Installfest / Install-off

[Alex Satrapa-2]

One little idea that occurred to me after Installfest was to have a  
scenario-based "install-off" where we pose a scenario and get teams  
(or just "the mob") to set up a Linux environment to support the  
scenario.

For example, a plain vanilla install-off could be to set up a SOHO  
infrastructure consisting of:
  - DHCP
  - LDAP
  - Web proxy
  - firewall / router
  - Samba
  - CUPS
  - (backup software such as Backula)
  - Intranet server (eg: Apache web server, some kind of Wiki)
  - Mail server (SMTP, IMAP) with virus scanning
  - DNS set up as securely as possible
  - Monitoring software such as Nagios

Ideally, the final "product" would undergo a series of automated and  
manual tests (eg: a test suite that would verify all services being  
available as expected, then try to connect up Mac OS X, Windows XP  
and Windows Vista computers and have them communicate files and emails).

I know that I don't know how to do all of this stuff (Backula and  
Nagios are still foreign territory to me), and I personally would  
benefit from having a bunch of people putting their heads together to  
set up this environment and invent new ways of testing the system and  
reporting on the "health" of the SOHO network. The more we can learn  
from such a scenario, the better - new-to-us ways of monitoring  
network performance, new ideas on how to predict failures, new ideas  
on how to set up the network to avoid common problems, etc.

As an example of where I'd like to go with this, the SOHO network is  
only one suggestion. Another might be to find the lowest power system  
that can talk to GPS/Galileo/GLONASS and provide voice navigation. Or  
perhaps a challenge to build the lowest power megaflop beowulf  
cluster...

I'm not sure that there's anything useful for me to learn from  
setting up beowulf clusters, but if folks think it might be fun to go  
ahead with the SOHO installfest idea, I'd love to get some feedback  
on how we'd evaluate the success of the installed network (what  
testing we can do to prove that the purpose had been achieved, and  
what testing/reporting can we provide to the hypothetical users so  
they know that things are working).

If there's any support for this idea, I'll get started on the "rules  
of the game" along with setting up a battery of tests to be passed in  
order for us to consider the objectives accomplished.

Ideally the result of such an "install-off" would be a bunch of  
people becoming more knowledgeable about the use of Linux in the  
scenarios covered by the event. Perhaps we'd even be able to produce  
reusable tools to help people bring their own installations up to the  
same standard as we produce in these events!

Regards
Alex

PS: It occurs to me that the first "install-off" would be "set up a  
source control system and blog/wiki for tracking install-off  
projects"...

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[Hal Ashburner-2]

Alex Satrapa wrote:

> One little idea that occurred to me after Installfest was to have a
> scenario-based "install-off" where we pose a scenario and get teams
> (or just "the mob") to set up a Linux environment to support the
> scenario.
>
> For example, a plain vanilla install-off could be to set up a SOHO
> infrastructure consisting of:
>  - DHCP
>  - LDAP
>  - Web proxy
>  - firewall / router
>  - Samba
>  - CUPS
>  - (backup software such as Backula)
>  - Intranet server (eg: Apache web server, some kind of Wiki)
>  - Mail server (SMTP, IMAP) with virus scanning
>  - DNS set up as securely as possible
>  - Monitoring software such as Nagios

+ Some kind of vpn for remote access from windows, osx (or even linux)
installed laptops.

ASUS WL600G ADSL2+ Modem & wireless router
+ usb disk
+ customised firmware to do the above.
Using new hardware c. $250 ($100 for the modem/router + $150 for the
disk & enclosure? A terror bite costs < $300 now, insane.)
The customised & configured firmware would be the trick, debian is
probably the best bet. If it could be made point & click simple to set
up that should be pretty sale-able as a product & after sale service
opportunity while being better than the stuff on offer as well as less
expensive. Go the Free software!
http://wl500g.info/

Without customised firmware you get no LDAP, Samba, backup, intranet,
mailserver or monitoring. These are all just pacakges to install and
configure. The thing requires binary drivers for the wireless chipset
which is a pain, having said that compiling your own firmware is less
painful than you might imagine, and of course if person A does it they
can make it available to all...

Good, simple, and importantly to some, very low power draw solution to a
Home or small office server, router & modem.
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[steve jenkin-2]

Alex Satrapa wrote on 2/10/08 12:52 PM:

> One little idea that occurred to me after Installfest was to have a
> scenario-based "install-off" where we pose a scenario and get teams (or
> just "the mob") to set up a Linux environment to support the scenario.
>
> For example, a plain vanilla install-off could be to set up a SOHO
> infrastructure consisting of:
>  - DHCP
>  - LDAP
>  - Web proxy
>  - firewall / router
>  - Samba
>  - CUPS
>  - (backup software such as Backula)
>  - Intranet server (eg: Apache web server, some kind of Wiki)
>  - Mail server (SMTP, IMAP) with virus scanning
>  - DNS set up as securely as possible
>  - Monitoring software such as Nagios
>

I feel incredibly stupid asking this question, so please feel free to
shoot me down :-/
You've had another *great* idea, I would like to see it advance.

