Introduction¶
This chapter explains the services used by Zentyal to manage the infrastructure of a local network and optimise internal traffic. You will study the high-level abstractions that you will use in the rest of the modules, domain name management, time synchronisation, automatic network configuration, certification authority management, different types of virtual private networks, file sharing using FTP, virtualization of systems, as well as backups.
Defining abstractions will help you manage the network objects and services. These objects and services are entities that will be used by the other modules, creating a coherent, easy to remember and robust context.
The Domain Name System or DNS provides access to hosts and services using names (instead of IP addresses), which are easier to memorize.
The Network Time Protocol or NTP, keeps the system time synchronised on the different computers within a network.
The DHCP service is widely used to automatically configure different network parameters on computers, such as the IP address, the DNS servers or the gateway which is used to access to the Internet.
The growing importance of ensuring the authenticity, integrity and privacy of communications has increased the interest in the deployment of certification authorities. This mechanism facilitates access to various services in a safe and verifiable way. Certificates allow configuration of SSL or TLS to securely access most services and provided certificates for user authentication.
By using VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), it is possible to interconnect different private subnets via the Internet in a completely secure way. A typical example of this feature is the communication between two or more offices of the same company or organisation. You can also use VPN to allow users to connect remotely and securely to the corporate network.
In addition to the OpenVPN protocol, Zentyal offers the IPSec and L2TP/IPSEC protocols to ensure compatibility with third party devices and Windows boxes where you do not want to install additional software.
Also, this chapters covers the basic file sharing functionality in the network infrastructure by using the standard FTP protocol.
Sometimes, your deployment requires a few applications that can’t be ported to Linux environments given their characteristics or age. The Virtual Machines module offers you a way to integrate virtualized services in a simple, elegant and transparent way to the final user.
Finally, using the Backup module you have different methods available to back up and if necessary, restore the information that you consider as critical for your system.