Fedora.next: I would like working configurations

[Stephen Gallagher]

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On 01/27/2014 01:31 PM, Robert M. Albrecht wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> might be totaly out of scope for Fedora.next, but this is what I
> would like to get better in Fedora.
> 
> If I install a Windows-Server with some services like DHCP or file 
> services, I get a working configuration.
> 
> - If I install a Fedora-server with dhcpd, dhcpd doesn't do
> anything - If I install tftpd and syslinux, I don't get a working
> pxe-config - If I install postfix, I don't get a working
> mail-server - If I install Nagios, it does not monitor & report
> anything ...
> 
> I have no idea, how to change this. Debian uses some interactive
> stuff to create a more or less working configuration while
> installing a package. This resembles the Microsoft installation
> tools.
> 
> But rpm is strictly non-interactive, so this would not work for
> Fedora.
> 
> I think this is a real problem. The missing working default-configs
> are a real hassle for replacing small servers in Windows-shops with
> Linux as the non-expert-Linux-admin has an enormous entry-barrier
> to get some minumum working configuration from which he can start.
> 
> To build a Fedora-Server which does the needed ip address
> management stuff for a modern network (dhcpd with dynamic
> bind-updates for IPv4 and IPv6 plus forwarding to the isp) is
> non-trivial, even for a long time admin.
> 
> Perhaps meta-packages (call them roles or stacks if you like) like
> ipam (pulls in dhcpd, bind, ... plus some config-files) or
> mail-server (pulls in postfix, imap, fetchmail, ...) might be the
> solution.
> 
> I have no idea how to do this. Combing several packages and
> integrating them would produce some interessting test-problems. How
> to avoid colliding apache-configs done by different meta-packages,
> ...
> 
> cu romal


What you are describing is the exact problem space we intend to
address in the Fedora Server product with Server Roles. I strongly
suggest reading the Server Roles section of our PRD[1] and then
joining the discussion that was just started on the Fedora Server
development list[2]

DHCP is certainly a useful example (and called out in our PRD as one
of the cases we'd like to address eventually). Right now we're
focusing our intent on delivering a single end-to-end Server Role for
Fedora 21. We're probably going to select the FreeIPA Domain
Controller for this purpose, but if we determine that we don't have
sufficient time for that, we may go for a smaller initial target. DHCP
might be a good one.


Anyway, your ideas are good, Robert. They line up well with what we
want to do, so I very much hope you'll join the conversation (and
implementation!).


[1]
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Server/Product_Requirements_Document#Featured_Server_Roles
[2]
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/server/2014-January/000717.html
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