MSTU named after Bauman made the transition to Russian Linux

2022: Migrating to Astra Linux

This is the first such a large and important experience of transition in universities, which will scale to other universities, "representatives of Astra Group of Companies told CNews.

Representatives of MSTU added that in addition to Astra Linux, the university also uses Alt, another Russian Linux distribution. They said that Alt is set for 2,000 jobs.

MSTU in December 2020 was left without an OS. Windows Microsoft refused to supply him with his own ON because of. sanctions USA At the same time, many educational programs used by the university at that time worked only under Windows. License Microsoft acquired MSTU in 2018, its operation expired in September 2021.

MSTU named after N.E. Bauman trains specialists in the field of aviation, the creation of rocket technology, in the field of nuclear energy and radio electronics, because of which it is subject to US sanctions. At the end of June 2020, US authorities tightened export rules for Russia and several other countries. These restrictions do not allow the Russian military to use a number of American IT developments, both software and hardware.

In the fall of 2021, due to Microsoft's refusal to supply MSTU with its software, the university moved to the active phase of the project to replace imported software. In particular, he began research on migration from CAD and other engineering programs of foreign developers to Russian and open products.

Also, since the spring of 2021, the university has been working on its own repository of domestic software, as reported by representatives of Astra Group of Companies. The project is developing as part of the All-Russian import substitution program.

The first to receive its own repository was the Moscow Moscow State Technical University named after N.E. Bauman. According to the developers of the repository, it is implemented with the ability to scale and is suitable for use in other universities in the country.

{{quote'The repository is a replicated solution, "CNews told Astra Group. - As of April 2022, we offer all universities that have turned to us to focus on it. They decide how suitable he is for them. All universities use their own set of programs and understand that for them it is superfluous, and what is not enough. Therefore, this repository can be modified, supplemented, finalized together with the developers of specific programs included in it, but this is a matter of time. }}

{{quote 'MSTU named after N.E. Bauman has a large IT infrastructure, historically based on the decisions of foreign manufacturers, "said Roman Borisov, deputy commercial director for work with educational organizations of Astra Group of Companies. - Like most universities, he uses a huge amount of various software, including engineering, specific and scientific. Therefore, the presence and gradual filling of a repository specially formed for technical educational organizations with analogues of foreign IT products will seriously facilitate import substitution in the field of education. This can be a "lifeline" for universities that find themselves in a situation of denial of access from foreign technologies. }}

The repository in the version for Baumanka at the time of launch included over 50 programs. All of them are able to completely replace foreign software, which was purchased for the needs of the university earlier. In other words, the repository was created and filled with Russian applications in order to minimize dependence on software developers from other countries and prevent the disruption of the educational process due to anti-Russian sanctions and the departure of foreign software development companies from the country.

Additionally, as part of import substitution, most of the automated jobs at MSTU named after N.E. Bauman was transferred to the Russian Astra Linux OS.

According to representatives of Astra Group of Companies, the repository project for Baumanka was developed within nine months. Work on it began in April 2021, long before the mass flight of foreign companies from Russia. The process was completed in December 2021, as of April 2021, the repository is in the process of being finalized for scaling to other universities.

Employees of the Russian IT company Krok and experts of the Voskhod Research Institute made a possible contribution to this project, along with specialists from Astra Group of Companies, to the creation of the repository. The integration of the repository into the MSTU computer system, as reported by Krok, took about a month.

Now the relevance of the programs included in the repositories is updated at the university itself, "noted Astra Group of Companies.

Krok experts added that the list of programs for Baumanka "also includes system-wide software, management system agents and office software.

On the initial list of applications in the repository, the development team worked together with representatives of MSTU. At the initial stage, an audit of the foreign software used by the university was carried out, after which the search for their Russian counterparts began.

On the part of Astra Group of Companies and the integrator Krok, solutions were proposed that were tested for compatibility with the operating system, representatives of Astra Group of Companies said. - In addition, within the framework of the university infrastructure migration project, functional user groups were allocated, and a stack[1] technologies was used for each group].

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