The Surveying and Land Register administration of the German Federal state Rhineland-Palatinates (LVermGeo) started to migrate its IT environment towards open source software. At the Linux Tag 2005 in the German city of Karlsruhe, Klaus Thoenissen, Joerg Steffens as well as Ralf Dobberschuetz form LVermGeo presented details of the upcoming open source migration.
Introduction
The Surveying and Land Register administration of the German Federal state Rhineland-Palatinates, subdivided into 20 departments, plans to migrate a large part of its server and desktop systems to Linux by 2006. The head office is located in the German city of Koblenz. About 1.900 Windows NT 4.0 workplaces are affected by the open source adoption.
Migration Motives
In 2001, the software company Microsoft announced that the support for the used operating system Windows NT 4.0 will be phased out. At this point of time, employees are working with Microsoft’s office suite Office 97. Support of this product is also determined by Microsoft. Furthermore the lifecycle of the used client and server systems ends in 2005. Consequently LVermGeo had to think about an upcoming migration. According to the presenters, the agency complained also the license politic of Microsoft. The used HP-UX server has become less important at the market. New software solutions are rare and required support and bug fixing for the HP-UX product was not satisfactorily, stated by LVermGeo. Due to the adoption of the needed ALKSI software package coming along with high hardware system requirements, new systems have to be installed within the agency. Moreover the agency expects to cut IT expenses through open source software use.
ALKIS (Amtliche Liegenschaftskataster Informationssystem) is a land register information system developed by the Working Committee of the Surveying Authorities of the States of the Federal Republic of Germany (AdV).
First Step
To define the potentialities coming along with the adoption of open source applications, the administration evaluated the planned migration. LVermGeo analysed the feasibility of a migration to open source but also to proprietary software within the agency and aimed to identify the current IT situation of the office providing a basis for a migration, migration costs and operating efficiency of the different software solutions, suitable software products as well as risk and strategy considerations.
Resulting from the study, the administration arrived at the conclusion that a migration to MS Windows server as well as client sided can be realised but also the feasibility of a pure open source adoption. Within the scope of economic efficiency, a Linux solution gains ground in comparison to Microsoft products. In considerations of qualities aspects, both variants are equal, while Linux comes out on top in the scope of defined strategic considerations. In the beginning of 2004, LVermGeo decided to realise a server as well as desktop sided migration to open source software products.
Critical evaluated migration factors are:
- implementation priority of ALKIS
- high migration efforts
- external dependences due to defined application appointed by the provincial government
- internal user acceptance regarding the use of open source software
- need of extensive external support to realise the open source adoption
- Migration Scenario and Process
The following table shows the hardware situation of the office before the migration.
| System Type | Number of Systems |
|---|---|
| Servers | 46 Unix server including 23 HP L2000, HP-UX 11 |
| Graphic workstations | 34 based on PA-RISC, HP-UX |
| Desktop clients | 1900 based Windows NT 4.0 |
| Mobile systems | 160 notebooks and 130 field computer systems based on Windows NT 4.0 |
The IT systems that have to be replaced consist mainly of HP-UX servers, Linux routers and Windows NT 4.0 based clients.
The next table shows the actual proprietary client configuration as well as the elaborated open source client configuration.
| Software Type | Proprietary Client Systems | Open Source Client Systems |
|---|---|---|
| Operating System | MS Windows NT 4.0 | Suse Linux Professional |
| Office Suite | MS Office 97 | OpenOffice.org |
| Email Client | MS Outlook 98 | Kontact |
| PDF Reader | Acrobat Reader 6.0 | Acrobat Reader 7.0 |
| Browser | Internet Exploer 6.0 | Mozilla Firefox |
| Compression Software | Power Zip | ark |
The agency performed an inquiry about the number of used MS Office Macros within the administration. Resulting from the count, 5 Word, 39 Excel and 4 Access macros were identified. Database operations are performed by the employees via MS Access. The IT department plans to replace the Microsoft database by PostgreSQL. PostgreSQL will be connected to OpenOffice.org and administrated through Webmin.
