[Server-devel] help with small/first world XS deployment issues requested

[Martin Langhoff]

Hi Bill!

On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 7:36 PM, Bill Bogstad <bogstad at pobox.com> wrote:
> There are a number of  XO deployments possible in the Boston metro
> area sometime next spring.  My understanding is that OLPC does NOT
> want to run these deployments, but is interested in having them happen
> so there are deployments local to the Cambridge office for test
> purposes.

Yes! specially if they are being run by sysadmins that can deal with
problems, and even better if they can interact with their users,
add/tweak services and tell us interesting stories in the list about
what users have asked for that has actually worked and been used to
positive educational / social effects.

So yes - avant garde users and experimenters are welcome.

> As I see it, at this point an XS provides:
>
> 1. XO backup service (ds-backup)
> 2. Activation service? (probably not needed since XOs will be G1G1)
> 3. Support for > 20 networked XOs (ejabberd?)
> 4. Moodle server (not clear what this means in terms of funcionallity)

Add backups (that don't yet have a "restore" UI!) and you've got it for 0.4

I'm about to release 0.5 - more details about what's in that box in
the roadmap pages in the wiki. I'm drafting a "features" page soon,
but that's for people who don't follow this list -- by virtue of being
here I'm sure you can read the raw roadmap page for 0.5 and figure out
what's in the box :-)

And from xs0.5 onwards i'll be reasonably easy and straightforward to
yum-update your way to 0.6/0.7/0.8 which will add interesting and
compelling services.

So I happen to think that 0.5 is worthwhile (even if marginally), and
it's value is about to start growing significantly in the coming
months.

> ... for political reasons in a small deployment

While I try to keep things flexible so local changes are possible
andthe whole thing is not too brittle, I won't do much extra work to
fit your politics. By definition, everyone has their own politics, and
they are your cross to bear.

Having said that, there are nice tricks using git in how we handle
/etc . Have a loot at it -- we even discussed it a bit here in the
list -- and you'll see that you can do quite a bit with local changes
safely/sanely.

In short, learn more about how xs-config works. I've put some REAMEs
there that will help.

> I apologize if the above is confused/confusing.  Unfortunately, that's
> the way I feel at this point.  I've got this big ball of string I'm
> trying to untangle and I have no idea where to start.  Any suggestions
> how to get a handle on this would be greatly appreciated.

go from vague feelings to liberating knowledge :-) -- get a checkout
of xs-config and have a look at what config we override and all the
hooks I provideso you can have local changes safely. Also read the
archive for this list -- I've discussed it quite a bit.

cheers,




m
-- 
 martin.langhoff at gmail.com
 martin at laptop.org -- School Server Architect
 - ask interesting questions
 - don't get distracted with shiny stuff  - working code first
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