Re: [cobalt-users] IROOT & IMANAGER

["Robert G. Fisher" <rfisher@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Will:  Please keep in mind at present I only have the RaQ and RaQ2,
       if something I'm talking about exists only in the RaQ3 -- 
       I obviously have no way to experience this yet.

On Wed, Mar 22, 2000 at 12:38:06PM -0800, Will DeHaan wrote:
> OpenSSH installs trivially.  What OpenLDAP integration do you need?

I realize this, but you ever tried talking a person through this
that didn't understand so much as the bash shell how to download
the tarball, to extract and build it when they weren't eager to
let you do it for them?  It's a trivial request -- but one that
makes the RaQ a little nicer as a turnkey system from startup
to resell IMHO.

> 
> > way to configure the snmpd service via the
> > browser, 
> 
> What SNMP configuration do you want to have in the UI besides what's
> already there?  Mention features and we can add them in.

Perhaps looking at having a prepared MIB file for users.  Or having
a way to specify a few things to be reported under a Cobalt enterprise
key -- Having the information available from the monitor script
available via SNMP would be nice for one...perhaps even looking at
some basic statistics for load and memory/cpu usage statistics for
the services supported by Cobalt.  Should be a simple walk through
the ps output -- but would be more useful than the information
currently shown in the monitor status bars.

Also, another side bar for the monitor software -- perhaps have
configurable limits for notifications or even shutting down a
service and notifying the administrator.

> > GUI support for volume sharing via NFS and Samba, 
> 
> Mounts, exports and UID mapping?  I don't think NFS is a common request
> on this list.  Anyone else want NFS in the UI?  Adding the feature is
> quite trivial, but why we'd need to for the intended purposes of the
> RaQs I don't know.

Mmm...Good point, I only use NFS to backup to a tape drive.  Alas,
I have yet to have success doing remote tar from a little_endian
box to a big_endian box shy of using rsh/ssh | dd if=stdin of=/dev/tape
which just seems messy to me personally...course so is NFS.

> Windows file sharing was thought to be unnecessary on a primarily
> collocated server.  Enterprise markets would disagree, I'll pass this
> request on to those who choose feature content.

Samba would be relatively simple, it's already installed...Just come
up with a web interface to allow the person to select the domain to
logon to, whether or not it's a PDC (never know when you get an all
Windows 9X office), and what shares to setup for who.  Is this already
in the Cubes?

> > Sendmail 8.10
> > (Come on, being able to establish relay rules based on authenticated
> >  smtp sessions is far better than the pop-before-relay scenarious)
> 
> SMTP AUTH can't replace pop-before-SMTP relay until 100% of mail clients
> support the feature.  I really don't know how supported this is yet,
> feedback and pointers would be much appreciated.  Cobalt waits for a
> linux distribution, often Red Hat, to start distributing major
> application upgrades to ensure that at least the initial bugs are worked
> out.  

Let's see, Outlook 97 and up support it, as do Outlook Express...
Netscape Communictor 4.61 does not -- I don't know about the later
versions yet.  If it's not in the current release, I'm sure it
shouldn't be that far behind.  What other mail programs do people
use?  MS Internet Mail?  I can't even remember the last time someone
asked me about Pegasus or Eudora.

The bulk of my customers tend to use either an Outlook variant
or Netscape Communicator for e-mail.  The exceptions tend to
use pine on one or more of our servers which is a no brainer
for relay, use the sendmail on the server or point it to an
SMTP server that allows that IP.  The idea, is that it's an
option to allow for relaying based on authenticated sessions
as an alternative to only IPs or pop-before-SMTP, (Is there
even a guarantee that 100% of mail clients attempt to download
the mail before sending it?)

Does the RaQ3 incorporate the pop-before-SMTP into the interface,
perhaps as a checkbox in the Mail service configuration?  

> 
> > and the biggest thing I'd love to see -- better implementation and
> > variety in backup volume support and management.  I know they support
> > Legato, but why not try for other kinds as well -- Amanda shouldn't
> > be too difficult.
> 
> The RaQ 3 supports Arkeia as well.  Arkeia is cheaper and many of my
> friends have had better experiences dealing with Arkeia's support than
> Legato.

Great, what about other solutions...Amanda is even cheaper than Arkeia
after all.  I realize I'm reaching, what's the point of having Amanda
on a system unless Cobalt was also selling a backup server likewise
pre-configured with Amanda...but one would like to see as much support
for backup management as feasible in their web servers.
 
> > the drive -- the Flash-RAM would also be used to store the compressed
> Already there in the RaQ 3.  Hold the select (S) button while turning on

Excellent ;-)

-- 
Robert G. Fisher		     NEOCOM Microspecialists Inc. 
System Administrator/Programmer      (540) 666-9533 x 116