AiHua Information Technology Site

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:

• OpenLDAP and Samba for PDC/AD type functionality and file sharing
• Asterisk (technically, a Microsoft setup *still* requires Asterisk or another telephony system so this is required either way)
• Zimbra for an Exchange like mail server (Zimbra has many technological advantages in it’s own right as well)
• Openfire which operates a Jabber (XMPP) server and integrates with Asterisk, SBS, and even SugarCMS to provide a robust contender to the MS Communication Server.

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.

AiHua has begun offering assistance in setting up open source document services and groupware systems.  We are able to install Alfresco or CYN.IN (pronounced sign in) into your infrastructure.  We can also install other groupware systems such as e-groupware.  Moodle or other teaching software is also an option should you have need of it.

Document services and/or groupware can be used to streamline work processes by making sure documents are automatically sent for review by supervisors as well as sharing them with relevant personnel and departments.  They often offer project management solutions as well, giving you a powerful tool to stay on top of deadlines and budgets.

We can offer virtual appliances or standalone servers, for consultation services please use the contact us page.

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.

I was excited to see that VMware has made their ESXi hypervisor free for installation.  We have been using virtualization technologies for years around the AiHua offices mainly for development work (mostly virtualbox and VMware Server/Player), and recently we have conglomerated our servers onto a single VMware Server 2.0 installation atop a headless Ubuntu 8.04 Server installation.  From there we can host all the individual servers and appliances we need.  It has greatly increased the ease at which we administer our networks.

ESXi will further improve performance and reliability because there is no need to install an underlying server from which VMware Server would need to run.  It also allows setting up extra ethernet cards and iscsi targets in the event of hardware failures.  The only downside is that the VI Client to manage the hypervisor itself is currently Windows only; however, there is a linux version on the horizon which bodes well for organizations looking to free themselves of licensing costs.

The best feature of virtualization comes in the ability to hand over ready made tools to organizations.  Servers can very much become drop in components!  At AiHua Consulting we have even managed to load a few virtual machines onto a VMware server and instantly have a network with pxe boot capabilities, ldap, thin clients, or even NAS/SAN/iscsi.  If the need arises, these parts can be later substituded for real steel hardware (I still like to have a nice RAID array for a storage solution, but in a pinch it’s nice to know I can drop one in as an appliance until I have the bits and pieces for a storage server).

To learn more about how virtualization can help your organization please use the contact us page.