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Linux Lab Documentation (to 2002)

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More information on Linux can be found at the official Linux homepage (external link)

Current software available on in the Linux labs at Monash.

Index

  1. Introduction
  2. Timeline
  3. Ongoing development

Introduction

The current state of the Linux lab environment is the result of work done from the beginning of 2000 to build on the previous work, fix major problems, and to investigate and implement improvements.

Major problems:

  • Serving user home directories
  • Outdated NFS support
  • Change in Novell printing (loss of lp style printing service)

The ITS Shared Systems group (Katharine Ching, Keith Lewis and Katherine Lim) worked on the Linux lab environment with support from other ITS groups and faculty Lab Managers.

Timeline

Record of events:

  1. February 2000: Start of internal testing and development for updated Linux distribution. Ongoing problem with users not able to access their home directories through the NFS filter service, Samba service subsituted.
  2. March 2000: Work begins on Linux IPX printing to Novell servers.
  3. April 2000: Remote access service discontinued from NFS servers due to a separate server (ra-clay) becoming available exclusively for remote access.
  4. July 2000: Updated Linux rolled out, NFS support updated, NFS filter service replaced with Secure Export Service (SES).
  5. August 2000: Second remote access server available.
  6. September 2000: IPX daemon installed in labs to help in printing. First version of shell script to simplify Linux to Novell printing rolled out.
  7. February 2001: User information for Linux labs cut over from using Hesiod to LDAP (Monash Directory Service), shell changing is enabled for users.
  8. October 2001: User information for Linux labs cut over from using LDAP directly to a local passwd file generated from LDAP. This improved lookup performance and reduced network dependency on the LDAP servers.
  9. February 2002: Updated Linux rolled out to support new hardware in labs.

Ongoing development

Development continues:

  1. SES improvement.
  2. NFS slow/stops in some labs.
  3. Linux upgrade to support newer lab hardware.
  4. Reengineering to improve deployment and load times.