[Server-devel] Collaboration server for existing network

Sridhar Dhanapalan sridhar at laptop.org.au
Thu Mar 11 09:01:23 EST 2010


Hi there,

OLPC Australia is working with the Northern Territory Department of
Education to deploy XOs to a number of schools. We are having issues
with the XS because there is an existing school network that has its
own DHCP, DNS, wi-fi and so on. This was outlined by Ian Cunningham in
January[0].

The XS appears to have assumptions in its design that it be the
gateway to the network, supplying its own network services. In
contrast, we would like to leverage existing infrastructure as much as
possible.

Martin Langhoff mentioned in response[1] that a team in New York has
already tried something like this, but I haven't been able to find
anything about it.

A solution we are thinking of is to run a copy of ejabberd on a more
standard distribution of Linux, such as CentOS or Fedora. I understand
that I'll have to add patches to the ejabberd source[2]. What we hope
to get from this is:

  * if we use CentOS, a solid RHEL base
  * a simple, easy to maintain server
  * a server integrated into the existing network, using existing services
  * the best part of the XS: collaboration

Does anyone know how well this would work? I realise that we'll lose a
lot of the functionality of the XS, but if we have collaboration then
we already have a strong selling point to focus on.

Alternatively, I'm open to other suggestions. A key criterion here is
that it be easy for a volunteer to deploy in the field, and for
someone to troubleshoot issues as required.

If we can solve this problem, that will open doors for OLPC Australia
across the country. This is a really important one for us to solve, so
any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Sridhar


[0] http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/server-devel/2010-January/004564.html
[1] http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/server-devel/2010-January/004565.html
[2] http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Installing_ejabberd


Sridhar Dhanapalan
Technical Coordinator
OLPC Australia
p: +61 425 239 701
w: http://laptop.org.au


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