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Linux is getting one heck of a good reputation in RTE's engineering department with several Linux boxes deployed around RTE for a variety of purposes. Considering the rather ecletic mix of boxes and operating systems that are used in RTE (from Macs through Windows 3.1, other Un*x OSs to (Open)VMS, Netware and HP servers and a VME ICL mainframe) this is quite impressive.

Of these Linux boxen, the most well established is an internal DNS (Domain Name Server) which is a measly 486/33. The machine doubles as an SMTP mail relay for all email to and from the rte.ie domain. It resolves aliases and relays incoming email to either an MS Mail gateway or another Linux box which is configured as a mail server. It never crashes. It never does anything silly.

The MS Mail system is creaking at the seams and the intention is that the Linux based system will replace it, with sendmail and a POP server on the front lines. Apache web server with MySQL and a little CGI-bin magic together maintain a user database. An LDAP server will probably be added in time, with an SSLeay based security certificate printing press also under consideration.

So far the Linux mail server has been tested by about twenty of the higher volume users in RTE. In three months the machine was down once - for a scheduled power cut. email transit times have dropped, from up to an hour and more from MS Mail, down to 15 seconds or less to pretty much anywhere in the world. The only significant difficulty has been pursuading MS Mail to keep SMTP addresses (that is normal Internet email addresses) in it's Global Address List.

The next targets for assimilation are a Digital UNIX/AltaVista Firewall and another DEC Alpha running NT which everyone knows as www.rte.ie. The firewall sometimes (at least weekly) just stops working and only a full reboot cures it - not a good sign that. The web server also falls short of 99.9% service.