One day, we have the need to create a fast cluster of linux machine, specialized and easy to segragate in different networks (for better security). We need web servers, integration servers (running java hudson), huge developer machines (running for instance eclispe) and so on.

It was not easy to find a good environment. This research lead us also to consider a very huge set of different and complex management software. In this series of article, we will show what we discovered.

Or final goal is to have a way to define a set of linux virutal machines, connect them and manage all using open source software. We also want tools easy to understand. We do not want super-optimized stuff, we have the “just it works well” approach.

We thinked about these types of virtual machine: super light LAMP servers, medim sized java tomcat servers (or udson servers), big database machines and super big development machines.

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After working with unix for years, we noticed it is difficult to get a very uniform approach to unix management.

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Working in a big company, my work laptop came with MS-Windows7 Enterprise installed. But as you imagine, Unix is my preferred desktop environment. So let’s how to configure a perfect Debian Linux for a old wolf consultant like me. You will be able to install commercial software mubmo jumbo like Oracle Express and IBM Websphere in a snap, and have a 64 rock solid system, easy to bring in a USB stick if you like.

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