Windows Information System Open Source Code Platform Porting Guide

Author: Xie Yongqiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: This book provides reference suggestions on technical decisions and organizational implementation for the process of migrating information systems from the Windows platform to the open-source Linux platform. It is divided into three main parts and an appendix: Introduction, Information System Migration Technical Guide, Information System Migration Implementation Guide. The Introduction covers basic information system migration, key issues in migration, and decision-making recommendations for migration. The Technical Guide includes descriptions of migrating various functional components such as operating system environments, file systems, print services, network services, system auditing and management services, directory services, authentication services, web services, databases, groupware construction models, terminal servers and thin clients, desktop Office applications, middleware technologies, high-availability systems, and other functional components. The Implementation Guide covers the organization and implementation of information system migration, strategies and examples for full replacement of information systems, and strategies and examples for partial replacement of information systems. The appendix provides a reference table of functional software corresponding to the Windows platform and the open-source Linux platform. This book serves as a bridge for readers to migrate information systems from the Windows platform to the open-source Linux platform, making it suitable for information system decision-makers, managers, and technical engineers in various industries. It can also be used as a reference book for teachers and students in the IT industry.
Preface
The book features of this book Currently, there are numerous technical manuals, training materials, and engineering practice books on the Linux platform in China, but few books and teaching materials specifically guide information systems in migrating from Microsoft Windows to open-source Linux platforms in terms of technology and management. This book adopts a comparative approach between Windows environment functional components and Linux environment functional components, following the logic of "Basic Concepts of Information System Migration → Description of Information System Functional Components in Windows Environment → Migration Methods of Functional Components in Linux Environment → Decision-Making and Organizational Implementation of Information System Migration Projects." It provides a comprehensive description of the technical, strategic, and organizational implementation issues involved in migrating information systems built on the Microsoft Windows platform to the Linux platform, enabling information system decision-makers, managers, and developers to understand, accept, and apply the open-source Linux platform with rational thinking.
Reading Guide
Chapter 1: Basic Concepts of Information System Migration. This chapter first describes the development history of the Windows operating system and open-source platforms, then lists the typical composition environments of Windows information systems and open-source Linux information systems, and finally discusses the reasons for migrating Windows-based information systems to open-source Linux platforms and the main content involved in migration.
Chapter 2: Key Issues in Information System Migration. This chapter primarily describes several key issues to consider when migrating information systems from the Windows platform to open-source platforms, including technical feasibility analysis, human factors in migration, benefit evaluation in migration, and the impact of new information system technologies on the migration process.
Chapter 3: Decision-Making Recommendations for Information System Migration. This chapter first describes the systematic decision-making process for information system migration, including IT strategic stages, economic benefit evaluation, standard reference stages, product selection stages, and solution implementation stages. It then discusses full migration methods and partial migration methods from the Windows platform to the open-source platform, and finally proposes general recommendations for information system migration.
Chapter 4: Operating System Environment Migration. This chapter primarily discusses the migration process of adding GNU/Linux servers and GNU/Linux desktops in a Windows domain and replacing existing Windows clients with Linux systems.
Chapter 5: File System Migration. This chapter focuses on the permission management and access control of the NTFS file system in the Windows environment, as well as some special functions to consider when migrating the file system to Linux. In file system migration, Samba can be used to directly replace Windows servers, while Windows clients can remain unchanged. The operation mode of Samba is completely similar to that of Windows servers for Windows clients.
Chapter 6: Print Service Migration. This chapter primarily discusses the print service environment in the Windows environment and the methods for migrating print services to Linux systems. It first discusses the print environment in Linux, proposes two printing methods in Windows—direct printing and using a print server for printing—and focuses on the "point-and-print" method. In the Linux environment, the standard for printing is CUPS, which is supported by most major Linux system distributors. CUPS is designed to be cross-platform because it implements IPP and also supports other related printing protocols such as LPR/LPD, Socket/AppSocket, SMB/CIFS, and MS-RPC. This chapter provides a complete print system migration solution by combining CUPS and Samba.
Chapter 7: Network Service Migration. This chapter primarily discusses migration solutions for typical network services such as WINS, DNS, and DHCP. Among them, WINS is the Windows Internet Names Service protocol, which is implemented by the nmbd component of the Samba software package in Linux systems, while Bind9 provides DNS services, and dhcpd provides DHCP services.
Chapter 8: System Auditing and Management Service Migration. This chapter discusses the migration of system auditing and management services. Windows has very limited system management tools, and their functions are also very limited. Third-party tools are often used, and some of them can also be used in Linux systems. In addition to using Linux-native tools (such as cron/at), there are many commercial Linux products and OSS solutions for system management, such as Nagios, which is a tool for service visualization and auditing. However, there is no complete, highly integrated, pure OSS solution for all system management yet.
Chapter 9: Directory Service Migration. This chapter primarily discusses the migration of Windows Active Directory services to Linux systems. It first introduces Windows directory services, the Kerberos authentication mechanism, and the DNS name space, and then provides a migration solution for migrating Windows Active Directory services using Linux/OpenLDAP. Using OpenLDAP as an OSS solution will bring many benefits during the migration process, especially in achieving user-friendly authentication services.
Chapter 10: Authentication Service Migration. This chapter first discusses the authentication services in the Windows environment, introducing the important role of Windows domains in managing user authentication, and focusing on the authentication mechanisms and directory service functions of Windows domains. During the migration process, this chapter proposes a combined authentication service migration solution of Linux/OpenLDAP and Samba, which can use the Samba service to provide similar functions to Windows clients as a replacement for Windows' primary domain controller.
