What is Glue?

Glue is a managed enterprise Linux environment developed and used at the University of Maryland.  Glue is not an OS but a centralized way to manage multiple systems, so they all look similar.  In other words, Glue is a configuration management tool.  Like Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Management (MECM) or JAMF for Apple device configuration management, DIT's Glue provides configuration management for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).  Glue isn't a singular commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) product but comprises commercial and open-source software, scripts, account management, and processes.  This set of installation elements provides several advantages:

• Consistency: As far as possible, every Glued machine looks like every other. You can walk across campus, log in to a Glued machine in another department, and it'll look just like the machine on your desk.
• Centralized Administration: The Glue environment makes it possible for a comparatively small staff in the Division of IT (DIT) to provide a managed Linux operating system, publish and install patches, license Linux, collect reports, maintain common applications, and so forth.
• Distributed Control: While Glue is centrally administered, individual campus departmental system administrators maintain control over their systems, including root access.
• Security: Glue heavily uses Kerberos and SSL  for security, and its centralized administration means that patches can quickly be evaluated and installed everywhere.

 

Where can I find more information about Glue?

For additional details about Glue, why it benefits you, provisioning a Glue Root Account, the technology behind the services, etc., Please review the Departmental Linux Support Confluence pages.  The latest information will be maintained there, and this IT Support article links to it.

 

What version of Linux does DIT support?

DIT currently provides support for the following operating systems:

 

What RHEL Linux support can DIT offer?

DIT provides support for unmanaged, managed, and partially managed Linux systems. 

Unmanaged Servers

If Glue systems do not meet your needs, we can provide licensing and updates for Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems by downloading the ISO and using these instructions. These systems receive package updates and licensing from our Red Hat Satellite system.  No support is provided for these systems beyond Red Hat Enterprise Linux licensing and package update availability.  DIT won't install patches or provide desired state configuration (DSC) in this unmanaged collection.

Managed Servers

DIT supports Linux systems per the roles and responsibilities discussed in this article.  DIT manages the Glue infrastructure, ensuring its availability, regular updates, security, implementation of new features, Red Hat patch deployments, etc.

Glue systems can be provisioned on your physical hardware or virtualization cluster, or you can use DIT's AWS Virtual Server Hosting (VSH) service. AWS VSH instances are customer-owned but are provisioned by DIT on AWS infrastructure.  Aside from the initial provisioning of the systems, roles and responsibilities for VSH systems are the same as any other Glue system.

License renewals

• DIT renews the Enterprise Red Hat campus subscription yearly.  Individuals and departments can use this to license the Red Hat OS and Satellite subscriptions at no additional cost.
• DIT renews several campus software licenses hosted on departmental and DIT-owned machines such as ArcGIS, AutoDesk, Mathematica, and SPSS.

Roles and Responsibilities

Customer/Department Administrator

• Management of the guest operating system, including OS installation and reboots to apply OS patches
• Management of customer application software or utilities (including updates and security patches)
• Management of data backup and recovery
• Identity and Access Management - User Access
• Management of customer-owned physical hardware (including support contracts)

DIT

• Deploy updates and security patches for the guest operating system
• Management of "campus-wide" application software or utilities (including licensing, updates, and security patches)
• Identity and Access Management - System Admin and Root Access
• Management of access to endpoints to store and retrieve data (including networking and storage)

What can't DIT support?

• Teach basic Linux skills
• Day-to-day system administration support
• Install specific software packages only used by your group
• Create custom scripts (programming)
• Hardware recommendations
• Hardware installations and repairs

 

Personal Websites

DIT recommends hosting files such as a class syllabus in Canvas or using one of the following solutions to host a website - Choosing a Web Hosting Service

Glue offers a pub directory to host a personal website.  However, there are no plans to improve that offering, and it may be retired at some point in the future.  Pages may be accessed by directly accessing glue.umd.edu/~username or terpconnect.umd.edu/~username in the browser.  There is no index of all these pages.  To reiterate, please use other website hosting methods, as they will most likely be retired at some point in the future.