Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 23:48:37 +1000 From: Stephen McKay <syssgm@detir.qld.gov.au> To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Cc: syssgm@detir.qld.gov.au Subject: Re: Need anti-exchange ammunition Message-ID: <199910261348.XAA16538@nymph.detir.qld.gov.au>
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First, thanks to those who have responded so far. What I've seen is
enough to show me that there are troubled times ahead. But none of
it will convince the "opposition", for want of a better word. I'm
still hoping for more extreme evidence.
Forgive me if I don't attribute everyone. You'll be able to spot your
own bits.
Cost. Normally a strong point, you'd think. But I believe we are in
the position of already having paid. We'd have to un-pay. Very rare
thing for the Government. Leads to finger pointing, and nasty letters
in the paper. So, I think exchange will replace CCMail here, but I'm
hoping to stop it spreading too far.
The high cost of Exchange and the big iron needed to run it might just
stop the onrushing tide before it engulfs the mail hub, but it is unlikely
to stop it anywhere else.
In fact, the whole thing has been sold as a money saving operation. But
not from equipment or software costs, but administration costs. For this
sort of thing, management are utterly convinced that point and click is
better than a command line interface. After all, they have no idea what
to do with a command line interface, and their Unix jockeys are way
expensive. Ergo, in with the GUI, out with the CLI!
To summarise that point (because I'm sure we could have a big advocacy
storm on this one if we really wanted), the reasoning goes like this:
expensive people use CLI, cheap people use GUI, so let's buy a lot of
GUI software. It's not really about sendmail vs exchange.
Someone asked about sizing. We have approximately the same number of Unix
server admins as Novell server admins, and about twice as many Unix boxes
as Novell boxes. This is partially because the existing mail system is
CCMail, and that keeps them busy repairing it all the time. A couple NT
boxes have appeared under the guise of pilot studies. There are a whole
heap of PC support people who manage desktops and do the user hand holding
stuff.
Our current mail system supports about 1500 people. We know we could do
the lot with imap and a couple FreeBSD boxes (distributed over the state),
but I've discovered that the killer argument is that the mail program must
come with a scheduler/organiser, just like CCMail. Again, management are
utterly convinced that scheduling and mail are the same stuff. They can
point to CCMail and say "We want one just like this, except that works".
We have nothing to offer, calendar wise. Suggestions solicited!
The argument about broken Exchange systems being hard to repair because of
embedded SIDs is enough to keep me away, but not compelling at a higher
level. A manager says, "Mail administrator! Fix that box!" and their work
is done. They do that already with CCMail. Nice try though. I'll use it
against some irritating opposition techies.
Someone mentioned NDS. This is the new wonder product, I'm told. We are
getting it here in a big way, and it will link in with Exchange too.
Apparently it will replace all our account login details on every system
in our entire organisation, and will replace DNS and DHCP. Phew! That's
another story though, and we are well advanced in arguing against it.
Still, if anyone has any reason to believe that NDS distributed replication
doesn't work, I'm all ears. :-)
In fact, the "Save Our DNS/DHCP" campaign is the only thing to bear fruit
so far. Partially it's because of my catchy slogan:
"It's a text file. And we *love* it!"
referring to the plain text config files which we use for everything, and
which we revision control and grep etc, vs the difficulty of doing anything
sensible with a GUI. The slogan is so catchy that I've convinced a layer
or two of management to fight our cause. In the "you win some, you lose
some" situation, I'll keep the DNS, DHCP and password file, and lose the
mail system, if I have to.
Stephen.
PS We're dropping in on an Exchange "success story" tomorrow. If you have
any really pointed questions I can ask, feel free to send them in. Ta!
I've got a few myself, and I'll let you know if anything fun happens.
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