middleman: the easy way to share data

Appliance allowing on-the-fly web sharing and various other contents integration

Features

Collegiate:
No

One-line Description:
Appliance allowing on-the-fly web sharing and various other contents integration

Filename:
middleman-vm.zip

Size Compressed:
65MB

Allocated Memory:
32

Username:
admin

Password:
admin

VMware Tools Installed?:
No

Operating System:
Slackware Linux 10.2, kernel 2.6.16

Applications:
Apache 2.0
PHP4
Bash
Samba

Description:
--1. What is middleman --
The purpose of middleman is to provide a quick and easy way to make available over a corporate intranet (or the Internet) various contents that would be otherwise difficult to access because of the network topology or technologies.
The appliance has the following features:
* On-the-fly web sharing of UNC resources (SMB shares), with access control
* Configuration of reverse proxies
* Creation of persistent web page grabbers
* DNS querying and ping/traceroute
All these features are available from a user-friendly web interface, in real-time.
The middleman virtual appliance has been designed as a tool for systems administrators and technical support specialists. However, the appliance is easy to use and could be of some interest for SOHO users running a small network. It could also come handy to someone looking for an easy way to publish web content without having to manage a web server.
--2. How middleman has been build--
I started with a basic installation of Slackware 10.2 because it is both small and efficiently designed. Then I included a few packaged software (Samba, VIM and various libraries). I compiled Apache2 and PHP4 myself in order to include the required modules. I choosed Apache2 because of the major improvements on the proxy module. I also compiled a 2.6.16 kernel, with no modules, including support for the VMWare-specific hardware (PCNET32 nic, BusLogic scsci).
Then I designed the application to be as simple as possible, using mainly bash scripts and PHP pages. I choosed not to involve a database to allow a smaller footprint for the VM.
Once the application was up and running I removed most non-essential packages using the standard Slackware tools. Then I parsed the filesystem to locate deadwood (like man pages). This process shrinked the size of the VM from 220MB to 114MB (which includes a big Apache build and VIM), but I decided to keep the free space in the VM to facilitate future improvements and stock plenty of logs or dynamic content.
Finally I fully tested the application under various O/S and with different end-user environments.
--3. How to start the appliance--
Simply boot the VM and watch the console. On the login page of the shell the DHCP-provided address is displayed, as well as the default login and password for the web application. Then open a web browser to the said address and login.
The welcome page on the web application is a menu and is quite simple to understand.
A PDF is provided in the archive to go over the technical details.
--4. Licensed software --
Slackware Linux 10.2: GNU General Public License
Apache 2.0: Apache License, Version 2.0
Samba: GNU General Public License
PHP4: The PHP License, version 3.01
Various GNU tools: GNU General Public License

Technical Specifications

Operating System:

Slackware Linux 10.2, kernel 2.6.16

VMware Tools installed: No

Size: 65MB

Allocated Memory (RAM): 32MB

Applications Installed:

Apache 2.0PHP4BashSamba

Virtual Appliance Account Information