BASEALT: Alt Domain

Alt Domain is a single center of control computers and user accounts. It is a Sambaserver set of graphical and console applications with which an administrator can create, edit and apply group policies, affecting computer configurations and resources available to users.

2023

As part of the "Server PAC" of domestic developers

The companies Basis Fplus",,,,", " MyOfficeKaspersky Lab and DION Getmobit BASEALT September 21, 2023 presented software and hardware complexes for a stationary workplace and ensuring the operation of the server center. Server PAC includes Alt domain. More. here

Development of the solution

On May 30, 2023, the company "" announced the BASEALT completion of a project implemented with grant support RFRIT for the development of an analogue of group policies Microsoft AD for computers and users. OS "Alt" The Alt Domain solution allows in, to integrate IT infrastructure built on OS Windows the American the company, Microsoft jobs servers and with the installed Russian Alt OS, while maintaining both the infrastructure itself and the uniformity of the way it is managed.

During the migration of IT infrastructure to Russian solutions, it is extremely important to ensure its reliable operation. To this end, BASEALT has developed a toolkit that allows you to manage machines and user accounts in a heterogeneous (mixed) network. With these tools, an administrator can apply group policies to manage Alt computers entered into the Active Directory domain, as before for Windows computers, "said Vladimir Chyornyi, BASEALT Product Director. - Thus, companies have the opportunity to integrate workstations with Alt OS into the legacy infrastructure running Windows gradually, and to increase the share of domestic operating systems in their IT infrastructure without fundamentally modifying it.

The company noted that most configuration management systems are focused on configuring computers. Group policies "BASEALT" are integrated into a single directory service, which allows you to manage the configurations of not only computers, but also user accounts. No Russian decision has previously supported such functionality.

Group policies are a set of rules for configuring the working environment of computers and users, grouped depending on their purpose ("Workplaces in Accounting," etc.) or activities ("Design Engineers," etc.). The project was implemented and developed by specialists from the Saratov Engineering Department of BASEALT, led by Evgeny Sinelnikov, chief architect of the Alt Domain system.

Graphical tools developed under the grant are ADMC - manages objects in the domain, and GPUI is a group policy editor. To apply policies on machines with Alt OS, the gpupdate tool has been developed, and for entering a computer with Alt OS into the domain, a special graphics module for Alterator (installer and configurator of Alt OS, which has been developed since 2001). All software developed by BASEALT and the ALT Linux Team development team is distributed under free licensing conditions, and the above tools were no exception.

The graphical interface of the solution for centralized IT infrastructure management is largely similar to the interface of tools familiar to administrators of Windows snap-ins included in RSAT (Remote Server Administration Tools), which are used to manage Active Directory. The similarity of interfaces makes the toolkit intuitive to the administrator, reduces the requirements for his qualifications (there is no need to have deep knowledge of Linux) and makes it possible to master the new tool faster and easier. This will have a positive effect on the timing and quality of IT infrastructure migration to Russian solutions.

ADMC (Active Directory Management Console) is a module for remote management database of group policy configurations and Active Directory domain objects (users, groups, computers, departments). The functionality of the module is similar to the Microsoft ADUC (Active Directory Users and Computers, "Users and Computers") and GPMC (Group Policy Management Console, "Group Policy Management") snap-ins;

GPUI (Group Policy User Interface) is a module for configuring and changing group policy settings for Alt computers and their users who can interact with Windows computers and their users. This tool implements the functionality of the Group Policy Editor (GPE) snap-in;

Gpupdate - console utility for applying group policies on a specific computer;

Alterator - own development of BASEALT. Modular installer (installer) and Alt operating systems configurator. It is used, among other things, to enter a computer into a domain and enable the possibility of using group policies on user workstations. Alterator has long and successfully been used to manage the Alt OS, a special module was created during the project.

The solution for centralized IT infrastructure management has been recognized by the international community of free software developers. Individual components of the Russian solution are integrated into foreign operating systems, and expandable ADMX templates from BASEALT can be seen in the Group Policy Administrative Templates Catalog aggregator along with templates from other well-known companies such as Microsoft, Citrix, Lenovo, Google, VMware, etc. Most policies that apply to the Alt OS work and are configured based on extensible templates from BASEALT.