JumpBox Official Blog

While not on our list of officially supported virtualization platforms, a JumpBox will run on Microsoft Hyper-V with a little tweaking. Here’s a 5min screencast tutorial that walks you through the steps involved. Hyper-V is the virtualization technology that comes on Windows Server 2008, you can read more about it here.

Hello,
We’ve done it again, this time traveling across the Atlantic to the country of France to bring you this newest addition to JumpBox Open.

Introducing the JumpBox for GLPI – IT and Asset Management System

GLPI helps you manage and track IT equipment, like computers, software, peripherals, and consumables, and their associated maintenance, documentation, and help desk requests.

GLPI stands for “Gestionnaire libre de parc informatique” (loosely translated as “Free IT Manager”) but with available support for 22 languages you don’t need to “Parlez-Vous Français” to use it. GLPI should prove useful to small and mid-sized in-house IT organizations as well as outside service providers who manage computers, etc. for others. GLPI’s additional benefits include easy management of equipment documentation, including operating procedures, FAQ’s, and lease agreements, help desk functionality that allows users to directly request help desk support, and job tracking and routing. Additionally, GLPI enables multi-user, multi-location use, and features a mail notification system which can deliver help desk requests directly to technicians.

Special Note: GLPI can be combined with another application, OCS Inventory NG,
to enable auto-discovery, inventory visualization, and application deployment to
monitored computers. Would you find that combination useful? Please let us know and we’ll do it!

Find out more about GLPI: From GLPI’s website, the JumpBox for GLPI web page and our

Ramp Up screencast for the JumpBox for GLPI

(Psst, it’s in the post below. Quick before you miss it!)

Our series of screencasts to help you “Ramp Up” and get started quickly with JumpBox applications continues.

Manage JumpBoxes on Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) with Amazon’s new web-based console
Last year we knocked the skin off the ball, crushed the bat over our knee, and trotted the bases throwing up the peace sign when we made our library of JumpBox applications available on EC2, a service which allows you to rent computing power to run your applications. Amazon has recently released a web-based point and click interface that allows you to manage those JumpBoxes on EC2 much easier.

The Amazon Web Services Management Console gives you the ability to start and stop EC2 instances (such as JumpBox AMI’s) and view and perform actions on running on those instances. Upcoming features of the console include the ability to manage Amazon’s S3 data storage service, which is supported by the JumpBox backup system. This new interface means < a href=”http://www.jumpbox.com/jumpbox-open#subscription-plans”>Premium and Plus subscribers, whose subscriptions automatically include access to all JumpBox AMI’s, as well as the general public, who can access the 12 free JumpBox AMI’s, no longer have to download any software or plugins to manage JumpBox instances. JumpBox deployments just keep getting easier.

And now ladies and gentlemen…it’s time for

Updated Applications!!!! (crowd roars!!!)


JumpBox for Joomla 1.5

Joomla! is an award-winning Content Management System (CMS) that will help you build websites and other powerful online applications.

The Joomla! community has updated Joomla! version 1.5.8 to 1.5.9. This is a security release and users are strongly encouraged to upgrade immediately. JumpBox version 1.1.8 (updated from 1.1.7) includes this Joomla! application update.

JumpBox for OpenFire

OpenFire is a real-time collaboration server that enables instant messaging. Based around the open Jabber XMPP protocol, OpenFire provides private and public instant messaging and group chat with support for any client that supports Jabber.

The OpenFire community has update OpenFire from version 3.6.2 to 3.6.3. The release includes fixes to a few minor bugs. JumpBox version 1.1.2 (updated from 1.1.1) includes this OpenFire application update.
JumpBox for Drupal 5.x

Drupal 5.x is a content management system that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of web content.

The Drupal community has updated Drupal from version 5.14 to 5.15. This release fixes security vulnerabilities and sites are urged to upgrade immediately.
JumpBox version 1.1.9 updated to 1.1.10 includes this Drupal 5.x application update.
JumpBox for Drupal 6.x

The Drupal community has also updated Drupal 6.x, from version 6.8 to 6.9. This release fixes security vulnerabilities and again, sites are urged to upgrade immediately. JumpBox version 1.1.7, updated to 1.1.8 includes this Drupal release.

Premium and Plus subscriptions to JumpBox Open include the ability to use all JumpBox AMI’s on EC2. Here are just a few benefits:

• Use JumpBoxes on EC2 as a lab environment to keep your systems administration investment low while you test the viability of applications.
• Instantly scale your application to meet spikes in traffic or demand. Traffic crash your site? Not likely with a JumpBox on EC2. When your JumpBox’s computing requirements change, Amazon EC2 can instantly respond, providing more power. No compromises, no up-front investment.

Live the simple life out there people. No hardware, no software, no stress.

No wife telling you to cook more often you lazy so and so, no arguing with your daughter to do that darn homework, no going to the pantry to get your hidden box of Mike and Ike’s only to find that your little son found them first. Man, all of them! No going to the… Oh wait. Uh, never mind all that.

