Re: [ilugd] Large Debian installations in India
Message: 3 Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2011 16:40:05 +0530 From: Raj Mathur r...@linux-delhi.org To: The Linux-Delhi mailing list ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org Subject: [ilugd] Large Debian installations in India Message-ID: AANLkTineGc-BUVqQ=o0y0x_pjnmfsqz+vhzkv9dze...@mail.gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Hi, Tirveni and I just completed a large (~2500 desktops + ~40 servers) installation of Debian -- Squeeze and Wheezy -- in 6 locations in India. Was wondering, is anyone aware of larger or comparable Debian installations in the country? Or should we be spraining our wrists trying to pat ourselves on our backs? Regards, -- Raj Hi, First, congratulations on the large scale deployment ! May I also add a few related questions. Feel free to ignore any if they fall in the NDA domain :) 1) Regarding support and access: Setting up telephony systems is not such an easy job and messing them up seems to be even easier. So my question is how much of access do you give the organisation's in-house support team on your servers. Do you for example take the risk of asterisk config files getting messed by somebody at your client's location? Or do you only expose only the dynamic parts of the system (adding users, retrieving call recordings etc). I imagine it would be mandatory to give them root access. Is that correct? If yes, then is it the case of implementing as many safeguards as you can? 2) Licensing: How do you go about explaining them the license. Do you just list major parts like asterisk and debian and tell them we used this and its licensed under so and so foss license? Is there detailed written license documentation to be provided or just providing links to licenses sufficient? Regards, Gurteshwar ___ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
Re: [ilugd] [LONG] Re: Large Debian installations in India
On Sunday 03 Apr 2011, Andrew Lynn wrote: [snip] Please - at least - write up this aspect of the project as a white paper that we can circulate to govt. funded intstitutions. If you need help with the non-technical documentation and research, I can see if some students from our university can get involved in doing it as research project. Would be glad to do that provided (a) the client gets discretionary control on the contents of the paper and (b) someone tells me what a white paper is actually supposed to contain. Regards, -- Raj -- Raj Mathurr...@kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F PsyTrance Chill: http://schizoid.in/ || It is the mind that moves ___ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
Re: [ilugd] Large Debian installations in India
On Sunday 03 Apr 2011, gurteshwar singh wrote: 1) Regarding support and access: Setting up telephony systems is not such an easy job and messing them up seems to be even easier. So my question is how much of access do you give the organisation's in-house support team on your servers. Do you for example take the risk of asterisk config files getting messed by somebody at your client's location? Or do you only expose only the dynamic parts of the system (adding users, retrieving call recordings etc). I imagine it would be mandatory to give them root access. Is that correct? If yes, then is it the case of implementing as many safeguards as you can? Support falls into two categories: 1. Operational support -- diagnosing and fixing problems, adding resources, monitoring, etc. 2. Provisioning -- adding desktops, configuring for specific users, adding Asterisk accounts, etc. For the first we've tried to create base documentation which the client's tech team can use to monitor, diagnose and fix common problems. Out of the whole tech team, there are two people who have the authorisation to login as root onto the Asterisk servers and run diagnostics and fixes. One has years of Unix experience, the other is a Windows wiz-kid who's learning Linux and seems, so far, to be enjoying it. He paid me the ultimate compliment the other day, saying he was -- and I quote -- the Raj Mathur of Windows. Provisioning is handled completely through scripts. Asterisk provisioning is handled by keeping base configurations in immutable files, which #include the files that contain the changing information. These dynamic files (user extensions, user-level call routing, inward routing, etc.) are again generated through scripts and copied by one of the two people mentioned above to the appropriate place in the Asterisk servers on a regular basis. Provisioning of desktops for a specific user is completely scripted: login as guest, ssh to a specific account on a defined server which will prompt you for an employee ID, enter the ID, sit back for 2 minutes and the machine you were on is provisioned for that employee. There's still lots of scope for improvement here, but we're in no hurry to implement systems piece-meal. The organisation has an IT strategy, and the voice system processes too will get streamlined as dependent portions of the strategy fall into place. For instance, once HR processes are in place, Asterisk user provisioning will automatically become a part of those. Of course, we would have shifted to Asterisk Realtime (dynamic configurations from a database rather than static configurations from file) too by then. 2) Licensing: How do you go about explaining them the license. Do you just list major parts like asterisk and debian and tell them we used this and its licensed under so and so foss license? Is there detailed written license documentation to be provided or just providing links to licenses sufficient? Actually that is one thing we haven't had any issues with, since the CTO understands FOSS licensing. The only time we had to explain things was when he saw me writing a script and putting the GPL clause at the top. However I explained to him that licensing and releasing were two different things, and just because the script was GPL didn't mean that he had to give it to anyone for the asking. I think the point got through. Regards, -- Raj -- Raj Mathurr...@kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F PsyTrance Chill: http://schizoid.in/ || It is the mind that moves ___ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
Re: [ilugd] Monitor Broadband usage
On 04/02/2011 11:46 AM, Arun Khan knu...@gmail.com wrote: I have been doing some experiments with a Buffalo WHR-HP-G300N [1] with DD-WRT firmware (officially from Buffalo on a CDROM that needs to be flashed). The firmware has some cool features; for a Rs. 3500 street price I think it is worth it as it removes some of the trials and experimentation. [1] This is the only model with official DD-WRT support for the Indian market. This is cool! I had purchased a Linksys WRT54GL (I doubt it's available now) which had support for OpenWrt, and I could solder SD card to it to enhance the storage etc. I purchased all equipment, but no time to actually do anything, so it's just there with the default firmware. This WHR-HP-G300N looks interesting - double the CPU (400 Mhz) Memory (32 MB). Would be faster and run asterisk better :-) If only we could plug in a 3G SIM, we would've been able to make it a mobile wifi router! Regards Vivek Kapoor http://exain.com ___ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
