Deploying LinuxEvolutionary, Not Revolutionary

LinuxFest Northwest Bellingham, WAApril 26th, 2003

Eric HarrisonSupervisor of Network Services

Multnomah Education Service District

1996: In The Beginning....

● There was a lone penguin

● Riverdale School District played around with Samba file services

Legend

Proprietary Server:

Open Source Server:

1997: K12Linux Project

● Riverdale School District volunteers its facilities to host the Portland Linux User's Group's install clinics– In turn, Riverdale gets

a room full of experts once a month

– K12Linux project is formed

1998: Testing The Waters

● Proxy Servers placed in several of the large schools to conserve bandwidth

● FTP server added

Early 1999: The Ball Starts Rolling

● New services added: Web and LDAP

● The first conversions occur...

Early 1999: The Ball Starts Rolling

● New services added: Web and LDAP

● The first conversions occur...– DNS server: Linux

was quick to fix the BIND bug

Early 1999: The Ball Starts Rolling

● New services added: Web and LDAP

● The first conversions occur...– DNS server: Linux

was quick to fix the BIND bug

– Proxies centralized

Early 1999: The Ball Starts Rolling

● New services added: Web and LDAP

● The first conversions occur...– DNS server: Linux

was quick to fix the BIND bug

– Proxies centralized– Centennial Mail Server

Bind BugOpen Source vs Proprietary Software

● MESD used HP-UX DNS servers, running Bind 4● The big Bind bug hit and HP dragged its feet

putting out a patch● We got tired of waiting, knew that there was an

exploit in the wild● The Linux version of Bind had been patched

immediately● Tested Linux and found it to be much faster

Centralized Proxies

● Having proxies in each school ended up being more trouble than it was worth

● Pulled proxies out of the schools and centralized them

● Used Layer-4 switch to make the proxying transparent, load-balanced, fail-over protected

● Huge success

Centennial Mail Server

● District's sysadmin fed up with their proprietary mail server– Sent out an email saying that the district would be

without email until further notice– Pulled the plug

● MESD was evaluating replacing its mail server, asked Centennial if they wanted to be guinea pigs.

● Had them up and running in a couple of hours● Been running fine ever since

Late 1999: Road to Domination

● MESD LAN taken by storm:– File/Print– Email– DHCP

2000: First Tries at the Desktop

● Riverdale School District deploys a Linux Terminal Server (LTSP)

● Redundant DNS and mail relay servers added

● More Linux servers in the schools

2001: The Filter Disaster

● Dismal, painful, expensive disaster with proprietary web filter

● Linux saves the day!● More redundancy

2002: Terminal Services Takes Off

● LTSP labs spring up all over the place– Budget crunches, old

hardware– MS Audits help

● More file/web/email servers in the schools

Overall Goals and Objectives

● Reduce Costs● Increase Reliability● Decrease management headaches● Encourage learning!!!!● Fame, glory, tons of cash, stock options, adequate

budgets, and all the other benefits of working in Education (yeah, right!)

What Has Worked

● Patience!– We've been working non-stop for the last seven years

to get were we are. Schools move very, very slowly

● Transparent implementations– Start by putting Linux were it 1) solves a problem and

2) doesn't require additional work from anyone else

● Keep on asking how much things cost!– And say “Wow! That's expensive! What does it offer

that my free solution does not?”

Bumps in the Road

● Anything that requires special configuration of workstations will fail.

● Lack of technical talent, at all levels.● Path of least resistance.● General unwillingness to learn.● Legacy proprietary systems are tough to dispose

of.● Differences in ideology.

General Approach to Technology

● Modular designs: let others pick and choose what they want to use

● Platform agnostic, avoid the PC/Mac wars● Standard protocols, interoperability is mandatory● Distributed management● Always have an exit plan, technology changes

quickly

Projects

● Linux in Schools Project:

– http://k12linux.org● K12LTSP, the K12 Linux Terminal Server Project:

– http://k12ltsp.org● SquidGuard web filter:

– http://squidguard.mesd.k12.or.us● K12 Open Source discussion board:

– http://www.k12os.org