School server

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When we deploy one laptop per child, we must also provide additional infrastructure extending the capabilities of the laptops. While the laptops are largely self-sufficient, a mesh portal providing connectivity and shared resources greatly extends their utility.

These persistent services required by OLPC laptops could conceivably be implemented in a fully distributed manner. They are , however, currently provided more economically by a centralized local resource, the school server. The functions provided by this server are open to debate, but at a minimum they include internet communication and storage resources to the school's wireless mesh.

Roadmap

The school server is in heavy development at the moment (March/April 2008) - following

• XS Roadmap (see also XS Changelog)
• XS Core and Contrib
• XS DevKit

Technical notes

• XS Directory Layout for packagers

Meetings

• Tuesday March 25th 11 AM US EST - Agenda - Minutes

Design Documents

The high-level design of the School server is described here - note that some may be slightly outdated:

• The Server Specification introduces the School Server and its functions
• Server Services described the services supported by the School Server
• Server Discussion describes services and enhancements possibly supported by the School Server
• XS Server Software describes the software system being built for release, and has instructions for downloading and installing the software
• The XS Server Specification describes the School Server hardware platform in much more detail.
• Trial1 Server Software describes the proposed first revision of the server software
• Short Term Server Questions is a discussion of issues surrounding the immediate deployment of school servers
• School Service Names
• School Identity Manager
• XS Installing Software has instructions for installing the latest School Server images
• XS Configuration Management has aids to configuring the software for your school
• XS Building Software
• XS Software Repositories
• XS LiveCD
• XS Server P2P Cache
• XS Software Testing
• XS Backup and Disaster Recovery
• Scenario taxonomy School Server and XO laptop scenario taxonomy

See also

• IRC - #schoolserver on irc.oftc.net
• Using SSH Keys
• Active Antenna
• Ejabberd Configuration
• School server network debugging is helpful. Troubleshooting School Servers is so incomplete as to be useless.
• How to debug networking in a crowded environment
• Collaboration Network Testbed
• School server/School district networks
• Bitfrost Security and Identity model
• Thin client
• http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/server-devel/