If you’re running multiple JumpBoxes there are some compelling reasons to centralize your authentication using the JumpBox for OpenLDAP:

• Convenience for you: You’ll have just one set of users to maintain. As you add more applications and more users to each over time the number of accounts to manage multiplies and becomes unwieldily. Having a single centralized directory keeps the complexity of account maintenance in check.
• Convenience for your users: Having centralized authentication means your users need only remember one set of credentials for all systems. If they change their password it propagates across all applications so there’s no more confusion caused by having to remember different login/password combinations for each.
• Less likelihood of rogue access credentials: Since there’s only one directory to maintain you can rest assured that removing a user from that system will revoke his/her privileges across all systems. This helps reduce the risk of having legacy orphaned accounts that linger in certain systems after employees leave.

If you’re sold on the value of centralized auth let’s make it happen! The video below demonstrates the full process (20min) of how to set up OpenLDAP integration amongst three different JumpBoxes: SugarCRM, KnowledgeTree and Redmine. Each application handles LDAP slightly differently so you’re integrating other apps you’ll need to research the app-specific documentation but this demo shows how to do it for these apps. And if you want to work alongside the tutorial you can use the widgets below to launch your own private instances. Enjoy!

*Tip: To view video at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen.

Our team has been hard at work and it’s with great pride that we announce the availability of the much-anticipated JumpBox for Asterisk. Asterisk is self-described as “the world’s most powerful and popular telephony development tool-kit.” It’s a set of building blocks that allows one to construct phone-based applications. Components can be stacked together to build rich interfaces including functionality like a:

• VoIP Gateway
• Skype Gateway
• IP PBX
• Call Center ACD
• Conference Bridge
• IVR Server
• Voicemail System
• Call Recorder
• Fax Server
• Speech Server

The JumpBox for Asterisk bundles the popular Free PBX GUI for simplified administration as well as the Sipstation plugin for the quickest possible path to get up and running. Check out the screencast below for a ten minute primer on how to use it to make your first call to a real telephone. This is one of our subscriber-only JumpBoxes but you can try it immediately without a subscription using our Cloud Gear service. No upfront fees, nothing to download or install and you pay only pennies per hour to run it as long as you need. Enjoy!

*Tip: To view video at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen.

StatusNet is an Open Source microblogging system that gives you Twitter-like functionality with the ability to run it behind a firewall on your network. The most noteworthy features of StatusNet include:

• Shallow learning curve: StatusNet uses many of the same concepts and syntax from Twitter so if you’re familiar with that microblogging system it should be very easy for you to transition to using this one.
• Run it securely on your network: You can run it entirely behind your corporate firewall and block access to the public Internet making it as secure as your internal network.
• Extensible: StatusNet has a plugin architecture that allows anyone to write add-ons that extend its functionality.
• Sync it with a Twitter account: It’s possible to link your StatusNet system with Twitter and have one drive the other.
• Access it via multiple methods: SMS, email, instant messenger and native desktop clients are all supported as alternative UI’s to the web interface.
• Hashtags, Search, Favorites and Groups: Various means exist for sorting, searching and tracking topics and individuals in the system giving you ultimate flexibility in how your choose to monitor information.

Twitter often is perceived with a negative stigma when talking about work productivity. But StatusNet gives you all the awareness and presence advantages of a microblogging mechanism only as a tool that you control on your terms.

In this video we’ll cover the fundamentals for getting started with the JumpBox for StatusNet. By the end of the video you’ll have what you need to be up and running with it. Enjoy!

Launch this JumpBox on Cloud Gear

Follow along with the tutorial using only your browser.

*Tip: To view video at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen.

Omeka is a content management system specially designed for people who need to host a collection of digital objects. Museums, libraries and schools will find this JumpBox particularly useful as it yields a comprehensive, standards-compliant set of metadata for each item. The notable features of this system include:

• Easily skinnable: Change the look of your site with ease by installing themes.
• Extensible via plugins: Add new functionality like an exhibit wizard or a bulk uploader via the plugin system. Or write your own and contribute it to the Omeka community.
• Tiered access permissions: Assign varying levels of access to people based on what they need to see and do. Designate someone as a curator of a certain collection.
• Output formats: Make your collections discoverable and re-mixable by exposing items in JSON, RSS, XML and ATOM formats.

In this video we’ll cover the bare essentials of getting started with Omeka to make your first collection. Enjoy!

Launch this JumpBox on Cloud Gear

Follow along with the tutorial using only your browser.

*Tip: To view video at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen.

Do you need to create a dynamic web site that can be maintained by multiple people in your organization? Joomla is an extremely popular Open Source content management system and is known for its intuitiveness and simplicity. It’s noteworthy features include:

• Thousands of themes and extensions: Joomla has a vibrant ecosystem of theme and plugin developers who extend the functionality of the software to do just about anything imaginable.
• Intuitive editing of content: The “edit in place” style of content management is intuitive and means that even the most non-technical folks in your organization can maintain their own web pages. This translates to less burden on IT, more real-time and accurate content with fewer errors.
• Tiered access permissions: Users can be granted varying levels of permissions to give them only the access they need. They can be merely registered to receive email, able to submit new content, able to edit existing content and able to publish content to the live site.
• Highly configurable: The system is highly customizable via the web based administration console. Page caching, search engine friendly URLs and page metadata can all be easily adjusted without having to wade through readme’s and .ini files.

In this video we’ll cover the fundamentals of working with Joomla to build a web site. Enjoy!

*Tip: To view video at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen.

