Quick note that if characters don’t display correctly from your client and you want samba to display characters properly you should change to the following samba server settings in smb.conf:
[global]
client code page = 936
unix charset = UTF8
…
and the following linux client settings:
[global]
unix charset = UTF8
…
You may need to set UTF8 to GB2312 or some other setting for some windows environments.
I’ve had some interest in Moodle as a Learning Management System (LMS) lately. Here’s a quick guide to setting up Moodle on your own Ubuntu 8.04 LTS server:
1. Install Ubuntu Server 8.04
2. #: sudo apt-get update
3. #: sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
4. #: sudo apt-get install mysql-server php5-mysql apache2 libapache2-mod-security php5-ldap php5-odbc libapache2-mod-php5 php5-gd openssh-server phpmyadmin unzip zip aspell-en curl libcurl3 libcurl3-dev php5-curl php5-xmlrpc clamav-base clamav-freshclam clamav
5. #: sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
6. #: cd /var/www
7. #: sudo wget http://download.moodle.org/stable19/moodle-latest-19.tgz
8. #: sudo tar -zxf moodle-latest-19.tgz
9. #: sudo mkdir /var/moodledata
10. #: sudo chown -R www-data.www-data /var/moodledata/
11. #: sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
12. Point a browser to http://(yourubuntuhostipaddress)/phpmyadmin and create a database for moodle. Something like “moodle” for a database name. It’s easiest to create a user called moodle and select the option to create a matching database. The new user should have full rights and privileges
for the moodle database.
13. #: Point a browser to http://(yourubuntuhostipaddress)/moodle and follow the install instructions
14. At this point you should have a fully functioning moodle install, congratulations!
While it is possible to omit some of the packages, these packages represent a solid antiviral system for the assignments that get uploaded as well as provide extended feature support for Moodle.
If you are still having trouble, contact us via the “contact us” page on the right.
Over the course of the week I had an opportunity to have an information technology exchange with another organization in the area. They showed us some great features of Microsoft Communication Server and I was quite impressed and knew I could do at least some features via open source software but wanted to know if it was possible to have a total replacement that is completely open source. The short answer is “yes AND no.” Yes you can replace it, but it takes a few open source components working together to do it.
The first question is “what does Microsoft Communication Server do?” It’s essentially a version of MSN Instant Messenger on steroids, as it not only handles instant messages and collaboration within an organization, but handles phone calls and group conferencing. As I looked around at the linux and unix offerings, I discovered Microsoft is actually late to the communications party. Many of the projects discussed have existed for a long while and are quite mature and have been used extensively in business environments.
So to replicate an environment consisting of Exchange, Active Directory, and Communication Server an open source environment could use:
Not that there is anything wrong with choosing to go the Microsoft route, but we believe that people should be able to choose their solution, and this lineup of services offers another option for organizations.
There is no denying that it is highly beneficial to have centralized authentication and file services. Over the years we have made a lot of strides in AiHua. Our first server was an old box with Mepis on it that served as our file server during the spring of 2006. Our next few systems were based on LTSP or DRBL which effectively both have centralized login’s and centralized file repositories. It makes a huge difference when staff can login to their own desktop and files from any computer in the building. It also allows for them to continue working at another station or with a computer/thin client that is in reserve.
When an entire company is comprised of linux/unix desktops and servers, it’s easy to set up LDAP services for authentication and NFS for centralized storage; however, windows computers are not so simple. In the past it took some level of expertise in both unix/linux and windows machines to create an effective ldap/samba replacement for a domain controller, it isn’t overly daunting and there is a great deal of information on the internet; however, it’s still not for the faint of heart.
This is where a fantastic open source project called ebox comes in. Ebox installs ontop of ubuntu (a free/open source linux) server editions and provides an out of the box domain controller! It also features easy to use web interfaces to add users, groups, and computers. It’s no one trick pony, as it also features a firewall/gateway, proxy/nat, DHCP, TFTP, jabber server, e-mail server, and VPN server out of the box.
We recommend you give it a try and replace the Windows servers around your office with this powerful solution. If you need help setting it up or setting up a PDC on another linux distribution like openSuse, we are availible. Follow the links to the right to contact us.
This is a quick update on using Untangle as a Gateway/Router and/or NAT. Ours is working fantastic, even though we have very few windows instances in our office (only one windows virtual instance for RDP connections) it isn’t uncommon for guests to bring windows laptops into our offices. Those windows boxes may or may not have proper security implementations and are thus susceptible to viruses, malicious software, and phishing schemes. Untangle effectively protects those computers by standing as a door guard between what can be retrieved from the internet. It also has a complete proxy suite which allows for content control so administrators can decide what catagories or individual websites are appropriate for office viewing. The only drawback is that it requires a moderate computer for an small to medium business deployment (SMB), it realistically needs a single core processor between 1-2Ghz and memory between 1-2GB depending on the size of the office; it’s well worth the sacrifice.
