Smartbox 1.0.rc1 has been released

Written by IT News on 12:47 AM

The main aims for SmartBOX 1.0 was to make a data-secure (e.g. emphasis on backup) easily managed file server on which other services could be added later on. For example, if groupware goes on a server (e.g. a database, email, etc), it is important that server is well backed-up. nick blundell (the author) spent a lot of time working on the remote backup feature, since he have seen many manual backup systems fall by the way side (people forget to do it, or leave tapes on site, etc.) and since most people now have broadband, it makes sense to shift some data over that every night to get it off site.

Smartbox is a completely open source easy-to-install, easy-to-manage resilient, minimal hardware specificiation, and feature rich network server (with an emphasis on ease of use) capable of:

· Windows domain control (using samba)
· History-based backup and recover system (using rsnapshot)
· Simple software RAID(mirrored discs)
· Remote peer-to-peer backup to an untrusted peer (i.e. another smartbox)
· Groupware server (e.g. wikidbase, open-xchange, opengroupware, etc.)
· Email server
· Asterisk software PBX to support a local VoIP phone system
etc

This project, which is based on the highly stable and well supported ubuntu linux distribution, is aimed at voluntary and non-profit organisations that could do better than to pay a big wad of cash for the purchase and maintenance of conventional network servers over which they have little control (e.g. to add new users to the network themselves, recover files from the backup system, etc.).

The design of this system is entirely based upon research into the voluntary and community organisation (VCO) sector by team members of Illuminate ICT, and by the wider findings of other ICT Hub projects.

SmartBox key features:
· New: wikidbase (development version): go to port 8888 of the smartbox (e.g. http://smartbox:8888) and enter user/password: admin/wikidbase
· Windows domain controller
· Automatic logon.bat generator for auto-mounting relevant windows shares on the client.
· Historical backup system with pre-mounted backup folder for easy recovery of lost files
· Simple RAID management
· Web interface for simple configuration.
· Remote smartbox-to-smartbox backup – as this is under development, this does not yet encrypt data on the remote server, as it will do when complete.

What's New in This Release:

· Support was added for remote backup to any ssh account on a host that has rsync, not just another smartbox.
· Fixes were made for share permissions.
· The ability to set shares for guest access was added. The artwork was updated.
· The smartbox upgrade process was simplified.
· A few little bugs were fixed.

Authors : Nick blundell
official site : http://projects.nickblundell.org.uk/smartbox-1-0-rc1-release-candidate-has-been-released
License : GNU