Penguin First

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Penguin First Linux and the hearing aids by
Claus Gårde Henriksen
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Your speaker

• Is engineer MSc.EE by education and currently
  Linux system- and tools-administrator at Oticon
• Has worked with NIX since '90 first as
  software developer, later as administrator
• Is one of the local (SSLUG) Linux 'pushers' as
  editor/remaster responsible for several Danish
  Linux live CD's
• Always ready with arguments for using Linux and
  open source

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My presentation

• 'Tell something about your somewhat - big Linux
  installation'
• Yes! Linux is used professionally and not only as
  web server in case you have not noticed yet
• Target audience Other companies that may, or
  may-not, have a Linux installation yet

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Oticon 'People First'

• Oticon is a leading manufacturer of hearing care
  solutions
• Oticon sells products through sales companies in
  20 countries and about 80 independent
  distributors world-wide
• The Motto 'People First' means that customers and
  employees will always have first priority

• Development departments in Denmark In Smørum,
  Helsingør and Thisted.
• Around 3500 employees worldwide

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Oticon 'Penguin First'

• No hearing aids without Linux!
• Much platform development done on Linux machines
  
• Design and verification of integrated circuits
  using Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools
• Design and verification of the Digital Signal
  Processing (DSP)?

• Build- and test-robots for nightly builds and
  regression tests

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Our server park seen from the NIX view -)?

• Linux compute servers
• Linux GUI servers
• Active Directory
• Unix file servers
• Gigabit network

Linux compute servers EDA tools
Linux GUI servers VNC,NX, Diskless
Unix file servers NFS, NIS,SAN
Active Directory Windows, DNS, DHCP,AUTH
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Work-split IT/Development dept.

• Development dept. handles the machines
• OS and updates
• HW-benchmarks and selection
• Tool installations
• User setup
• IT handles the 'backbone'
• Monitoring and incidents
• Accounts (NIS and AD)?
• File servers and network
• HW purchase and maintenance

Linux compute servers EDA tools
Linux GUI servers VNC,NX, Diskless
Unix file servers NFS, NIS,SAN
Active Directory Windows, DNS, DHCP, AUTH
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Users and admins

• 3000 Windows XP users worldwide locally 650
  users
• Around 90 Linux usersAlmost all users are
  engineers and Linux skilled
• Around 20 Super Linux usersPeople that manages
  Linux systems themselves and very likely have
  Linux as hobby!
• 3 Linux administrators People with the root
  password. Two handling the 'backbone' and one
  handling the setups.

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Support process and ITIL

• Oticon uses some of the best practices from ITIL
  and most important
• Incident management
• User problems and wishes
• Server problems - e.g. disk full
• Change management
• For every new installation
• Larger OS/service/HW updates
• Back-out plans
• Assures everything is made thoroughly

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Version control and backup

• All scripts are managed in CVS or Perforce
• All products code and documentations ends up
  in Perforce
• Almost all tools are handled by (T. Oetikers)
  SEPP package system mounted on all servers
• All IT related documentation is put in Documentum
  
• Root volumes and all shares are backed up
  remotely

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Clients thin

• Thin Linux clients at Oticon are fat Windows
  machines running VNC or Nomachine/NX
• The NX/VNC session is permanent and often lasts
  months the users often leaves the applications
  open!
• From the permanent GUI session the user runs jobs
  on the grid system
• The majority of Linux users at Oticon only use
  thin clients from Windows

Compute serversSun Grid Engine
GUI server VNC-server
Windows PC VNC-client
Unix file servers
Active Directory
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Clients fat

• Use the Windows PC as diskless Linux PC
• NFSROOT on Unix file server
• PXE not used CD boot disk instead
• Auto configuration of HW enables same image to
  many PC's
• Very easy administration
• Ubuntu is your friend!Loads of howtos available.

