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Content Tagged with License:MPL + network

NetDirector is an open and extensible management framework for managing configurations of common open source network services. NetDirector currently manages the following services: Apache, BIND, DHCP, Samba, NFS, Postfix, Sendmail, VSFTP, Kerberos, LDAP, system users and groups, system network interfaces, and numerous system files. There’s also a new integration plugin to RHN and an SSH module that let’s you set up a ssh session to manage any service running on your Linux/Solaris machines with NetDirector’s role-based permissions. NetDirector was released by Emu Software under the MPL (with attribution) in April 2006.

NetDirector Server Manager

NetDirector Server Manager runs Java servelets on the Tomcat java application server. Data can then be stored in either a MySQL or PostgreSQL database. The NetDirector Server Manager has two types of logins, admin and user logins. Logging in as an admin user lets you define who has access to manage individual servers and services on those machines. When you set these policies you are defining roles. When you login as a user you see only the servers available to your role.

NetDirector Agents

The NetDirector agents are written in Python so that it’s relatively easy to port them from platform to platform. When you install the agents they create a certificate and connect over SSL to the NetDirector server. All traffic is encrypted over SSL so security between servers and server mangement is always secure. The agent can be used to execute commands on the server so configuration files can be copied to the server manager, rewritten, and replaced. The NetDirector agent can also be used to perform other tasks on the managed hosts such as stop and restart services. You could develop your own modules as well to perform adminstrative tasks like run shell scripts or perform backups.

NetDirector Installer

NetDirector can be installed manually, but in the case that installing a database, Tomcat, and the JDK is too time consuming, NetDirector includes an installer that bundles all components in one neat package and installs in minutes.

There are two types of end-users that usually find NetDirector valuable. The first are those admins who are new to Linux and are not used to configuring flat files and want the GUI interface to “fill in the blank” for server configurations. The other type of user is the Linux or Unix power user who wants to manage a large number of servers, and push out changes to them simultaneously. These users can still use NetDirector to edit configuration files but with the advantage of version tracking and automated backups of previous

Once the server manager is installed you must then install the NetDirector agent on all the servers you would like to manage. You could then lock down the servers so that configuration changes only happen through the central NetDirector interface and no unauthorized changes could be introduced onto the server.