EZblue Linux server makes administration easy
EZblue Software touts EZblue Business Server as "a fully integrated [L]inux server. It has a built-in file server, print server, Web server, mail server, and a whole lot more" -- just like many other distributions, of course.
One place where EZblue attempts to distinguish itself for its target market of small and medium businesses (SMB) running Windows on their desktops and laptops is by offering the proprietary Magellan Desktop application for Windows, which "enables Windows XP, 2000, and 98SE users to have fast and easy access to their files and folders stored on the EZblue server." EZblue offers straightfoward, no-nonsense configuration replete with easy-to-understand GUIs and wizards, giving administrators a logical way to set up and manage the server.
You can download a CD for a 30-day trial or have one mailed to you; after 30 days you must purchase a license to continue using the product. The guide that comes with the CD is clear and concise, and includes directions for installing and configuring the server, setting up the Magellan desktop and mapping shares from the server, and setting up the Hamachi VPN module. The guide has a few misspellings but was easy to follow. Unfortunately, it did not come with much information about configuring Linux or Mac clients.
EZblue pricing ranges from $149 for the Standard edition up to $595 for the Enterprise Edition. The company also offers a tower server, LittleBlue, that comes pre-installed with the Standard Edition for $495.
The install
Our test environment included a server with two dual-core AMD Opteron processors running at 2.6GHz, 4GB of memory, a single SATA drive, and two Gigabit Ethernet network cards. We kept this test server on an isolated network with a gigabit switch between the server and the laptop we used as the client.
The installation procedure divided the hard drive into two partitions, one for / and the other for /DataDisk/Disk01, neither of which is encrypted. The installer offers no other option for partitions, so the install takes over the entire hard drive.
The installation procedure starts as text, switches to curses, and remains that way even after it reboots the server. There doesn't appear to be any X Window session running on the server, which helps keep overhead low. After a brief listing of the hardware it finds, the installer copies the installation image onto the newly formatted hard drive. On our system it was ready for a reboot in just under seven minutes. We were presented with a warning, "Do NOT remove the CD or change BIOS settings. EZblue Linux Server uses the CD to run." Following the directions and booting from the CD does not re-install the server, although you do get a timed prompt that allows you to go into recovery mode if need be.
After the system boots again, it prompts for some basic configuration information for the network and the admin/root password, and checks for updates. We were then presented with a curses menu asking what client OS we were going to connect with. If you select anything other than Windows, EZblue tells you to point a Web browser to the IP address you were just assigned over port 8080 to begin configuring the services. Windows users are additionally instructed to download .Net and the Magellan Desktop application before logging in. Finishing these steps brought us to an information screen with the connection IP address and port.
