About updating and maintenance of large Skolelinux operations
tirsdag 27 juli 2004, 12:17, skrev Andreas Schuldei:
> what is kind of information is missing?
* Background
From March 2004 we have done a lot of work helping a large private
Application Service Provider to set up a day-to-day operation center of
operating many Skolelinux-installations at schools in different
municipalities. Schools has already signed on a agreement over 3 years
with day-to-day operation of Skolelinux. The hardware will be of good
quality. The servers are with SCSI-disks (hot-swap) and so on.
To ensure that all the good experiences from this effort can be used by
the other organizations that uses Skolelinux, the agreement is that
changes and improvements to the Skolelinux architecture and day-to-day
operation environment shall be transfered back to Debian-Edu.
It's almost the same thing thats been done with Samson 3. Samson 3 is a
project where UNINETT AS serving and operates the scientific IP-network
for University Colleges and Universities in Norway. They use Skolelinux
as a platform for this effort.
http://www.uninett.no/samson/Samson_3_Informasjon.html
* Three small challenges
1. Security patches
2. broken SCSI-disks and disk enlargements
3. How to get good practices back to Skolelinux-cvs
I know this question may seem stupid, but they should be documented, and
enforced in an contract, so the routines has to be written down :-)
1. Security patches DESA
Some of the security patches need a reboot to take affect. Mainly this
affects kernel-upgrades. A Skolelinux-server can be configured to do
the patching almost automaticly. The question is how to do the restart
of lots servers automaticly when they are at different schools, and
ensure that the servers are coming up with as little work as possible.
After a long talk with Petter i know they have really good routines for
this.
http://www.skolelinux.no/security/
The question:
-- When does we restart the server?
-- How should we do it?
2. broken SCSI-s and disk enlargements
The other situation is when a schools needs more disk-space, or when a
disk is broken. Change the server entirely when something is broken was
my advice before. Then the ICT-staff could take a ready installed
Skolelinux-server from a storage, and replace the broken one at the
schools, and then restore the backup from the backup-server. Then send
the failed server to service. This routine is made for teachers with no
prior experience with real servers.
When we build up a day-to-day operation center, we have people with the
necessary skills to handle this more smoothly. When a SCSI-disk breaks,
it can be replaced and rebuilt at the school. When the school need more
disk space, they just call the operation centers, and this is done in a
suitable way.
There is an divide in work when doing disk replacement. The divide is
between hardware supplier, and a skilled person that starts the rebuild
process for an broken SCSI, or an enlargement process on a server that
got new disks in addition to the old ones.
The question:
-- How should this be done most efficient when doing a
server-replacement is unnecessary extra work. We got the skills :-)
3. How to get good practices back to Skolelinux-cvs
We have some experiences with getting source code from good solutions
back from people that does day-to-day maintenance of a
Skolelinux-network. Now this will be regulated by contracts between SLX
Debian Labs and ASPs to ensure that the adaption of Skolelinux in an
industrial fashion.
The question:
-- What is the process that ensures this in an easy way?
-- How should the contract text express this process?
The questions applies to maintenance of WLUS, the Skolelinux
architecture, and the Debian maintenance and process with security
fixes. It also regulates good new solution to get it even more easy to
adapt and run Skolelinux/Debian-Edu in a large scale for ASPs,
municipalities and universities.
Sincerely
Knut Yrvin
--
Project manager (cel: +47 908 95 765) Skolelinux Norway and OpenOffice
translation to Norwegian. Office 1: SLX Debian Labs Forskningsparken,
Gaustadalle 21, 0349 OSLO, NORWAY. Office 2: IT-Staff Akershus County
Council, Schweigaards gate 4, 0185 OSLO, NORWAY
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