Isn't this spec much like 'E-smith' which became Mitel SME Server, now
'contribs.org'??

<http://wiki.contribs.org/Main_Page>
<http://wiki.contribs.org/SME_Server:Documentation:FAQ>

Many of the main players were Australian.
RPM based distro. [now uses 'yum' based on Centos]

Not sure why they never moved to Debian or Ubuntu Server.
Guess they figured 'yum' & RedHat worked as well.

This was developed before 'webmin'... Admin interface may look clunky
now. Haven't tried it in *years*.

Anyone who's used it recently, I'm most interested in hearing reports.

HTH
s


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0412 786 915 ([phone])
PO Box 48, Kippax ACT 2615, AUSTRALIA

sjenkin@... http://members.tip.net.au/~sjenkin
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[Alex Satrapa-2]

On 02/10/2008, at 17:53, steve jenkin <sjenkin@...> wrote:
> Isn't this spec much like 'E-smith' which became Mitel SME Server, now
> 'contribs.org'??
>
> <http://wiki.contribs.org/Main_Page>
> <http://wiki.contribs.org/SME_Server:Documentation:FAQ>
>
> Not sure why they never moved to Debian or Ubuntu Server.

Sounds interesting - will read up on it. But being based on RPM means  
that there's an obvious project for a Debian/Ubuntu flavour :)


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[Alex Satrapa-2]

On 02/10/2008, at 17:53 , steve jenkin wrote:

> Isn't this spec much like 'E-smith' which became Mitel SME Server, now
> 'contribs.org'??

SOHO server aside, the main idea I was suggesting was, "pick some  
nifty thing to do, and all get together to learn how everyone else  
does it."

SME and e-box look really cool - but they're pre-boxed products and  
installing them by following some instructions *teaches* you nothing.  
Nor do you *learn* anything other than how to follow instructions.

What I want is to get people together for a technical discussion  
while trying to achieve some goal. Preferably from bare metal with no  
scaffolding. In fact, I wouldn't care too much if a 6 hour install-
off was 5 hours of discussion accompanied by 1 hour of actually  
achieving anything, if that 5 hours meant that three more people in  
the world were capable of understanding the security issues of using  
the one DNS server for both authoritative serving of your domain's  
records as well as recursive lookups.

That being said, getting an out-of-the-box product means the 1 hour  
of install can be cut to 20 minutes, leaving more time to discuss  
security issues and tweaks to the out-of-the-box product, which is  
still a good thing. As long as someone can learn something about why  
the out-of-the-box is set up the way it is.

I'm starting to rant again =(

Will go research those two out-of-the-box products and try preparing  
at least a presentation to CLUG about what they are, and what they  
*don't* do. Then we can work on the next step for an install-off  
which is to get people interested in coming to a technical BBQ :)

Alex


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[Adam Thomas-5]

On Thu, Oct 02, 2008 at 12:52:51PM +1000, Alex Satrapa wrote:

> One little idea that occurred to me after Installfest was to have a  
> scenario-based "install-off" where we pose a scenario and get teams (or
> just "the mob") to set up a Linux environment to support the scenario.
>
> For example, a plain vanilla install-off could be to set up a SOHO  
> infrastructure consisting of:
>  - DHCP
>  - LDAP
>  - Web proxy
>  - firewall / router
>  - Samba
>  - CUPS
>  - (backup software such as Backula)
>  - Intranet server (eg: Apache web server, some kind of Wiki)
>  - Mail server (SMTP, IMAP) with virus scanning
>  - DNS set up as securely as possible
>  - Monitoring software such as Nagios
>
> Ideally, the final "product" would undergo a series of automated and  
> manual tests (eg: a test suite that would verify all services being  
> available as expected, then try to connect up Mac OS X, Windows XP and
> Windows Vista computers and have them communicate files and emails).
>

I think the biggest test would come when you tell them they have to
pass the test suite again after you dd /dev/zero to the disk and they
have restored from backups. :P

<snip>
> If there's any support for this idea, I'll get started on the "rules of
> the game" along with setting up a battery of tests to be passed in order
> for us to consider the objectives accomplished.
>
> Ideally the result of such an "install-off" would be a bunch of people
> becoming more knowledgeable about the use of Linux in the scenarios
> covered by the event. Perhaps we'd even be able to produce reusable tools
> to help people bring their own installations up to the same standard as
> we produce in these events!

It does sound like an event where people would learn lots while having a
bit of fun. I'd be keen to join in if it lands on a day I don't
already have 10 things scheduled.

>
> Regards
> Alex
>
> PS: It occurs to me that the first "install-off" would be "set up a  
> source control system and blog/wiki for tracking install-off  
> projects"...
>
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