Linux compute servers
Linux compute servers
Linux compute servers
Compute servers Sun Grid Engine
Linux PCGUI server
Unix file servers
Active Directory
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Clients fat ... 2

• You need cfg-storage per mac address ? we use
  UnionFS
• A fat, diskless client is much better than using
  thin clients when you
• have already Windows machines with enough RAM and
  CPU to run your tools
• want to save workload on the server park
• need real personal Linux PC's
• want to ease administration

Linux compute servers
Linux compute servers
Linux compute servers
Compute servers Sun Grid Engine
Linux PCGUI server
Unix file servers
Active Directory
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Authentication/Login

• NIS is usedLinux users must have a NIS account
• OpenSSH runs on all machines
• Every user has ssh-keys and uses ssh-agent to
  cache passwd

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Authentication/Login ... continued

• Active Directory / Windows users/passwords (AD)
  login is also possible
• AD passwords are used in web-apps, version
  control and samba- shares

• Goal ONE password for everything

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File shares / NFS

• We have two SAN (disk arrays)?
• NFS shares spread to all Linux machines
• Also accessible to Windows via SAMBA
• NIS is not used for auto mounts any more

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Server hardware selection

• More's law still applies -Each year we double
  performance, disk-size, disk-usage
• A server evaluation matrix covers all our
  activities with main focus on the most expensive
  licenses
• The price of hardware much less than price of
  EDA tool licenses
• Performance and stability !!!

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Virtualization/VMware/Xen

• Oticon uses virtualized servers for both Windows
  and Linux
• For Linux we have 20 VMware based workstations
  and 2 Xen based
• A nice tool for splitting a big server in smaller
  parts
• Goal Personal GUI server creates less problems

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Choice of OS distributions

• Compute server distro choice follows EDA tool
  recommendations
• NFS/NIS runs on dedicated Solaris servers
• GUI server distro choice based on - ease of
  administration- support community

Linux compute servers Red Hat Enterprise
Linux GUI serversWorkstations Ubuntu
NFS/NIS Solaris / Red Hat Enterprise
Active Directory MS Server 2003
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Surveillance

• SNMP (Net-SNMP) is installed on all servers
• Centralized monitoring of 'everything'
• SMS's and emails sent when problems occur e.g.
  load, memory used, lack of service
• Goals 'Reasonable uptime'

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Sun Grid Engine
Linux GUISession

• Load balancing very necessary
• Compute servers run by SGE
• Seen from GUI servers the grid is one big machine
• ONE pool of resources CPU, RAM, licenses ...
• Supported by EDA tools

Job submit or interactive
CPU's
Licenses
Memory
...
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Licene handling

• IC development tool licenses are VERY expensive
• We use FlexLM for almost all our licenses
• Grid/SGE communicates with FlexLM to synchronize
  vacant license counts
• All licenses are grid-resources you request when
  you submit a job ?Ensures maximum license
  utilization
• We monitor license usage and often remix them
  according to present needs

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SEPP package handling
python-2.5.1 myjob.py

• Tools are mounted on all machines using NFS
• SEPP supplies us with handling of multi-site,
  multi platform, multi version and toolarch
  bootstrapping
• Almost all our tools are installed in SEPP

64 bitLinux?
Red Hat 5?
/usr/pack/python-2.5.1/x86_64_RH5/bin/python
myjob.py
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Eye candy

• Compiz/Beryl great for ..... 'people who have
  time enough newbies' -)?
• Few people still use it after some time but there
  are still fans
• 'Scale' feature is very usable for IC layout

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Demo's if we have time
http//tyge.sslug.dk/chenriks/OSD2008
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Links

• Oticon http//www.oticon.dk
• Oticon jobs http//www.jobs.oticon.dk
• This material http//tyge.sslug.dk/chenriks/OSD2
  008
• SEPP package handling http//www.sepp.ee.ethz.ch/
  
• Ubuntu disklesshowtohttps//help.ubuntu.com/comm
  unity/DisklessUbuntuHowto
• Sun Grid Environmenthttp//www.sun.com/software/
  grid/
• Ubuntu Active Directory howtohttp//ubuntuforums
  .org/archive/index.php/t-91510.html
• Dabuntu Ubuntu remaster http//tyge.sslug.dk/da
  buntu

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? !