You want stress free living? JumpBox Open

Do you have a reliable system for tracking assets within your company? If you’re using a spreadsheet for this task (or worse, no system at all) you stand to benefit from using an asset tracking system like the GLPI application. GLPI gives you a single view of hardware and software assets in your company and allows you to:

1. Maintain an accurate inventory of company assets
2. Receive alerts on expiration of support contracts and software licenses
3. Ensure proper software licensing compliance for an audit
4. Generate a spreadsheet of assets to create a depreciation schedule
5. Run basic help desk infrastructure within your organization
6. Integrate with an existing user authentication system like LDAP
7. Locate any item by various criteria like name, department or location

This tutorial is intended to give you the motivation and instruction you need to get started with GLPI. In the next twenty-five minutes we’ll run through the basics of GLPI using our fictitious lemonade stand company. We’ll use the JumpBox for GLPI to demonstrate the above capabilities and you’ll come away with an overview of the application and everything you need to get started using it within your own organization.

Below is the video, a time-coded table of contents, the widget to launch your own private instance and the backup file that contains the final state of the application used in the tutorial. Leave a comment if you have questions.

Hello World,
Effective monitoring of network infrastructure is one of the most important tasks an IT organization faces. Network downtime costs money, time, productivity, and even reputation. Administrators, are you exposing yourself or your organization to this possibility? Without a robust network monitoring solution you might be. If you’ve shyed from initiating a network monitoring system due to traditional complexity, or time to implementation, we’re here to help.

Introducing the JumpBox for Nagios 3
Nagios 3 monitors your hosts and services, delivering alerts to you via email, cellphone, or pager when problems occur. When Nagios gives you the call, its configurable web interface will provide you with detailed network status information from any internet-enabled browser. No matter where you are, you’ll know just what your network is up against. Nagios 3 provides improved flexibility, ease of use and extensibility, and performance enhancements over Nagios 2, allowing you to manage and monitor large deployments more efficiently. JumpBox Open subscribers can save the time and effort associated with installation, and get straight to configuration. The JumpBox for Nagios 3 deploys in minutes.

If you’re not a subscriber (and why not!), you’re in luck. The JumpBox for Nagios 2 is available as a free download.

Look a few posts below and ‘Ramp Up’ with JumpBox screencasts
We’re producing a series of screencasts that will help you “Ramp Up” and get started quickly with JumpBox applications.  If you’re looking for help managing, sharing, and storing your team’s documents and images, grab a JumpBox for KnowledgeTree, a screencast, and Ramp Up quickly.

Updated JumpBox applications:

JumpBox for Redmine

Keep your projects on track. Redmine is an open source, web-based project management and bug-tracking tool. Redmine supports multiple projects and includes calendar and gantt charts to aid visual representation of projects and their deadlines.

The Redmine community has updated Redmine 0.7.3 to 0.8.0. This new release fixes a number of bugs and adds new features including: a cross-project search engine, cross-project time report, free ticket filtering on calendar and gantt, ticket integration via emails, wiki page protection and hierarchy, and user’s activity view. The JumpBox version 1.1.2 (updated from 1.1.3) includes this release.

For more applications that deploy quickly to enable your organizations success…

(do we have to say it?)

We grew our labor force by 16% last week with the addition of our newest team member.
David (bottom left) joins us as Senior Software Architect and will be primarily working to strengthen the JumpBox platform and add some powerful features to the “Rapid Trial widget.” David’s trading card reads as follows:

David hails from local software company Happy Camper Studios, a company he founded in 2004. He has been involved in numerous software projects including the Monkeybars GUI library the Rawr packaging tool, and the Gemini game engine, all JRuby based. David has also been active in education, speaking frequently at local tech events like the Desert Code Camp as well as national events such as SXSW and Community One. He currently teaches software development courses at the Art Institute of Phoenix. In his spare time David plays ice hockey and soccer but admits that these sports account for only a small percentage of the scars he currently has (we’re still trying to convince David not to play in cactus patches).

At any rate, we’re excited to have David on board. Many of the platform advancements you’ll see in the coming months will be a direct result of his efforts. Please give him a warm welcome (ie. here’s your chance to curry favor with him and lobby for that feature you’ve been wanting to see).

How do you currently store and share documents within your company? If you’re not using a document management system there’s room to make things more efficient by setting up an open source application like Knowledge Tree. Benefits from moving from a traditional file-based approach to a database-backended system include:

1. Maintain a versioned history for every document
2. Have granular access controls over who can see & do what
3. Assign tags and custom meta data to folders and files for more meaningful search
4. Setup workflows to automate notifications for common approval processes
5. Delegate administrative authority to atomic business units
6. Have powerful search and custom query features

This tutorial is intended to give you the motivation and instruction you need to get started with Knowledge Tree. In the next twenty-five minutes we’ll walk through the “how & why” of the steps involved in moving a fictitious lemonade stand company from a filesystem-based approach into using Knowledge Tree. We’ll use the JumpBox for Knowledge Tree demonstrate the above features and you’ll come away with a convenient reference that will allow you to do the same for your organization.

Below is the video, a time-coded table of contents, the widget to launch your own private instance and the backup file that contains the final state of the application used in the tutorial. Leave a comment if you have questions. We plan to start releasing these videos regularly as we believe they’re the missing piece that will help people get started with these powerful applications.

It’s a brand new year!