[Server-devel] physical security issue

[Sameer Verma]

On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 8:42 PM, John Watlington <wad at laptop.org> wrote:
>
> Actually, Walter, we still hold hope for XOs as school servers
> for very small schools.    The problem with this is insufficient
> memory and insufficient disk space.   While an external disk
> may alleviate the second problem, it has poor reliability and
> is a very attractive item for theft.
>
> But there is nothing stopping a regular laptop from serving
> as a school server.   An external network interface may be
> needed for the upstream connection.
>
> wad
>

We do have a laptop (Fujitsu P2120@ approx. 900MHz Crusoe + 384 MB
RAM) that works as a school server (XS 0.4) for OLPC-SF meetings, but
it doesn't see more than 20~30 laptops via one AA, so scalability
isn't something we've tested on it. Of course, if the laptop were more
powerful and had more RAM, it should scale up.

A couple of people at OLPC-SF have suggested alternatives like the one
I mentioned for places that can afford to have a lot of bandwidth
dropped in (donated) by a provider. I just wanted to ping the list and
see if anyone else has thought along this route. If/when anything
develops on our end, I'll post it here.

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Information Systems
San Francisco State University
San Francisco CA 94132 USA
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://opensource.sfsu.edu/

> On Oct 7, 2008, at 11:25 PM, Walter Bender wrote:
>
>> Clarification: the XO is not the laptop I am proposing for the server.
>> Wad can speak to this.
>>
>> -walter
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 11:24 PM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> One idealet (not worthy of being called an idea): What if the server
>>> were a laptop that the teacher could take with him/her? Pros: The
>>> school need not be secure. Cons: Price, and of course, laptops can be
>>> stolen. But it does put the server in the hands of a presumably
>>> trusted individual in the community.
>>>
>>> -walter
>>>
>>> On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 11:20 PM, Sameer Verma <sverma at sfsu.edu> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 8:00 PM, John Watlington <wad at laptop.org> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> You keep pushing for centrally hosted school servers.
>>>>> Are you sure you don't work for the phone company ?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Last time I checked, San Francisco State University wasn't in the
>>>> telco business.
>>>>
>>>>> Again, unless you have a 100 Mbit connection from the
>>>>> school to the upstream ISP, you will need something with
>>>>> a disk and a significant amount of memory present in the
>>>>> school.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> OK.
>>>>
>>>>> I don't disagree about the need for physical security of
>>>>> the machine, just the proposed solution.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> OK. Any other solutions? I'm all ears.
>>>>
>>>> Sameer
>>>>
>>>>> wad
>>>>>
>>>>> On Oct 7, 2008, at 10:47 PM, Sameer Verma wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> As if discussions on this list aren't lively enough, here's another
>>>>>> issue to look at.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> While I was in Jamaica, I met with several people who work with their
>>>>>> school districts, and many pointed out that if a server was to stay
>>>>>> physically resident at the school, it will need a lot of physical
>>>>>> security. The most common problem is theft. The other problem will be
>>>>>> physical damage (just because somebody can). It is not uncommon in
>>>>>> some of these
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If the school server is hosted at an ISP upstream, we need something
>>>>>> small (maybe an XO?) at the school that can VLAN or VPN over to the
>>>>>> school server at the ISP/Data Center.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Any ideas?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> cheers,
>>>>>> Sameer
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
>>>>>> Associate Professor of Information Systems
>>>>>> San Francisco State University
>>>>>> San Francisco CA 94132 USA
>>>>>> http://verma.sfsu.edu/
>>>>>> http://opensource.sfsu.edu/
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>> Server-devel at lists.laptop.org
>>>>>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Walter Bender
>>> Sugar Labs
>>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Walter Bender
>> Sugar Labs
>> http://www.sugarlabs.org