From owner-freebsd-doc Fri Apr 9 20:30:36 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Received: from aauu.aaweber.com (cs9343-148.austin.rr.com [24.93.43.148]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 72EE514D28; Fri, 9 Apr 1999 20:30:09 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from aaweber@austin.rr.com) Received: (from aaweber@localhost) by aauu.aaweber.com (8.9.1/8.9.1) id WAA12756; Fri, 9 Apr 1999 22:28:33 -0500 (CDT) Date: Fri, 9 Apr 1999 22:28:33 -0500 From: Alan Weber To: doc@freeBSD.org Cc: advocacy@freeBSD.org Subject: FreeBSD Solutions Cookbook (proposal) Message-ID: <19990409222832.A12535@austin.rr.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.95.1i Sender: owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org I have a suggestion for a new kind of document that would parallel the Handbook and FAQ. I am suggesting that a "COOKBOOK" be created with "RECIPES" for common FreeBSD applications. I am listing below some of the types of recipes that I am thinking of: 1. Web Server FreeBSD 3.1 Apache 1.3.4 (variants with FP/SSL, etc.) 2. Dialup Gateway FreeBSD 3.1 PPP -alias -auto Bind 8.x Caching/Local DNS DHCPD (optional) 3. CableModem Gateway FreeBSD 3.1, ISC DHCLIENT, NATD, Bind 8.x Caching/Local DNS 4. DataBase Server FreeBSD 3.1 MySQL/POSTGRES/ORACLE(LINUX)/SOLID/etc. ODBC clients 5. Secondary DNS FreeBSD 3.1 Bind 8.x 6. File Server FreeBSD 3.1 Samba Bind 8.x DHCPD (optional) 7. Mail Server FreeBSD 3.1 SendMail/qmail/etc. Bind 8.x 8. Dial-up Gateway FreeBSD 3.1 PPP 9. Desktop Workstation FreeBSD 3.1 XFREE WindowMaker Netscape StarOffice Word Perfect GIMP 10.Game server. FreeBSD 3.1 Quake/etc. 11.Proxy Server FreeBSD 3.1 Squid 12.Installation Server with FTP installable -Stable for local replication on a local network. I used to use the electronic cookbooks for various projects where you would just buy the apropriate parts and assemble some device or sub-assembly. No theory or intimate knowledge of electronics was required, just the ability to follow directions. My thinking here is to provide a quick start mechanism for new users where they would have a working solution and then could begin to extend the solution by adding other software or implementing other recipes. Since UNIX software is driven by text files, I am hoping that the recipes would essentially be collections of configuration files with directions on how to edit them for a given recipe. One of the strengths of this approach is that the recipe would only require the download of a very small tarball that would drop in place on all the files that would need editing in a small package. Hopefully, since these are configuration files they would be longer lived than the specific version that they start with. There have been several suggestions in the mailing lists for the Install program to create these kind of configurations, however since sysinstall is a program and has to work in a floppy booted environment updating these kind of things and keeping bloat down seem to point to a web/ftp based cookbook instead. A centralizied cookbook would keep the proliferation of FreeBSD web sites with this kind of information scattered across the net and difficult to find. I had thought of creating a book that could sell in the stores but I am of the opinion that the book would get stale too quickly and would have to point to a web site to stay current anyway. Eventually a clever person could create scripts to ask some questions and cook the recipe. I am still too new to FreeBSD/Unix to implement a script approach and eventually the COOK would have to tune the configuration so having the files edited by hand may be better as a teaching tool. I would prefer that the recipes could be created from working systems. In some ways this would be like the contributed themes for desktops from individuals systems. Some RECIPES could eventually have several variations such as CableModem Gateway might have @Home, RoadRunner, etc. variants. The Data base server lends itself to a variant for each data base. Where this would differ from the Linux HOW-TOs is in that the specific recipe would talk about coordinating the edits of the configuration files so that everything would work together. I have been following the commentary on questions and people often ask for a prepackaged solution that cannot be easily packaged as FAQ answer. Month after month, people ask the same questions about the interactions among various pieces of software and hardware. There would be minimum and recommended hardware configurations targeted to each of the recipes, perhaps scaled to various size solutions. I am assuming that when software is required, that a install of a port would be directed and that the sequence of installing the component pieces would be given to minimize installation interactions. I have gone through a considerable amount of research each time I have implemented a FreeBSD solution and would like to have had some canned solution each time. This would remove some of the hurdle required to bring a FreeBSD solution into an organisation and I don't see something similar in the Linux or M$ side of things (except via expen$ive consultants). If I am resurecting/recreating a long discarded idea, I would like to know what was the previous reasons for this kind of thing not coming to fruition. I may be assuming that this simplistic description of the project is doable in a real world of complexity and change. -- When I was a kid I had to rub sticks together to multiply and divide numbers. A calculator was a job description. 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