One of my clients would like to have a linux environment for a very controlled setup. He wanted to have Linux OS as clients, mainly to avoid license costs, and needs to have only few things on the machine- a browser, pdf reader, mail client, excel (Openoffice/Libre) and an image viewer. Everything else should be locked for the end user. Plus needs to set a password policy to update password every 90 days and should be able to do a centralised inventory.

There is also a plan to have a Windows network with AD but that is only for very limited users. Has specific business requirement to have these mixed environments. Both OS will share/should have central inventory, helpdesk ticketing system and KB.

So my requirements are:

An image management system where I can create a master image with the standard software and push it to all machines, (around 40 linux machines)- Use WDS with this guide or FOG (haven't seen any guide for Linux deployment yet)

A good linux desktop OS- Thinking of Ubuntu, there are users with dual core machines.

Central inventory system- Spiceworks? (I know it supports both Win & Linux- using SSH, and also takes care of helpdesk and KB)

@Lakshmana Did you rejected the offer already? If not, I would suggest you try to talk to the HR in the new company about the situation, and may be even ask for advise on how to tackle this situation. If they really need you and interested in getting you on board, I am sure they will help you, or at least give you some tips to tackle this. I know in India there are not much we could do, but its worth a try. Don't just give up. If this new company is good and you think this will benefit you not just income wise but your career as well, try harder

Yeah,they are on a remote office, but got the main guys here with us for few days, so thought this is the best time to brainstorm and finalise on how we could proceed. so all of this is coming at the right time!

My role mostly to setup the infrastructure for the team but not in programming, but I am sure these tips can really help our dev team, and I am sharing it with them now, and your blog too, seems like they could benefit from your posts as well. I am concentrating more on how to give them a collaborative environment not just for files but for DB as well. Thanks a lot for all that feedback.

Seems like someone has also tried incorporating mysql on GIT.

http://ben.kulbertis.org/2011/10/synchronizing-a-mysql-database-with-git-and-git-hooks/​

and there is
https://klonio.com/ but still under development

@tonyshowoff Thanks a lot for the tips. Basic programming standards are already been followed. I am just moving our team out of traditional subversion and using a central server for development to GIT and give devs the freedom of developing on their own machines (using vagrant we will be deploying linux boxes to setup the environment). Dev team also use tips from http://www.phptherightway.com/

And since we decided to go with GIT, we already finalised to purchase PhpStorm, after extensive evaluation on netbeans and other products.

Development is for PHP MySQL.

For making a streamlined local dev environment, we will be mostly going to use vagrant

File revision control- Git

Then comes the DB part which I am still checking.

I've read about https://www.drupal.org/project/backup_migrate but again, there must be something like a version control like GIT that can be used.

@JaredBusch I wish they had something for MySQL, Just wondering how are the guys who work on CMS sites like Drupal work as a team! I'm sure at least a small percetage must be using git, but how on the DB

http://www.whoismrrobot.com/

Anyone used/knows about collaboration on DB? We are still stuck on how to manage DB once we start using GIT

Just saw an even better alternative for fushioninvoice

https://www.pancakeapp.com/ A bit more expensive one time fee but packed with more features

Seems like some nice options.
http://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/5-innovative-uses-of-wordpress-for-business-owners/

Another addition that I've been checking to replace Freshbooks to have it self hosted- https://www.fusioninvoice.com/

Check this too www.robware.net

What VMs guests are running? Have a look at http://sydiproject.com/home/

I've used it once on my windows server when my boss asked me for all details on that server. Ran Sydi and it gave me an extensive report of that server automatically documented on word.

@doyle.jack Thanks a lot for the details. Is there any comparison table I could get to see the difference between all products from Spector?

As mentioned in my post, the client wants to get notified on emails and I think the Spector Recon does that. (Application Usage, Chat / IM, Email, FTP Transfers, Removable Device Usage) Am I getting the same features on Spector 360 as well?

Just a thought, can you see if you can set SEP processor affinity to only 1 processor?

Open task manager, select the process- right click - set Affinity- from list of all processor, deselect all and just select one processor.

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Got a requirement from one of my clients to look for solutions that can monitor google apps email (email sent to domains others than theirs, specific file types, and file sizes- needs to get notified to the MD), monitor computer activities as and when needed, no need to keep this on for all employees all the time, just in case if anything suspicious, turn it on get the user activity as video recorded and check) and also file server activity. The client is dealing with banks and thats why he requires these. All employees will be informed about this as well, but won't be sharing the depth of info being monitored.

Just trying to find the most cost effective (not necessarily free, if a good solution comes with a price he is ok, but don't want to pay a massive fee just to get few features)

So far, I found:

1. For google apps mail monitoring: Objectionable content setting (Not sure how effective this can be)
   https://support.google.com/a/answer/1346936?hl=en

or
http://www.spectorsoft.com/products/360-recon/ (mainly because of the keyword alert option and extensive tracking options like Document Tracking, Email tracking, user activity )

or
http://www.spectorcne.com/features

2. Computer monitoring: Either use Spectorsoft which can do both or
   http://activtrak.com/
   I've used this previously, its easy to deploy and can be monitored from the web.

3.File server activity monitoring: Probably manage engine would be easier

Any other products you guys used/suggest?

Apart from that there are basic requirements like block USB, CD etc which I think should be done via AD GP

For a small team we use wunderlist.