Automated solutions for a small ISP
I work for a small Internet provider. I'm getting tired of
entering the same information in many places (e.g., new client's
IP into DHCP, DNS and /etc/ethers). I'd like to have a system
which automates such tasks (OK, I've got a few scripts, but that's
not enough). I have a few ideas - could you comment them?
Idea 1) Write a system which keeps the hosts information (and in
future - user information) in some kind of a database (file, MySQL
or LDAP, probably I'll choose MySQL) and generates configuration
files. Advantages: easy to implement. Disadvantages: limited use.
Idea 2) Install a full-blown ISP managemant system, probably based on
LDAP - for example the one described here:
http://www.tldp.org/linuxfocus/English/September2000/article173.shtml
Advantages: it fully automates many mundane tasks, scales very
well, has a web interface that can be used by not-so-technical
personnel. Disadvantages: hard to implement, such a complicated
system can screw up the system in more ways then I can imagine,
security hole in this system could cause a total breakdown.
Or maybe there's another system I can use? Preferably something
modular, so that I can LDAPize some things (it doesn't really need
to be LDAP, but I feel it is the future) and keep good old
config files for other stuff? Maybe it'll be better to write
my own system (Idea 1), but with scalability in mind - that way
I will know what it does and it will minimize the risk of screwing
the system up?
Best regards
--
Igor Wawrzyniak | PGP public key: https://crypto.eu.org/key.asc
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