[Server-devel] Deployment mailing list - The 'real (US) world' - server user / admin interface and the like

[stefan reitz]

Hello Everybody,


this should probably be posted at a deployment oriented mailing list.
Unfortunatly I haven't come across one. So please bear with me.

(At the end of last night's venting a lot less was said than needed. )

Maybe my major has lost eye sight (I'd hate to think that). But this
spring I am facing the deployment of 15.000 XOs for about 50 + schools.
The first 1000 will (???) be here April 15th and the remainder shortly
after.  And the server setup is at roughly 70's standard.
Currently the capability of the working XS server (on
off-the-shelf-hardware with virtually no electrical power constraints) -
which I haven't come by yet - is to support somewhere up to 200
XOs/server. The max. number of servers the setup allows is 8. Well, with
schools beyond 1500 students + some staff, this is another challenge.
And the 200 students per XS only works out if the classroom sizes /
organizational structures are right on target. The real world is hardly
ever right on target. There will be servers needed (like in campus
schools) that cover only a couple of classrooms (like 2 - 4 trailers)
which translates to maybe an 'efficiency' of < 120 Students / XS.  And
that done with conventional access points (I really wonder if the
consumer grade access points like the Linksys WRT54series in the
campatibility list are up to industrial style usage or were just
incorporated for price and people were using them at home - which hints
at which environment they were targeted at in the first place).

I could use some information on how the roaming between the access
points is supposed to work out. Like with respect to kids changing
location / access point during the school day and needing to get to
their data on one of the school servers.

Please help me find an introduction to the server's user interface. I
haven't found much that went beyond theoretical / philosophical issues. 
Have a look at the also Red Hat based CentOS SME web interface. You can
install CentOS SME on a spare box within 40 min (really! - please give
it a try) and see a user / admin friendly server come to life. 
Or moodle. I put it on my CentOS SME machine (<5 min), just to have look
at the touch and feel of the system. It is somewhere in the XS server
spec., but how do I get to it in real XS life? I guess that would be
another point regarding the user interface (documentation)... 
Same with dansguardian...

Right now I am tempted to recommend CentOS SME installations instead of
XS setups. We'd lack proper XO administration, which I'd hate. But we'd
get deployable (=working!) ~ 100 servers set up within two or three
weeks. All running moodle and dansguardian, squid, clamav, mysql, secure
web and mail services.... Lack of mesh functionality doesn't hurt too
bad right now since there are no (deployable) mesh antennas anyway.
But then I'd have to transition user data once the XS server setup is
viable. And that would be just another nightmare.


Thank you for your time and patience.
Stefan Reitz



P.s.: My background: I used to work as a test software (for car controll
units) engineer and am now doing computer / electronic equipment
maintenance and project management for a car manufacturer. I am not
excessively good with either hard or software. But I am used to diving
into new concepts driven by hard- or software change. And I have had my
fingers in (and a lot of love for) more PCs than many around me.
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