The same effect can be had on less powerful computers by building solutions from a headless linux distribution; however, it takes considerable expertise to build and implement, and is not as friendly to manage. If you’re interested in protecting your network, please contact us for information about your own networks.
I’ve been working with KIWI-LTSP for openSuse for the last 2 weeks. It’s a fabulous solution and allows for easy terminal server setup, maintanance, and deployment. It also easily allows for easy and fast remote helpdesk support, local applications, NX, and even allows clients to boot from CD or USB instead of the PXE server (which would be useful for running clients over a vpn and NX server). It’s quite stable and I would recommend it or Ubuntu LTSP5 to any site that would like to deploy thin clients on their network. For questions or consultations regarding thin clients please use the contact link.
Sometimes we just don’t want to allow every staff to use every program, there are easy ways to deal with this in Ubuntu. One of my favorites is to assign programs to groups. For example if we want to restrict who can use skype and pidgin within Ubuntu we can create a group called “im” for instant messenger. I prefer to do this in LDAP as I can do it for the entire organization in one go, but you can create the group for the individual computer using the users and groups tool. Next I do the following:
cd /usr/bin
sudo chown root:im skype pidgin
sudo chmod o-rx skype pidgin
This will make the above programs only accessible to root and user placed within the im group. The sky is the limit as to how you want to authorize personnel to utilize their company resources, but this approach will completely block access to the types of programs you don’t want company wide access to, such as accounting software (even if there is password protection for the financial database, the only people that should be able to execute the financial software should be authorized personnel).
We hope this article has been informative and helpful, as always you can enquire for use of our services through the contacts page on the right.
I’m often asked why I (Isaac) choose to implement PXE booting at the AiHua offices. For those unfamiliar with the concept of PXE booting, it is a technology which allows computer administrators to remove the hard drives of all their client machines and only need to manage the software/operating system that exists at the server.
This affords a couple of advantages, first software changes do not need to be repeated for every computer on the network. Second, the client hardware becomes expendable, a computer which dies due to hardware fault is quickly replaced by another computer, the employee only notices that the computer case changed. All files and settings remain unchanged. All files and folders are located centrally, making sharing and backup a trivial task. Finally, there is significant cost saving as IT staff require less time maintaining and recovering individual computers, leading to less staff to salary and less overtime hours.
There are some dissadvantages to consider as well, primarily in the consideration that another point of failure has been included. If the server has broken down, then no computers are able to perform their work. This risk is minimized by regular backup schedules and the use of high availability services (typically a group of servers and storage arrays).
How would I recommed the small to medium sized organization implement their network? If the organization has less than 5 computers then I would suggest using standard technologies; however, if more than 10 computers then diskless booting begins to have an effect. By the time their are 50 to 200 computers diskless begins to really shine (particularly with a 1 Gig network and network attached storage solution).
AiHua can provide expertise in setting up diskless networks. We presently have experience with building custom diskless, LTSP, freeNX, and DRBL. Each has advantages and dissadvantages that we can help you navigate through and pick what would be best for your organization, if any is viable at all for your situation. See the contact page for details.
When I first arrived in China at the AiHua offices in 2005, I must confess that I did not know very much about open source software. I was working in graphic design and web design at the time (cobbler’s son’s wear no shoes). I was given an additional task by our general director to start paving the way for another team member who had been selected to pioneer using Linux as the desktop of choice for NGO’s around the province of Yunnan.
Unfortunately that team member never made it to our offices; however, with a Mandriva CD in one hand and an OpenSuse one in the other, myself and my national collegue James began learning the ins and outs of linux and other open source software. I had tried Linux in 1995; however, it never really stuck with me back then. Nearly 19 years later, it had evolved into a very usable and very powerful operating system. I became more and more hooked as I discovered this was the silver bullet our office needed! No longer did we have to fumble with anti virus software, firewall software, and complicated backup strategies.
Eventually I landed on Ubuntu as my distribution of choice because of it’s ease of use and great multilingual support. While many staff were apprehensive at first, it has met with more and more praise for it’s stability, ease of use (Gnome interface), and veritable immunity to viruses.
Now, 3 years after becoming a linux administrator, I can’t ever see myself going to any other system. The power and flexibility is unmatched, and all of it offered legally at absolutely no cost! This is why I’m a vocal open source proponent and for the foreseeable future will remain so: because it improves organizations and saves money… and every bit of efficiency that can be eaked out saves money for use in charitable work!
We nearly hit the six months worth of non interupted uptime mark for a DRBL server that was built for one of the Bless China International locations. This means that until today when a day long power outage unfortunately forced me to shut it down before the battery gave up, there has been no downtime for six months! There were 5 departments using the server everyday, all day long to boot from, access their files, and access the internet.
This sort of reliability speaks volumes about the quality of open source software and it’s practicality for office use. The calls for service during the past few months were few and far between and primarily consisted of questions about how to make a spreadsheet row longer or how to change text background colors. I’m saddened that I didn’t get to see how long it would hold out for, but I believe all those uptime calculations about Unix and Linux that are put out every year now!