Ithryn Upgrade

From IthrynWiki

The current upgrade cycle is early 2009.

We currently have described the following features. This is in the eye of the beholder, so we can and should move things about. Try to note who either proposed the idea or expressed interest.

Please amend.

Sub-pages:

• Hosts
• Packages
• Installation Plan
• Services

Contents 1 Goals 2 Basics 2.1 Funding 2.2 Hardware 2.3 System Software 2.4 User Software 3 Enhancements 3.1 Funding 3.2 Hardware 3.3 System Software 3.4 User Software 4 Wishes 4.1 Hardware 4.2 System Software

Goals

• Start off fresh with a completely new Ithryn server. Cut out all the legacy cruft.
• Establish a 6-12 month upgrade cycle and the proper notifications and procedures.
• Better documentation.
• Better control/documentation of users with shell account
• Work toward sustainability and possible bandwidth upgrade.

Basics

Basic system. Can't do without it.

Funding

• Fair sharing of cost (currently jon supports a huge financial burden of keeping ithryn alive).
  • $70/mo for internet. ($350/year)

Hardware

• Modern CPU(s)
  • Dual or quad AMD
• Motherboard
  • Is the current one acceptable?
• Memory upgrade
  • Current Ithryn = 384mb
    • Do we want >= 1Gb for a server?
    • I think I have some extra RAM that will work. - Jon
• Large disk
  • 2 500 Gb drives
  • Current = 2 x 80GB (RAID 1)
• Better bandwidth

System Software

• Acceptable OS
  • Debian (status quo)
  • Free/OpenBSD (brad)
  • Ubuntu (ion, jon?, brad)
  • OS X/Darwin (brian)
• Backups
  • Amanda?
  • Bacula?
  • TimeVault? (article)

User Software

• Package system
  • apt is fugly, but complete
  • *BSD port (also MacPorts port) clean but much smaller
  • Up-to-date software (brian, ion)
  • Binary base + source for special cases? (ion, brian)
    • stow for sources
  • All source? (nobody)
• Packages
  • Necessary Ithryn Add-Ons:
    • emacs, vim
    • gcc/g++
    • Core languages and tools people use.
  • List derived from apt.
• Services
  • Review which daemons are running and whether they are necessary.

Enhancements

We really want to try to get these in.

Funding

• Have an upgrade path for better bandwidth.

Hardware

• Enough CPU cycles to:
  • Run Spam filtering for all users.
  • Get better IMAP response times especially for large mailboxes. UDMA 33 is probably the biggest bottleneck right now.

System Software

• Authentication
  • LDAP
  • Fix broken SASL support
• Shared spam filter

User Software

• Fix broken web pages
• Update the Wiki
  • Software and hardware info.
  • TODO lists.

Wishes

These would be nice to have but aren't necessary.

Hardware

• Really large number of CPUs (4 quad-core) (brian)
• RAID
• Rackable cases
• Hot-swappable drives
• Redundant power
• Backup boxes
  • Drobo

System Software

• Alternate OSes (mostly not serious):
  • HURD (brian)
  • OpenSolaris (ion)
• Virtualization: Running alternate operating system in a VM (brian)
• VPN setup (brian)
• Full hosting (several)
• Tape backup (jon)
• User cleanup (brian)
• Installation version control (ion)
  • etckeeper?
• FreeBSD jails, different IP for each jail (brad)