Servers as appliances

[Tonnesen Steve <tonnesen@cmsd.bc.ca>]

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[Okay, I'll admit that I cross posted this to a few different lists.  If
you want to discuss this topic, let's do it on seul-edu.  Subscription
information at http://www.seul.org/edu/]


My goal is to have a server setup that can be used like an appliance.  The
box is popped into the school, and is all set up and ready to go.  No need
for the teachers in a school to start mucking around with setting up
shares for the administration software, library software, home
directories, etc.  Not to mention security auditing, status monitoring,
data backups and all that other important but oh-so-boring stuff.

Is this feasible?  Is it possible to come up with a single server setup
(or even a limited number of configurations, like elementary/secondary)
that could satisfy the needs of the teachers in all schools? 


My current setup consists of the following shares, which I currently
provide through netatalk and samba, but which could also be provided to
Linux workstations through nfs or coda:

Home Directory
  User's personal home directory.

Applications
  Word Processor, spreadsheet, educational games, etc.

Library
  Library database software.

Administration
  School Admin software.  Accessible only to schooladmins group.

CDROMS
  this share is where staff can copy the contents of a cdrom, and new
  shares are automatically generated for the contents of the cdrom so that
  it can be mapped to a drive or mounted on the desktop, depending on your
  desktop OS of choice in the school.

LocalGroups
  This share contains a folder for each group created by the school staff
  through k12admin.  The folder is accessible only to members of the group
  and contains a public read/write folder, a class folder where teachers
  can read/write, student are read-only, and a drop box where students can
  submit assignments.  Groups can be classes, extracurricular groups, etc.

HTML
  A link to the root web server directory.  Accessible only to members of
  the webadmins group.

DefaultHome
  Files in this share are used as skeleton files for creation of new home
  directories.

Rebuild
  Stores images of windows and mac workstations for rebuilding.

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