Chapter 11: Web Service Migration. This chapter describes the basic concepts of web service systems on the Windows platform, cross-platform XML language, and the basic characteristics of the mainstream web server ISS in the Windows environment. It focuses on the characteristics of the Apache server in the Linux environment and discusses the migration methods from ISS servers to Apache servers.
Chapter 12: Database Migration. This chapter discusses the relevant technologies for migrating database systems from the Windows platform to the Linux environment. It indicates that there are sufficient OSS products that can be used as solutions to replace SQL Server for migration, with important representatives such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Firebird, and SAPDB. At the same time, there are also enterprise-level database management systems like Oracle and DB2, which provide Linux solutions and lay the foundation for enterprise-level applications on Linux.
The above OSS products have different functional characteristics and must be analyzed one by one to determine their adaptability to different application background needs.
Chapter 13: Groupware Construction Model Migration. This chapter discusses the migration process of groupware construction models, focusing on analyzing and researching various solutions for replacing Exchange 5.5 and subsequent products like Exchange 2000 with Linux-based solutions. For groupware construction model systems, migration can be to a heterogeneous environment or a pure OSS environment. When migrating to a heterogeneous environment, Linux-based server-side systems can be used, while clients can remain fully based on Windows systems like MS Outlook. Alternatively, the Exchange system can still be retained on the server side, while clients use Linux systems. Research shows that migrating groupware construction model systems to a pure OSS product environment based on Linux is also entirely feasible.
Chapter 14: Terminal Server and Thin Client Migration. This chapter discusses the migration process of terminal servers and thin clients. Since the protocols used by Linux/UNIX systems inherently support terminal services in general terms, the migration of terminal services and thin clients is very intuitive and feasible. Considering the overall IT strategy of public institutions, for reasons including security, public institutions' information platforms should be established as much as possible on open-source software rather than products from a single software company. Therefore, LTSP projects and NX terminal server projects based on Linux can achieve multiple different technical solutions.
Chapter 15: Desktop Office Application Migration. This chapter discusses the migration process of desktop Office applications. In addition to considering costs alone, technical considerations are also quite important, especially regarding document format changes. MS Office 2003 documents can be stored in XML format, but since the key parts of their format definitions are not publicly disclosed, this does not mean that Microsoft Office has become an open format. Data documents in critical applications should still not be stored in MS Office format. Although there are some complex issues such as complete format compatibility, the OpenOffice/StarOffice migration solution has already most of the capabilities to replace Microsoft desktop Office applications, especially in terms of migrating Word, Excel, PowerPoint documents, migrating integrated external applications, migrating macros and OLE/COM, and migrating programming environments, which have become increasingly mature.
Chapter 16: Middleware Technology Migration. This chapter discusses the application migration process of middleware technology. Middleware technology is an inevitable result of software system development, which can effectively improve software development efficiency, control software complexity, and COM/DCOM technology and middleware solutions based on the .Net platform have become the focus of complex application software systems on the Microsoft platform. With the development of middleware technology on the Linux platform, CORBA technology in the GNOME desktop environment and J2EE platform technology have become the preferred solutions for complex software development on Linux. Due to their platform independence, once they are successfully migrated, they will lay a solid foundation for future business expansion.
Chapter 17: High-Availability System Migration. This chapter discusses solutions for high-availability (HA) systems in the Linux environment. Windows systems do not dominate the HA field, and most specialized HA solutions rely on UNIX. Currently, the Linux platform has many HA solutions, some of which are derived from traditional UNIX solutions or are newly developed by programmers. As Linux enterprise applications grow, the demand for this will continue to increase.
Chapter 18: Other Functional Component Technology Migration. This chapter covers some content not included in the previous chapters, such as virus protection, time services, desktop management, backup and recovery, and supplements the application migration technology guide in this book.
Chapter 19: Organization and Implementation of Information System Migration. This chapter introduces some important issues to consider in the organization and implementation of migrating information systems from specific Windows environments to OSS environments, including determining migration goals, selecting decision-makers and user involvement timing, technical prerequisites for migration implementation, organizational structure for migration implementation, migration implementation plans, migration control and management, and user and administrator training.
Migration is not just about purchasing and implementing the required functional components. It also requires considering further related activities at the beginning, during, and after migration to ensure the success of the migration process.
Chapter 20: Strategies and Examples of Full Replacement Information System Migration. This chapter discusses the general functional migration examples that any organizational structure's information system needs to perform when adopting a full replacement migration strategy, as well as special functional migration examples for different application environments such as large and medium-sized organizations, special institutions providing IT services, and small organizations. Migration examples show that it is almost always possible to find OSS and/or COLS products with similar functions as Microsoft products to fully replace them.
Chapter 21: Strategies and Examples of Partial Replacement Information System Migration. This chapter discusses the strategies and examples of partial replacement information system migration when adopting a selective migration strategy. The most important thing to ensure in migrating to a Linux-based server system is that it can interact normally with Windows-based clients after migration. Although selective migration does not usually bring significant cost advantages, when making actual decisions, considering factors such as urgency comprehensively, selective migration can be a frequently adopted migration strategy.
Appendix A: Reference Table of Functional Software Corresponding to the Windows Information System Platform and the Open-Source Linux Platform.