Nitix Autonomic Linux OS

Nitix is an OS meant for emerging businesses. The beauty of

the OS is that its installable is only 35 MB, and yet provides lots of features.

It can run as a Live CD installed to the hard disk. The OS can be

installed on 64-bit machines like AMD Athlon 64. It's pretty easy to install

and the only thing it asks for is an IP address. If you don't provide that, it

can pick it up from a DHCP server as well. Once installed, it takes you to its

Web interface, from where you can configure it. Currently it doesn't have X

Windows, which is probably why it has a small footprint.

Nitix has a whole range of interesting features. When a new

user is created, he automatically gets permissions to a MySQL database, and also

gets an email account. You can then assign quotas, permissions, Password

policies, etc to this account.

Nitix has VPN capability, with support for TunnelVision,

IPSec and can act as a PPTP server. Nitix can be accessed from anywhere using

its Remote Access Services (RAS), through VPN or a Dial-up connection. The OS

supports CIFS/SMB (Windows File Sharing), Appleshare IP (for Macintosh systems),

and NFS (for UNIX systems) for file sharing purposes.

You can monitor hardware status and logs through Nitix's Web interface in real time

Nitix features NetIntelligence, using which

it discovers and maps network routes. During this process it auto-detects

live links to the Internet and auto-configures a firewall. Nitix has a SPI

firewallwith NAT. Its SoftUpdate feature can update Nitix automatically over the

Internet. It alerts you with a message every time a new update or fix is

released. This product also supports redundant Internet connectivity. One

drawback Nitix has is its documentation. There are help files provided in its

Web configuration interface and couple of guides available on its website but

none of them are good enough.

SystemER (Emergency Recovery) in Nitix is an advanced

disaster recovery technology that enables Nitix powered servers to be recovered

from any type of system failure including faulty hardware and fire. It can do

this in just two minutes, but you'll need to have Nitix powered or certified

servers. On the manageability front, the OS can scan for all workstations on its

network. It can also act as a print server, for which it will automatically

detect all printers on the network. Nitix's e-mail services include SMTP

server, POP3 server, IMAP/SSL server, and LDAP server.

Nitix has a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook called ExchangeIt.

When it is used with Microsoft Outlook, it adds features like schedule sharing,

contact list sharing, meeting invitations, group sharing between different users

of Nitix. It also backs up Outlook data on the Nitix server, and if Outlook

loses data it can be re-synchronized. It also comes with add-on features like

anti-virus and anti-spam but we couldn't test them because we had a Nitix

trail CD. Cost of these add-ons is separate and not included in the base pack.

While testing for its routing capabilities, we found that its Web interface

doesn't have any pre-configured profile for configuring  NATing between two interfaces. This has to be done straight

from the shell in IP tables. You can also monitor the logs of Nitix through its

Web-interface or from its default shell interface in real time.

Bottom Line: Overall,

it looks like a pretty good OS for small and medium businesses, given its small

footprint and the bundled features.

Swapnil Arora