Sakai is an Open Source collaborative learning environment that contains everything necessary to deliver an effective eLeaning program. The JumpBox packages the rSmart distribution of Sakai which is a refined version of the Open source Sakai project with enhancements like additional modules and an improved user interface. Sakai can be used to deliver an entirely online learning experience or used as a supplement to traditional in-person coursework. Some of the more notable features include:

• Personal Workspace: Each user in the system has a personal dashboard that aggregates information from across all courses he or she is taking. This gives the user, whether student or teacher, a centralized view of all relevant info from calendars, assignments, digital media and other resources from their respective classes.
• Extensive built-in modules: Sakai bundles numerous modules that can be activated on a case-by-case basis for each course depending on its requirements. Chatrooms, grade book functionality, realtime virtual meetings, attendance measuring, discussion forums, wiki and dropbox features are among the many modules available.
• Portfolio Sites: Teachers and students alike can display their achievements and share their research using the Portfolio Sites feature.
• Intuitive navigation: The latest version offers an improved user experience with intuitive, context-sensitive navigation.
• Highly customizable: Sakai ships in a sensible default state but has over 400 different customizable options enabling the system admin to accommodate just about any request via the web-based configuration manager.

Work along with the video using the orange button on the Rapid Trial widget below or sign up for a free Cloud Gear account and use it beyond the hour time limit of the free trial and pay only pennies per hour. Enjoy!

*Tip: To view video at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen.

We have not one but four Ramp Up videos this week covering all the various deployment JumpBoxes including our newest addition, the JumpBox for Tomcat. Deployment JumpBoxes are handy tools for quickly evaluating web applications that don’t currently have their own dedicated JumpBox. They also make great development aides for software developers by enabling you to focus on building your application instead of configuring your development environment.

In Ramp Up #19 we’ll use the JumpBox for Ruby on Rails to deploy Radiant CMS.

In Ramp Up #20 we’ll deploy an instance of Wordpress Multi-User on top of the the JumpBox for LAMP.

In Ramp Up #21 we’ll deploy the Railo Coldufusion runtime environment into the JumpBox for Tomcat and then install a Coldfusion application on top of that stack.

And in Ramp Up #22 we use the JumpBox for LAPP to deploy the OpenX ad server and connect it to an underlying Postgres database.

*Tip: With each video to view at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen. As always, leave comments on this post if you have questions about any of what we cover in the videos.

If you’re a software developer do you have a bulletproof system for managing your projects? Are you making use of source control and issue tracking to ensure accountability or are you “free climbing?” What about documentation – do you have have a convenient way to build out your docs and cross-reference specific issues and revisions of the software? If you answered “no” to any of these questions you’ll want to take a look at the JumpBox for Redmine.

The Redmine application is a project management system that offers integrated source control, issue tracking, wiki features, message forums, roadmaps, flexible alerts and numerous other features for collaborating on a software project. In this video we’ll dive into the fundamentals of using Redmine. By the time you’re finished watching you’ll have what you need to get started with this powerful tool. If you happen to be using Trac already for your software development then you understand the fundamentals of Redmine but you should still check it out as it offers additional benefits like: multi-project support, native integration with GIT and a forthcoming REST api. Watch the video in full or use the time-coded index below to skip ahead and check out a particular feature. Enjoy!

*Tip: To view video at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen.

Do employees in your company use instant messaging services like Yahoo, AIM, MSN or GTalk to conduct sensitive conversations? There are many reasons why you might want to run your own secure instant messaging server instead of relying upon these services:

• Security – For conversations between employees on the same network, instead of sending cleartext messages over the public internet they could be conducted end-to-end behind the firewall.
• Monitoring – You may have situations where you need monitoring and content filtering on IM conversations to enforce policies related to abusive language or sexual harassment.
• Search convenience – Your employees might benefit from a central, searchable index that serves a knowledgebase built from all past conversations.
• Audit trail – Your company’s data retention policy might require that you log every conversation in a secure place to retain records of what & when critical statements were made (eg. financial brokerages, military or government programs, etc.)
• Regulatory compliance – You might be obligated by HIPAA or SOX regulations to conduct sensitive communications exclusively through hardware and systems that you control.

These are just a few of the reasons why you might want to run your own instant messaging server rather than rely upon the free SaaS alternatives. The JumpBox for Openfire lets you do just that. As you’ll see in the video below we go from zero to live chat sessions in about three minutes. We’ll also show how to:

By the time you finish watching you’ll have everything you need to deploy your own on-premise IM system. Enjoy!

*Tip: To view video at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen.

Are you already running JumpBoxes and want a way to easily monitor their health? If so read on.

Zenoss enables network administrators to manage the configuration, health, and performance of networks, servers and network applications. Monitor your network availability, inventory, configuration, performance, and more with the Jumpbox for Zenoss. Notable features include:

• Event Monitoring and Management
• Web-based Dashboard
• Alerting and Reporting
• Automatic Remidiation
• Network Visualization
• Integration API’s
• Community Reports Library
• Community Monitors Library

In this video we’ll tour the interface and show how get Zenoss to scan your network and automatically add all the machines it finds. We’ll then set it up to send email alerts as problems (or pre-problem warning signs) arise and demonstrate this by taking down a machine. Lastly we’ll configure SNMP-based performance monitoring so it watches another JumpBox on the network and displays graphs on critical metrics like CPU and memory utilization, bandwidth and disk I/O. We’ll also touch on other topics like extending Zenoss through Zenpacks and how to assign location and logical groupings to your machines in a way that’s meaningful to you. Enjoy!

*Tip: To view video at full-resolution in hi-def, make sure the button is on and click the button to expand the screen.