Additionally, about 10 substantial specific applications and 9 further tools like the employee information system or the visual presentation of topographic maps have to be adopted to the Linux systems. According to the presentation, 5 specific applications including the electronic cadastral register, resident registration, employee information system, centralised chronology and the IT help desk are browser based and have not to be redeveloped by the office. Moreover the new geo information system ALKIS will replace existing applications.
Further applications, e.g. the management system for geo referenced documents, have to be ported. Thereby, the administration office relies on the cooperation of the software companies.
Until the porting of it is completed, a VMware server will be installed aiming to ensure e.g. the use of a GeoCAD application.
The visual presentation application for topographic maps is one of three tools that have to be adopted via the Crossover plug-in into the new systems. The following disadvantages of an emulation use were stated by LVermGeo:
- high administration efforts
- the need of extensive Windows and Linux know-how through own employees
- extensive operating tests
- limited functionality of the application due to the emulation environment
- plug-in operates only with specific applications
According to LVermGeo, GPS based applications used for surveying and mapping tasks can not be currently adopted to Linux based systems. Field computers, needed for outdoor operations, can not be realised via Linux.
The open source system management solution SmartClient will be inserted for software allocation and administration tasks. SmartClient will provide:
- centralised management of all end devices (computers as well as printers)
- automated inventory
- automated client administration
- centralised user management
- centralised data management
- centralised application server
- centralised bug management
LVermGeo plans to replace the HP-UX by Suse Linux Enterprise Servers Version 9. Clients will be adopted by Suse Linux Professional. Open source Linux based server systems will be inserted for the central directory and software allocation services as well as for software management tasks.
The agency plans to standardise the IT environment and focus on a stronger system centralisation.
Planned Linux server functionality at the separate land registry offices
The following services will be realised via the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP),
| Server | Clients |
|---|---|
| OpenLDAP | Boot behaviour |
| DNS: Bind | Hardware integration aid |
| DHCP via ISC | Inventory |
| Email via Postfix | Authentication |
| Proxy via Squid | Printer classification |
| Samba | KDE profile selection |
| Administration via Webmin | Application authorisation |
| Authentication via CUPS, Cyris IMAP, Webmailer | Access authorisation |
Migration Milestones
At this point of time, summer 2005, LVermGeo finishes the conception and evaluation phase. In autumn 2005, the first server pilots will be start at two charges of the Surveying and Land Register administration. If the pilots will succeed, the remaining offices would be adopted with the Linux servers. Simultaneously, geodesic specific application will be ported. Beginning of the year 2006, the first client pilot will be initiated. The area-wide rollout comes along with a success of the client test.
At the Linux Tag 2005, the representatives of LVermGeo estimated the gathered preparation experiences of the extensive free software project. According to the speakers, the migration to the open source system management solution SmartClient reduces the administration effort and increases the standardisation of the IT environment. Moreover, SmartClient allows automated system configuration and provides the ability to change software configurations without big efforts. OpenLDAP will be inserted on the basis of a central structure. LVermGeo focus on platform independent redevelopments of the specific software, partly linked to extensive efforts, in the scope of the defined application migration.
The system wide open source migration will be realised with the aid of two external German industry partners – Conet and dass IT.
Evaluation
The open source software migration of the Surveying and Land Register administration of the German Federal state Rhineland-Palatinates seems to be a great challenge for the agency as well as the involved companies. Due to the implementation priority of the new land register information system, the timeframe for the system wide migration is limited. The evaluation showed that the elaborated open source based systems can replace proprietary systems and can be integrated into the IT environment.
But until now, the success of this shift to open source is an open question. The next few months will show how the elaborate plans can be implemented and if the objectives of the administration can be reached.
Further Information:
Surveying and Land Register administration of the German Federal state Rhineland-Palatinates
Linux Tag Presentation
Working Committee of the Surveying Authorities of the States of the Federal Republic of Germany
Paper Versions of this Case Study
Open Source Migration of LVermGeo (PDF)[108 Kb]
© European Communities 2005
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