I would just like to chime-in. Note that I, too, am a sysadmin by right and have not much experience in Linux (I can understand some, but mostly through searches and forums, am I able to overcome some difficulties). That said, I also need to add that these are the very reason I am looking for UTM or GUI multi-in-one server.
While we all agree that the feature requested seems to have a point, there is also another, more distrubing consequence should an inexperienced user tried to access and misuse it. If, for some reason, the user knows that he needs LVM, I think he is of more advanced nature, and thus, not having to be afraid of working with CLI.
Should this come into fruitition, I think there should be a warning at the top of the admin GUI Disk Management page (perhaps with a background of red). Also, a warning before proceeding with the task. Just my 2 cents here. It addresses the feature being accessible via GUI and also addresses the danger of using the module by means of very visible warning.
And for now we talked about creating partition, resizing partition, etc, etc…
In addition with this disk manager, we could consider mounting and unmounting partition:
-To manage a usb disk for backup…
-To manage a network drive…
I continue my self-speaking thread
with a self-citation of another thead:
With such Disk Management module. to add a new disk, to create and manage partitions, to manage mounting points for local and remote files systems…
With the existing file sharing, Nethserver could easely become a NAS.
And this could open lot of oportunities, Nethserver, as NAS, could become a backup system, with PLEX Nethserver could distribute contents…
Maybe for this reason also Zentyal have reduced the functions in the last version.
Like I said before in this Forum, I don’t want to keep all eggs in the same basket.
In this moment I’m thinking at two scenarios to use NS (very short description):
NS act as AiO ( UTM + Mail Server + Web Server) with two zones, RED and GREEN, or three zones RED, GREEN and BLUE, for Home and Small (very small) Business.
NS act as UTM with four zones:
a. RED
b. ORANGE - another NS act as Mail Server and maybe as Web Server
c. BLUE - wireless for guests
d. GREEN:
d.1. NS as PDC & File sharing;
d.2. NS as PDC with FreeNAS as Storage & File sharing;
d.3. Zentyal as PDC / AD controlled by RSAT & File sharing;
d.4. Zentyal as PDC / AD controlled by RSAT with FreeNAS as Storage & File sharing;
Many other applications can be added to an Information System, but IMHO, in the right place.
Of course, everything I said above can be criticized, improved, rejected or trashed.
I believe a web GUI menu for disk management would be a great feature to have. It pains me to say it but look how easy it is to manage disks and partitions on any M$ server or client OS including SBS. The same can be said for GUI driven Linux systems.
I understand NS needs to stay a focused product which is slimlined and best of breed.
Taking what can be a daunting task that can kill your whole server and wrap it with a clear,easy to use GUI shows great product maturity.
Having features that no other distro in this market space has is pioneering, innovation and a massive value add. Something others distros will either follow, or fall behind.
I have every faith in the NS team getting the balance right between ease of use and the warnings needed to help the admin make an informed decision when managing disks
Yes, homeusers can have this features with windows, Mac os x , Linux and Bsd system with any kind od desktop environment… And a Nethserver’s sysadmin not!?! It’s cruel
This is a good perspective, like it. What about a cost-benefit analysis?
Can we try to draft the new disk management feature? As @filippo_carletti said above?
We should choose minimum targets for a first implementation, which these goals could be?
That’s a good example but it’s too generic! As I said we can’t have all these features.
We should choose minimum targets for a first implementation, which these goals could be?
What could be enough to start?
If we must go step by step, I think we must go for the Logical Volume Management and the disk partition tool. that can do the same things as the CentOS installation tools.
For the rest, naturally in other step, we will need the mount and unmount tool, for a local filesystem and perhaps a network file system…
I know there are many web UI out there that can help people to manage their storage…
read all my posts in this topic… (even) in this forum there are guys that don’t know how their lan works, what is a dhcp and so on… do you really think it’s a smart idea to give them direct access to disk/data? really?
NIMB
If Jim continues to want (unabated) Disk Management, could I wish (unabated) to have improvements to Email Server (Mailgraph, AWstats, …), Proxy (Web, POP3, SMTP, …), Filter (Email, Web, GeoIP, …), Backup, GUI, Reverse Proxy, … and to other modules/packages?
Why not?
But, IMHO, everything what is related to NS not to the “Host” (CentOS).