

Open VPN used to connect entire remote networks from other offices as
well as allow users to log onto network from home. (Haven't started the
scripts for this one yet) By using the 10.0.0.0 private subnet at
splitting it up methodically it can be quite easy to have multiple
subnets per office, and every office with a different set of subnets.
Then with OpenVPN all computers on the entire WAN become available to
all the others. Makes it a sort of private Internet.

Web Browser

Firefox of course, but using mozilla's new weave server we can
synchronize bookmarks, cookies, and everything for a user no matter what
machine he is using Firefox on. Even at home. That is a significant
improvement over the current firefox. (I'm waiting for firefox 3.5 to be
released before this will work. soon I hope). Plus a few standard
plugins including adblock

administration

puppet utility with appropriate scripts can make everything from locking
down desktops, doing network wide distribution upgrades a snape (I'm
working on this one now) As well, the servers all will have a webmin
interface.

virtual machines.

For those few tasks that Windows must absolutely be used for I will
incorporate VirtualBox into a server with whatever windows programs they
want. It will be easy enough to access these windows machines from any
network computer via RDP

diagnostics

I will also run diagnostic scripts which monitor all hard drives on all
machines via the SMART interface, and alert the admin of any impending
failures. At the same time I will monitor CPU temperature and memory.
(These scripts are written and working)

groupware

e-groupware with WebDAV, CalDAV, and IMAP interfaces so that the option
of using a web browser or evolution or thunderbird are all there. With
thunderbird we can offer build in encryption too.

Workstation software

I would include various fonts people are used to seeing, as well as mp3
and DVD codecs, by default. With the right fonts OOo makes many fewer
mistakes in rendering MS documents.

Asterisk phone service.

For addition cost I would maintain this too. I've created scripts to
help be get a basic installation up and running on Jaunty.

More reduncany.

All important servers would also have liveCD versions so if the
server(s) go down, they can simply plug in the CD and instantly get
those services back. LDAP DHCP and DNS come to minder here. without
those services the network is dead.

Also I would give them a liveCD version of the basic workstation setup
so they can easily take any machine they want and install my basic setup
and have a new machine up on their network in a matter of minutes
without any help from me.

-----

There is more, and there are more details to all of this. But this is
the basic technical spec I am going for.

If you are interested in helping me design this system, create the
scripts to automate the building and maintenance of it, and create some
professional documentation to go with it. I'd appreciate the help. Then
we could both use it to offer similar services and maintain some sort of
affiliation. AFTER IT IS COMPLETE, I figured I'd GPL the entire lot.

On the business side, I calculated that equivalent MS solutions can cost
between $300 and $500 a year per workstation, not including much
support.  As well they are still left with having to contend with
performing updates, viruses and software licensing details. (Something
small businesses don't do well) If I can maintain their network for them
and ensure their security from viruses and malware, and do so for less
than $300 per workstation, then I think there is a market. The key for
me is to ensure that maintenance is dead simple, which with puppet I
think I can do. In general each workstation will be almost identical and
should be maintainable with almost no work from me. Simply start the
puppet script on the server and the changes get mirrored to every
workstation on the network automatically. If I charge $150 per machine
on a site with 20 machines then I'd have to do more than 50 hrs of
trouble shooting in a year before I start losing money.


Your thoughts????

cheers,
darryl

Daniel Robitaille wrote:
> On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 9:49 AM, Darryl Moore <darryl at moores.ca> wrote:
>> I am
>> hoping to have something based on Jaunty ready to offer in about 4 months.
>>
> 
> While I do think this project is very interesting, I'm a bit curious
> of the rational of using a non-LTS release as your base for this.
> 
> My own personal experience as a sysadmin in a work-environment, as
> opposed to my own personal home-environment, is that users tends to
> dislike having to go throught OS upgrades very year, with all the
> headaches in a production environment these upgrades bring.
> 
> Wouldn't it be better to sell your customer a "product" based on a LTS
> release, with the understanding they will need to upgrade only in 2-3
> years, and every couple of years afterward.   If you give them a
> Jaunty-based environment,  then they will already be only 1-year away
> from an upgrade to another Ubuntu version.
> 
> 
>