It's dawned on me that a great many small sites (and possibly big sites too) would be greatly helped if someone made a single box that included:
- RequestTracker
- Some kind of up/down monitoring system like Nagios or BigBrother
- Some kind of capacity planning monitor like Cricket or MRTG
- TWiki or other Wiki, with a pre-built set of pages
- A serial console system like Conserver.com
- Bacula or other free backup system
While none of those are difficult to install for an experienced Linux person, the goal would be a system that the common "Mr. Fixit" kind of sysadmin that serves small sites would be able to load a CD-ROM and have the entire machine working very quickly. Each application would be pre-installed, and pre-customized. For example, the install procedure would ask for the IP address of a few key servers, and Nagios would default to monitoring it. The Wiki would have pre-configured pages that include add/remove/change procedures the above items (how to add/remove/change a server that Nagios monitors, add/remove/change a file system that Bacula is backing up, etc.).
Sadly I do not have the time to run such a project but I hope someone else steals this idea. I have many other tips and ideas for such a project.
That's almost exactly what I do when I set up shop, and a great idea. I don't think I would have time to execute such a plan on my own, but if someone else picked up the torch, I would be willing to contribute.