We hope to bring you a much improved version of Zivios in the near future (planning a 0.8.0 release by January 31^st). Stayed tuned!

Dojo integration as well as automatic generation of forms and support for dynamic error checking on user supplied data allows us to provide a structured and consistent look to the front-end. The integration of ZF 1.7 also sees us adopt layouts in the application, with module developers having the option of customizing the layout as required. (As of the last update to the Zivios framework, layouts were handled internally by the application.)

Zivios version 0.5.1 (and 0.5.0) included an installation process where the following software was compiled from source:

• OpenLDAP
• Heimdal Kerberos
• ISC Bind

Compiling the software took a significant amount of time and was a sore point for quite a few people who attempted to install the software. Zivios 0.6.0 introduces packages for Debian Etch, Ubuntu Hardy, CentOS 5.2 and Fedore Core 10. Packages will be provided for the following software:

• OpenLDAP 2.4.12 (or 2.4.13)
• Heimdal Kerberos 1.2
• ISC Bind 9.5
• Cyrus SASL 2.1.22
• OpenSSL 0.9.8h
• Oracle Berkeley DB 4.6.25 (or 4.7.25)

A new installation process is currently being finalized which makes use of the new framework functionality, with updates to current modules also in progress.

Though we are certain that the updates to Zivios core as well as the provision of providing packages will greatly ease installation and usability for Zivios, our expected launch date has been pushed back to the middle of December, or, more realistically, the end of December.

Final note: The entire build process for all aforementioned software will be made available for people wishing to customize their installation. As always, your comments and questions are welcome!

In version 0.6.0, Zivios introduces package management for Debian and Ubuntu, as well as a myriad of updates for the various modules shipped.

Package management however is not something we are taking lightly, and it’s certainly not an area where one needs to reinvent the wheel — APT is pretty brilliant the way it is, alongside the many interfaces available for it.

What we are working towards is a complete web based interface to manage packages on multiple servers and desktops. With the introduction of “computer groups and channels”, we will see automatic configuration of APT sources and package installations which can be scheduled at the discretion of the administrator. We further couple this with deferred transactions and a new notification model (also part of the 0.6.0 release), and we have unattended package installations with extensive reporting.

Furthermore, the package management system will offer an API for Zivios modules, allowing developers to schedule package installation as part of their transactions. This greatly benefits administrators who will not be required to prepare a system in advance for a service before they can manage it.

The Zivios installer is also being reworked in terms of initial system configuration. Zivios no longer “assumes” that required packages are in place. Instead, the installer ensures that all requirements are met and the system configuration is kosher before proceeding with the installation. The installer is also completely distribution neutral now, allowing easy extensibility options for other distros as well as operating systems (a Zivios release for *BSD or Solaris is something we are quite keen on).

Additionally, every step in the installer has now been put in a “failed” state and re-run in anger (from multiple checkpoints), ensuring clean-up and re-installation is handled correctly.

All in all, the next release of Zivios (which will offer an upgrade path for 0.5.1 users) should be an exciting one. Complete details along with time-lines for the coming version are available on our road-map.

As always, much is subject to discussion on our mailing lists and we encourage ideas and suggestions by the community.

Though our code is safe in geographically dispersed locations (including the primary repository being at launchpad), our web site, blog, wiki and mailing lists don’t enjoy the same level of redundancy. It hence became clear to us to move Zivios to a new home as soon as possible.

Over this weekend, we plan to migrate the Zivios web site, blog, wiki and mailing lists to a far more robust infrastructure at Linode VPS Hosting.

One of the rather nifty things about Linode, which we see great value in, are the tools they provide to easily cluster virtual servers. At some point, we plan to ensure that all Zivios web related services are highly available as well as load balanced. We are also planning on getting a few accounts from Linode in the near future to put online Zivios demos for the community to enjoy, though that may have to wait till Zivios 0.6.0 has been released.

Much to do… much more to come.

As always, we are available on our mailing lists to assist with any query, or via our IRC channel if you would like to chat with us.

You can grab Zivios version 0.5.1 from our web site’s download section.

The transaction system allows coupling of items in sequential order for execution, with each transaction item having an automatic rollback hook. One has to understand the Zivios architecture in a bit of detail to fully come to speed with transactional rollback, though for developers the overall implementation remains simple.

As an example, the add server process entails operations which go something like this:

The call to “init()” exports parameters and their validation settings from the EMSServer class, automatically enforcing requirements during the setProperty() call. This allows us to add multiple validation schemes which are executed in order before the setProperty clause is successful. But, I digress; let’s get back to transactional rollback.

