Welcome to Project U-13, version 0.0.3-release! Argument ======== In my last two jobs as sysadmin, I've spent a lot of time finding the time to install different tools, teaching (and reminding) myself how they work, and gradually expanding their reach so that they're more useful. Examples: * Cfengine * Nagios * Cacti * Request Tracker * TWiki * Netdisco * Code repositories * Console available over a damn serial port and probably more. What if all these things were available in one easy package? Not an appliance, since we're sysadmins -- but integrated nicely into one machine, easily broken up if needed, and ready to go? Furthermore, what if that tool was a Linux distro, with all its attendant tools and security? What if that tool was easily regenerated, and itself served as a nicely annotated set of files to get the newbie up and running? Have it be a godsend for the newbie, a timesaver for the experienced, and a lifeline for those struggling in rapidly expanding shops. You'd have the tool I'm trying to build: Project U-13. Specifics ========= GRML is a live Linux CD that is focused on the command line. You can read more about it at: http://www.grml.org I'm using its grml-live tool, which lets you build a customized GRML live CD, to build the Project U-13 ISO. You'll notice that the web-based tools are all installed to separate FQDNs; this is intended to make them easy to split off to separate hosts. Also, note the fully RFC 2606-compliant domain names. :-) The FQDN for the ISO/build/machine is aleph.u13.example. You should be able to install the ISO to an actual machine by running grml2hd, and then running something like: # find /etc -type f -exec grep -q u13.example {} /dev/null \; | \ xargs perl -i.u13 -pe's/u13.example/example.com/;' in order to change the domain name in *all* the relevant config files to "example.com". However, I have not tested either of these steps. Note that if you're downloading the source code, you'll need to modify *at least* the Makefile and grml/grml-live.conf to set the path appropriately. I've built this on Debian Stable (etch); setting it up, and installing the packages for grml-live, are left as an exercise for the reader. Programs and passwords ====================== RequestTracker: Available at http://rt.u13.example. Login "root", password "password". Cacti: Available at http://cacti.u13.example. No password needed. Nagios: Available at http://nagios.u13.example. Login "u13", password "u13". Rackmonkey: Available at http://rackmonkey.u13.example/cgi-bin/rackmonkey.pl. MySQL: no root password. Changelog ========= See the ChangeLog file. What's not done yet =================== As noted above, I haven't tested installation to a hard drive. The tools that are present aren't nearly as well- or fully-configured as I'd like. Cfengine should be used to do a lot of this, and aid in the splitting of functions to different machines. There should be skeleton groups set up for different privilege levels. Have it listen on serial ports from the start, *including* Grub. Make bootstrapping a build environment much more automated. Make this the distro I'd want to take to the next job like this.