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Date:      Sun, 01 Feb 1998 23:50:57 +0200
From:      Ruslan Shevchenko <Ruslan@Shevchenko.kiev.ua>
To:        Adam Turoff <AdamT@smginc.com>
Cc:        "'hackers@freebsd.org'" <hackers@FreeBSD.ORG>, "'config@freebsd.org'" <config@FreeBSD.ORG>, "'mike@smith.net.au'" <mike@smith.net.au>
Subject:   Re: Multi-faced admin
Message-ID:  <34D4EE40.B4AEB283@Shevchenko.kiev.ua>
References:  <34D6422A@smginc.com>

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At first, sorry if it is my second podt (I just crashed my Netscape, so
re-reply message)

Adam Turoff wrote:

> Looking at Mikael Karpberg page on his architecture for admin'ing a
> FreeBSD
>

   Please, can you give URL ?

> box, I came across a link to Caldera's COAS project: http://www.coas.org
>
> I'm rather sorry to say that I haven't looked deeply into some of the
> broad
> scope ideas that people have been posting to -hackers recently.  (I feel
> rather guilty that I haven't committed my big picture to bits and bytes
> yet
> either.)  We all know what it means to be spread thin, I guess.  :-)
>
> Anyway, skimming over COAS, (Caldera Open Adminstration System),
> it looks like either it's something worth porting, or it's something
> worth
> improving upon.  All of the standard knobs are there, like curses/X/Java
> interfaces, etc.  (Sorry, I can't post a summary right now.  The code is
> at v0.09, appears to use lots of python and is GPL'd.)
>

  I look on it -- not very fine.

>  ---
>
> Reading the post about UMich's LDAP engine, it sounds rather radical.
> So, as of the moment, here's a concise view of what I'm seeing/hearing
> for a FreeBSD framework:
>
>  - httpd type server (easy to plug any client into/write new clients)
>  - standardized CGI interface subset for admin modules
>  - LDAP for config managment by admin modules
>
> Five layers (three for glue) to have any random client reconfigure
> any part of the system.  The top glue is pretty dumb; it just
> standardizes the interface.  The middle glue layer is where all
> the work is done.  The bottom glue layer appears rather dumb,
> but it should hide the complexity of a bazillion different config file
> formats
> (if I'm reading what Mike is saying about LDAP correctly).
>
> Sound good?  I'll start a prototype in my copious free time before
> the end of the month.  :-)
>

 I have the partial realization of the next system:

 C++ API
          -------- Command-Line
          -------- TCL-binding
                                 ------------ Tk interface
                                  ------------ CGI interface (feauture)
         --------- CORBA interface    (future)
                              ------------- TCL-binding
                              ------------- Java binding


for details, look at http://cam.grad.kiev.ua/~rssh/admin/admin.html

In principle is good to use some generic Set-Get/Add-Delete interface under
abstract classes, but  glue
must be, IMHO, not declarative "sheme" as in COAS, but  have some real  API
(TCL or CORBA).

Of course, we can use sheme-s on some level.



>  -- Adam.
>
> PS: Mike, where can I find some docs, etc. on the UMich LDAP server?

Altavista. ;)

--

    @=
     //RSSH                              mailto://Ruslan@Shevchenko.Kiev.UA






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