Topic: Harddisk Management

[AlistairH]

This has probably been suggested before but as a Linux newbie I have been delighted with the ease in which the SME installations I have made have gone. The main thing that let it down and continues to cause loads of frustration on my part is the lack of an administrative interface for harddisk management.

[cc_skavenger]

Ok,
So, exactly what are you looking for?  What kind of management do you need?  I am kind of curious as to what you think might be missing.

[AlistairH]

I think the hoops that one has to go through to add another disk drive for example is archaic. I want to be able to do that, as well as re-partition and create logical/extended volumes within a graphical interface. Having to log into the console as root and run through numerous command lines is perhaps the essence of what Linux is but SME's target is small businesses where there is often limited IT knowledge. It does everything else wonderfully well but I believe it falls down a bit here.

[cc_skavenger]

I have to agree, hoops do have to be jumped!  My only concern is that like you said, these are not IT people.  Giving them that easy access to click on say /dev/hda and click on format using ext3 would be pretty dangerous!  I am not convinced that it should be easy for users to be able to work with the drives, that is how some well intentioned people have deleted data or killed their server.  Most people that would be using this would be Windowz users and they might not understand the directory structure or the implications of removing / or renaming /home.  At least with the CLI, they have to type the command.

<Just Kidding>
Although, this could really bring in some money to fix!  
</Just Kidding>

[SharifGeorge]

It would be nice to have even a basic FDISK type application that would allow us to add/remove partitions and allow us to easily choose which ones are mounted at startup.

I do a lot of my "support" remotely and a GUI is too much over a GPRS connection - A nice interface would make it easier.

Sharif