Deploying Linux Evolutionary, Not Revolutionary LinuxFest Northwest Bellingham, WA April 26th, 2003 Eric Harrison Supervisor 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 Bug Open 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 saying that the district would be without 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 – – 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/ 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: – ● K12LTSP, the K12 Linux Terminal Server Project: – ● SquidGuard web filter: – ● K12 Open Source discussion board: –