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Recently my household has started using various version of Ubuntu to replace Windows. We have 4 Computers running different iterations of Ubuntu (mostly 15.04 64bit) and I would like to set something up on my spare blade server to accomplish the following.

TASKS

  • Create Stock Images for Back Up / Restore Purposes
  • Patch management
  • Central Authority for User Management

As I understand it Foreman can at least help me with the imaging. Landscape or Landscape? cloud do all of this but I have experience with neither. It looks like Landscape is free up to 10 machines, is this something worth looking into and is it terribly complicated to set up?

An feedback would be much appreciated as I am new to this side of computing and Linux in general!

Thanks!

Update

Indeed, it looks like Landscape is overkill and I don't have the required 7 machines to run it:

"Installing Ubuntu OpenStack requires at least seven machines with two disks, two of which have two network interfaces (NICs). Install Ubuntu Server on one of the machines with two interfaces."

Also, I understand some would consider this overkill but since I started using Linux people have stressed "learn by doing" so that's what I'm attempting here. Working with waht I ahve to learn new things about linux.

UPDATE2 I will work on trying to get LDAP and Foreman installed and configured and provide a detailed as possible write up of what I've done as an answer.

0xF2
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heypaleblue
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  • Never used Landscape, but if you want a central authority for user management, you should use something like LDAP. Then Puppet in combination with Foreman can handle the rest, though I think it's somewhat overkill for 4 systems. – muru May 24 '15 at 17:30
  • I'd recommend Crashplan for backups between computers. – Tim May 24 '15 at 17:31
  • Damn, I messed up the comment link there. LDAP is supposed to link to https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/serverguide/openldap-server.html, sorry about that. – muru May 24 '15 at 17:43
  • You don't need 7 machines for Landscape unless yo are using it to build an OpenStack cloud... which you aren't. One machine or even one VM will do just fine for your home use. – 0xF2 Oct 23 '15 at 14:31

2 Answers2

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Just want to clarify a couple of things here

  1. Openstack is a cloud platform (like AWS), nothing to do with what you are looking at.
  2. Landscape itself (which can be installed quite easily on one machine) may be a fit for what you are attempting in "patch management". I use it for my home systems, for example. I'm guessing that what you are wanting there is to keep all your machines up to date, which landscape can do.
  3. The other items in your list Landscape does not really apply.
Community
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dpb
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The Solutions provided in this post were more than sufficient to accomplish what I was going after. after some tinkering I have set up Landscape according to the link @dpb shared. Joined my computers to it and am using them for update management.

However, as I am still so new to linux and networking and sys admin using foreman and LDAP are still way over my head so I will continue to look into implementing them before further adding them to my network.

as always, thanks AU for your awesomely prompt answers.

Community
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heypaleblue
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  • Sorry, It doesn't seems to fit in AskUbuntu Q/A, Is this an answer or just a feedback/reply for dpb's answer? – user.dz May 28 '15 at 20:21
  • Just something so the mods can close the thread. These kinds of questions are doomed to obscurity anyways I will probably go back through and add a little detail later. besides you could probably close this thread on the grounds or being one of opinion, as not everyone will definitively say the same thing when discussing these topics. – heypaleblue May 28 '15 at 20:23