[ale] linux infrastructure advice, opinions, suggestions

[Jay]

What is distcc?  I'm not familiar with that...distributed computing 
cluster?   And how is gentoo on a fairly new Linux user?  I've heard 
good things, but I'm a relative newcomer to Linux.We've got a bunch of 
old PIII machines floating around, since the University replaces all the 
desktops after 3 years, and they are in fact running a linux cluster for 
the physics department, which is great, and I'm hoping to seize some of 
the other free machines for my linux lab project. 

What sorts of things with file serving might we be able to make good use 
of at the school?  The only thing I can think of that we use file 
serving for currently is the student storage drives.  Any other things 
you can think of that would be really cool or useful to serve to the 
general student population?  I'd love to come up with anything that we 
could do to prove how valuable this could be...my boss did exactly that 
with the email spam filters, by setting up two PIII machines to do the 
job, then telling them he needed to buy real servers, or take his 
computers back home with him and lose the spam blocking they were all 
enjoying...

I'm also thinking of some ways we might be able to use Linux to help 
mitigate the virus outbreaks and such on campus.  We get hit pretty hard 
by sasser/blaster/welchia and so forth due to stupid computer users, and 
I was thinking maybe we can find a way to use Linux to help with that?  
Just an idea, not even fully formed, I'm hoping someone can suggest some 
more specifics that might help shape it into something useful.

-Jay

Jeff Hubbs wrote:

>Supplanting MS stuff at the infrastructure level is one of the more
>straightforward paths you can take - DHCP, firewall, file serving, etc. 
>I am a big fan of file serving as a way to demonstrate just how much
>power you can wield with a junker box.  
>
>Make sure people understand that there is not only no license cost
>associated with the server but that there is no client access license
>cost either.
>
>You can try dropping some desktop Linux machines here and there.  If
>your Exchange server is set up to handle it, you can use Evolution as
>your Exchange e-mail client, and of course there's OpenOffice and
>Mozilla.  
>
>If you have access to a fairly large number of old desktop machines
>(i.e., PII/PIII), set up a distcc compile farm out of them for doing
>Gentoo installs.
>
>- Jeff
>
>
>
>On Thu, 2004-06-17 at 14:00, Jay wrote:
>  
>
>>I work as a student worker for the systems admin of my school, and part 
>>of my job with him is to sort of research various ways we can use linux 
>>to leverage the schools' tech infrastructure and bolster the system.  
>>Currently the school is MSed to death, and I and my boss are two of 
>>maybe four or five real linux-nuts at the school.  He wants to get more 
>>linux use on campus, since a large percentage of the servers are windows 
>>and the rest are mostly HP Unix.  For my part, I am working on putting a 
>>linux lab on campus that all students are allowed access to, and where I 
>>can leave distros of linux on CD for people to borrow/take/copy.  I also 
>>would like to get us set up as an ftp mirror for linux.  My second day 
>>on the job I was able to set up an ftp server serving linux isos, but 
>>it's only a (very old) desktop PC with linux on it, and I'd really like 
>>to see something more useful that can handle downloads from a lot more 
>>people. 
>>
>>For your own uses, feel free to download from it at 
>>ftp://metafero.elon.edu/  and if you have some further suggestions for 
>>distros you'd like me to add, contact me at jay at elon.edu and I'll see 
>>what I can do!
>>
>>So far, we've set up spam filters using two linux servers, but we'd like 
>>to find some more ways to take advantage of linux.  The only exception 
>>is e-mail.  There is absolutely no chance we would ever move off of MS 
>>Exchange Server for e-mail.  We would like to get linux running to do 
>>things like automate mailing list creation, possibly run our Blackboard 
>>server, etc.  So, what I am looking for is some advice and suggestions 
>>you all have on cool things and useful things we can do with linux.  
>>Give me some application ideas, such as mailman for listserv, etc.  
>>Anything you want to throw at me, you've probably all got at least one 
>>suggestion that's worth hearing. 
>>
>>While I'm on topic, does anyone know how well you can interface with a 
>>Net App storage device for use with apache (for student webspace, 
>>because I would love to get this school off of windows server for at 
>>least the student web server).  Additionally, does anyone know any 
>>caveats or helpful advice in implementing mailman with our Exchange server?
>>
>>Thanks!
>>
>>-Jay
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