VMware released the first open source virtual desktop client yesterday allowing Linux end users the ability to connect to Windows desktops managed by VMware’s View product, which previously was only available to Windows users. Check the app out on their Google code page http://code.google.com/p/vmware-view-open-client/. I hope we start seeing more open source utilities from VMware in the near future.
General
7
Jan 09
PowerDNS web frontend
A couple years ago I was working on project to manage PowerDNS via the web called MoxieDNS. Unfortunately, it got put on the back burner because of other projects. However, I decided to revive the project in limited form, cleanup the code and release it to the public in hopes someone will be able to expand upon it. In its current state, the application works. However, there are bugs and inconsistencies.
The goals behind creating the project were pretty simple:
- End User: Allow for the creation of DNS templates for fast deployment
- End User: Create primary DNS and secondary DNS for domains.
- End User: Add URL forwarding
- End User: Add DNS records A, AAAA, MX, PTR, CNAME, TXT, SRV
- Admin: Create/delete/modify users
- Admin: Put application in maintenance mode (do not allow modifications to records)
- Admin: Set domain, template, url forward limits for users
- Admin: Manage application settings, dns servers, TTL times etc.
- Admin: Billing module (not completed)
- Admin: Set per domain query limits (not completed)
- General: Per user logging
- General: Simple/clean interface for managing records.
- General: PHP, mySQL back-end, using PEAR DB modules to allow for fast porting to other SQL platforms
- General: Full permission system
Some of the known issues with the project include:
- Interface bugs, not redirecting correctly after making changes
- Browser compatibility issues (not compliant by any means)
- Dirty code
- Logging needs to be improved
- Possible internal permission issues (need code auditing to verify)
- Priority edit field shows on records other then MX
- Adding secondary dns is broke (template issue)
- I’m sure there are more
I set up a end user demo at http://xlogicgroup.com/dns/ login: test , password: test
For anyone interested in checking it out until its released. The current demo has a max of 20 test domains.
7
Dec 08
KVM over IP with Synergy
For a couple months now I’ve been using a free/open source application called Synergy to share a single mouse and keyboard between my Mac, Linux and Windows computer. It’s a great alternative to using a hardware based KVM solution, the only downfall is the lack of developement over the last couple of years. However, it appears the developer is working a new version.
30
Nov 08
Hosting with slicehost
I decided to move my blog and a couple other websites I maintain to an Ubuntu 8.10 based VPS/slice at slicehost.net. For various reasons the shared hosting provider I was using wasn’t fitting my needs, specifically there was downtime and performance issues.
I choose to start with slicehost’s “256 slice” which gave me 256BM ram, 10GB storage and 100GB of monthly transfer. I opted to install Ubuntu 8.10, although there are other Linux flavors available. The install took about 5 minutes and Slicehost’s control panel allows me to rebuild my slice anytime, view stats, login to a console and much more.
Since I choose to start with the smaller 256 slice I needed to make sure I wasn’t going to max out my resources since I need to have specific applications installed to maintain my blog. I decided to go with nginx as a replacement for apache2, mysql5, php5 and postfix to handle sending mail.
It’s only been a couple days since I made the switch and so far slicehost is really working out for me.
Edit: I stumbled on Slicehost when researching Linux HA for work. Slicehost has a nice write up on using HA with multiple slices.