Eyüpsultan Municipality decided to use an open source operating system in desktop computers in 2015.
The most important goal of the project was to ensure information security and reduce foreign dependency.
As a result of the research and analyzes prepared, a detailed migration plan was prepared.
As a first step, licensed office software installed on all computers has been removed. LibreOffice software was installed instead.
Later, LibreOffice training was given to the municipal staff.
Meanwhile, preparations were made for the operating system migration.
Instead of the existing licensed operating system, Turkey’s developed Pardus GNU / Linux distribution was decided to use.
Applications on the Pardus GNU / linux operating system were examined in detail and unnecessary applications were removed.
And a new ISO file was created with the applications used in Eyüpsultan municipality.
This process automated the setup steps and reduced setup time.
While the project continued at full speed, the staff were again trained on LibreOffice and Pardus GNU / linux.
After their training, the users took the exam.
The Pardus GNU / Linux operating system was installed on the computers of the successful ones.
Those who failed were retrained and took the exam again.
As of 2016, 25% of a computer’s operating system migration was completed.
Immigration Project Implementation Steps
Analysis
A detailed inventory of all software and hardware products used in the institution was created. The analysis should go down to the department, unit and personnel details.
It should be evaluated whether extra costs will arise in the migration project.
Planning
Migration plan should be prepared, migration targets should be determined.
The duration of the migration should be calculated and the team that will carry out the migration should be determined.
Production
You can use an existing Linux distribution.
Or you can customize the distribution you will use according to your own preferences.
Making a customized ISO file will give you speed and flexibility.
It also helps you compensate for the loss of time caused by incorrect entries.
Test
Start using the ISO file you have prepared in a lab environment consisting of the hardware you use.
Look for solutions, noting any problems encountered during and after installation.
Thanks to the experiences you have gained in the test environment, most of the problems to be experienced in the live environment will be eliminated.
Pilot
Choose the unit most suitable for migration and implement your work in the test environment in a small part of the working environment.
Identify a person for communication in the units where the migration will take place and organize the migration together.
Record the feedback from communication personnel and produce solutions.
Going Live
The training deemed necessary for all systems must be obtained beforehand.
The importance of transition to open source systems should be explained to all users throughout the organization and interest, curiosity and admiration should be aroused for new systems.
Result
As of 2020, the operating system migration rate in Eypsultan Municipality is 40%. We continue to provide uninterrupted service to our citizens with our Pardus GNU / Linux installed computers. In addition, the LibreOffice application is used on all our computers.
Besides, most of our servers run on Linux operating systems. Our primary choice as a database is postgresql and mariadb.
We continue to use Zimbra software as the email server.
We manage Pardus clients through the Leader server. Leading servers in Turkey are also being developed.
Leader server helps you easily manage Pardus installed clients thanks to its agents named ahenk. Thanks to the agents, policies and rules can be enforced. In addition, remote support, application install / uninstall or running scripts you have prepared can be easily done.
We use another open source application, Zabbix, to monitor our servers. Actions suitable for the alarms occurring in the servers can be easily taken with Zabbix, thus reducing our operational burden.
In addition to all these, we consider this project as a social responsibility project. We are trying to raise awareness by pioneering the use of the pardus operating system in the public sector.
I would like to state that I am proud to be a part of such a project.