Examine the call below:

We notice that the first call returns a transaction object, which is then used with all additional operations. This allows us to create one transaction request and offer a rollback consistent with transaction item execution.

As an example, suppose the zivios agent configuration fails during the server add transaction. By the time this transaction item is executed, we have successfully added an EMSServer object to our directory, copied over certificates, registered multiple plugins (ntp, dns, etc) and copied their configuration files across as required. Not only Zivios, but the remote system is now in a modified state.

Furthermore, without a properly configured agent, we know that communication between the Zivios web panel and the remote server is not possible.

Introducing rollback, at least in the initial stages, allows cleanup of the directory and it’s restoration to former state. Also, rollback is made available in the web panel’s transaction window, showing all items executed successfully, items which failed, and the rollback trigger which will restore the directory server’s state.

Further integration on the module level will enable automatic integration of registered transaction items to their relevant rollback call. The key note to highlight here is the minimal effort required by module developers to use these capabilities.

Much work of course is still pending on our end, with testing taking the chunk of our available time. Implementation of rollback calls is also being worked into all classes which, upon exception, will prevent leaving the directory incorrectly modified.

The Zivios release is hence slightly delayed as a result of ensuring we meet these requirements. We hope to have 0.5.1 available at the very latest by Monday, October 6^th. For administrators running Zivios from trunk, all functionality is just an update away.

The problem can be as simple as the mail module developer not realizing that the (new) computer add process generates a client krb5.conf file for remote systems. The file is generated via a template, however, the template had a hardcoded krb realm in one spot which went unnoticed. This meant that cyrus authentication fails with all other realms; as do all mail service related actions.

Display templates after some css updates were not given the required attention, and most modules remain  tested only only on Debian Etch. Many fixes for issues I mention have already been pushed to our software repository, with all bugs reported (barring a slightly complicated one) fixed.

Our final testing is concentrated primarily on module testing, specifically the mail and asterisk modules on Ubuntu Hardy. A developer package is also being made ready for people wanting to run Zivios releases directly from trunk.

A final note: we want to thank Tarmo Hyvarinen for helping us identify bugs and also make some very sensible recommendations regarding Zivios’ UI. Tarmo is looking into Zivios module development, with the first module being one for Webdav. Faraz will be writing a demo module with accompanying documentation over the weekend so everyone is up to speed (though I doubt he’ll find time before our release).

We should have Zivios-0.5.1 available by Tuesday, October 1^st. Stay tuned folks.

The good news of course is that the Zivios installation and configuration, barring minor hiccups, worked out quite well.

One source of much confusion during the installation process was the use of a sub-domain as the virtual host for Zivios. The control panel installation fails if the virtual host is not of the format: sub-domain.domainname. We’ll ensure this requirement goes away in a future release — for now however, please ensure your apache virtual host is of the format: sub-domain.domain-name.

A small point worth mentioning is that your Kerberos realm or OpenLDAP base-dn configuration is not affected by the aforementioned requirement. The Zivios installer will prompt the user for this information, with suggestions based on initial input.

Much work is also being done on the Zivios wiki to ensure that post-installation guides are available for expanding your Zivios network. The mail, asterisk, squid and samba plugin are all quite operational, however, lack of documentation will obviously lead to frustration for Zivios administrators.

Expect a 0.5.1 release within the coming week, with many updates coming to the wiki as well. I’ll end this post by saying thanks to all who joined our mailing list and are helping test Zivios. Thank you guys!

For the official annoucement, please see:

http://lists.zivios.org/pipermail/zivios-announce/2008-September/000001.html

Also: if you do download Zivios, please consider joining us on our user discussion mailing list.

Thank you!

The reason behind the delay is the introduction of a web based installer which handles compile, install and configuration of all source packages, as well as various other required components. This ensures that barring getting a LAMP stack up, installing a list of prerequisite software and doing some very basic configuration tasks, the Zivios installer does the rest.

The new installation guide is now available on our Wiki for both Ubuntu and Debian Linux. Please see:

• Ubuntu web-based installation guide
• Debian web-based installation guide

Upon completion of the listed steps in the wiki, the web based installer guides the system administrator all the way to the Zivios login. For the savvy administrator, customization of software is easily possible by modifying the configuration scripts that Zivios runs, or patching the supplied source packages if required.

The Zivios Installer

We hope to release the software very shortly now with final testing taking place on Debian Etch and Ubuntu Hardy.