From a Distance

As a rule, you will not want to manage the Karoshi server directly on the system's desktop, but administer the services from a workstation on the intranet. It does not have to use Linux. To do this, call up the address https://<Server-IP>:50001 in the remote computer's web browser.

Since access to the Karoshi server is exclusively encrypted via HTTPS, a security warning appears the first time you try to access it in the web browser; you need to set up an exception for this. Then authenticate against the server in the usual way with your username and password.

Division of Labor

Since Karoshi lets you distribute the server services across several computers on the intranet, you may need to assign maintenance tasks to several administrators, especially for larger infrastructures. Even in schools, several teachers might manage the different server systems. For this purpose, the primary admin creates additional administrator accounts that fill three roles under Karoshi. In addition to primary administrators, there are conventional admins and technicians.

Primary administrators have access to the entire feature set and can also make other users administrators. While traditional admins have access to the entire system, they are not allowed to grant or revoke administrator privileges to other users. In the role of technician, users only have access to selected administration areas.

Clients

The client for your workstations can also be found on the project site. Since the developers have coordinated the client and server, the client does not require any complicated network configuration work. After booting the client from the DVD, select in the GRUB boot menu whether you want the system to boot in live mode or to complete the installation directly.

The live system opens a simple Xfce desktop with some icons on the desktop; the Karoshi Setup starter lets you configure the system. If you decide to install the software, a lean Ubiquity installer is fired up and quickly bundles the operating system onto your hard disk.

After a restart, the configuration routine, which opens a connection to the router, is automatically loaded. In addition, the system tries to directly connect to the domain controller; it should also be logged onto the intranet at this point. The intranet connection must be via Ethernet, however. WiFi access did not work in our lab. Although the routine detects the WiFi interface and also sets up the corresponding kernel module, it does not offer a dialog for entering the SSID or the WPA2 key.

The client setup routine prompts you for the username and password of a user already created on the server, as well as some server data during the initial configuration. You must have created at least one other user on the Karoshi server in addition to the administration account. After entering the corresponding access credentials, the client routine configures access to the server, restarts the system, and logs on to the server. The client desktop shows more icons, because now the Samba shares also appear.

When creating the client user on the server, you will want to carefully assign the appropriate groups to avoid clients gaining access to folders that later on will not be intended for them. You can set these options in the Members column of the User and Groups | Group Management dialog, where you set the desired configuration for each group member.

The administrator can also see which users are logged on to a server using the Client | Client connections option in the configuration dialog. After selecting a server, the system lists the currently active computers. On the Linux client itself, you can open the server's web configuration with the Karoshi Management starter on the desktop.