Welcome to jetDS

A Short Introduction

Hello. My name is Grayson Peddie and I'm the one who built the jetDS operating system.

What is jetDS

jetDS is a server management platform that makes it easy for administrators to centrally manage users and groups from the comfort of a web interface. Think of jetDS as having a cockpit which controls the engines, air conditioning systems, infotainment system, and communication systems. The jet is the exterior that houses the cockpit along with all the different systems, which is similar to motor vehicles. Motor vehicles include a stereo system which may or may not have a CD player, an air conditioner/heating system, steering wheel mounted to a dashboard, and any other components inside a vehicle. So, the "jet" is one part of the brand. The DS is the Directory Server. Windows Server's Active Directory is a Directory Server minus the Group Policy in jetDS.

Built on the Administrator Safety Principle (same page), jetDS eliminates the need for command-line administration. Essentially, jetDS comes with Cockpit, which is a web management interface that can be used to manage networks, virtual machines (not included but can be installed from cockpit-pacman), manage files and folders, and in the case of Directory Server, be able to centrally manage users and groups through 389 Directory Server (that's 3-8-9 Directory Server; 389 is read as separate digits).

Downloads

In order to keep costs low, a torrent client such as BitTorrent or Transmission is needed to download the ISO image. A torrent file is used to download the ISO file from multiple peers. A 4.5GB (gigabyte) ISO file can hit 2 terabytes of bandwidth if about 450 users download the jetDS. Think of an ISO image similar to DVD disc (Digital Video Disc). A live image of jetDS is stored in the file as well as packages that are needed to install jetDS into the server.

• jetDS (Torrent)
• SHA256 Hash for jetDS ISO Image
• SHA512 Hash for jetDS ISO Image

Please note that the hashes for jetDS is not for the torrent file. It is for the ISO file that is downloaded by using a client software that understands torrent. The following hashes for the ISO file are:

System Requirements

The installation of jetDS has a set of minimum requirements in order to install jetDS properly into the system.

• A minimum of 2 CPU cores/4 CPU cores reconnended
• 4GB of RAM (Calamares needs to install packages so it needs some breathing room to do the work.)
• 20GB of disk space
• Internet connection is required for installation to work.
• If a USB stick is used to boot jetDS, then the USB flash drive needs to have at least 8GB of disk space.

Once done, jetDS can comfortably run in just 2GB of RAM, although it's not recommended to bring it down to 1GB. Of course, if jetDS is needed to run in an air-gapped environment, then Internet connection is not required; however, it's important to note that jetDS is a rolling-release operating system, so in order to install programs, jetDS needs to be kept up-to-date.

Join Our Community!

Have questions? Want to share feedback for jetDS? Join in our GitHub Discussions! Have fun! And oh yes, I'll be able to ask questions whenever I can.

Use Cases for jetDS

jetDS can be used by:

• Schools
• Small businesses that primarily run Ubuntu or Fedora workstations
• IT generalists
• Startup companies who simply don't want to run Windows and prefer to avoid license costs

One of the best use cases will be for Purism. The use pravi from Purism started an issue in March 27, 2025 in the GitHub thread about migrating from FusionDirectory to GOsa. This is when the Debian team dropped FusionDirectory starting with Bookworm. I can see Purism being a great candidate for jetDS because it comes with the 389 Directory Server plugin for Cockpit.

The Administrator's Safety Principle

A Philosophy for jetDS

Human error is a system design flaw, not a character flaw.

Preamble

Every administrator has a story. A moment when a single keystroke — a space before an asterisk, a wrong variable, a fat-fingered confirmation — turned a routine task into a recovery operation. These moments are not failures of attention. They are failures of system design.

The command line is powerful. It is also unforgiving. It assumes perfection from imperfect humans.

jetDS was born from one such story. From the understanding that safety is not the absence of danger, but the presence of safeguards.

Core Principles

1. Reversibility Over Efficiency

   A slower, reversible action is preferable to a faster, destructive one.

2. Visibility Before Action

   The system must show what will happen before it happens.

   • Previews, not just confirmations
   • Visual representations of changes
   • Undo capability wherever technically possible

   Confirmation Through Understanding

   Not Are you sure? but Here is exactly what will change.

   • Context-aware warnings
   • Consequence explanations
   • Escape hatches at every step

3. Compartmentalization of Risk

   No single action should compromise the entire system.

   • Role-based access
   • Immutable system components where possible
   • Clear boundaries between exploration and production

4. Graceful Recovery

   Mistakes will happen. The system must minimize blast radius.

   • Automated snapshots before critical operations
   • Clear rollback procedures
   • No "hidden" state changes

In Practice: jetDS Design Decisions

For the CLI-Comfortable

This is not an anti-CLI manifesto. The command line remains powerful and appropriate for:

• Automation and scripting
• Remote administration with limited bandwidth
• Recovery scenarios where GUI is unavailable

The Administrator's Safety Principle asks only that we recognize the trade-off:

With great power comes great responsibility — and great potential for irreversible harm.

CLI should be a choice, not a requirement. When CLI is necessary, it should be wrapped in safeguards: confirmation dialogs, dry-run modes, and clear audit trails.

Case Study: Pixar Almost Lost Years of Work for Toy Story 2

Pixar almost lost the data for Toy Story 2, not the original film.

The incident occurred in 1998 during the production of the sequel. Key details of the event include:

• The Accidental Deletion: An employee accidentally executed a command that began rapidly deleting files from the studio's servers. Within seconds, approximately 90% of the movie's assets—including character models, environments, and entire scenes—were erased.
• Backup Failure: The situation became critical when the team realized their routine, automated backups had been failing for about a month, leaving them with no viable official copy to restore from.
• The Rescue: The film was saved by a technical director who was on maternity leave at the time. She had been working from home and possessed a personal copy of the film's database on her computer. Pixar was able to use this backup to recover the majority of the project, losing only a few weeks of work.

Let's Repeat Our Core Philosophy But This Time With Pixar

Human error at Pixar is a system design flaw, not a flaw with the employee's character.

Key Takeaway for Administrator's Safety Principle

Some systems are designed to be fast and trust the operator completely. That's fine if only a few users and administrators never make mistakes. But humans always do.

Features of jetDS

• Simple to use web management interface through Cockpit
• Ships with 389 Directory Server.
• Supports both LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) and LDAPS (a secure version of LDAP).
• Manage files from the graphical user interface.
• Configure network and firewall rules.
• Install and remove packages straight from the web interface in Cockpit.

Can You Provide A Sample Of What User/Group Creation Wizard Looks Like But in Text?

Sure! Here are the steps in the user/group creation wizard.

1. Get Started
2. Choose User Type
3. Select Attributes
4. Set Values
5. Create User
6. Review Result

Note that the steps differ depending on what object (user, group, organizational unit, etc.) to create.

Create a new User

Add a new User (inetOrgPerson objectClass)

Create a new Group

Add a new Group (GroupOfNames/GroupOfUniqueNames objectClass)

Create a new Organizational Unit

Add a new Organizational Unit

Create a new Role

Add a new Role (Filtered / Managed / Nested)

Create a new custom Entry

Add a new entry by selecting ObjectClasses and Attributes

Note that unlike in Active Directory, this will require some understanding of the basics of LDAP. jetDS will include an HTML-accessible user manual that goes over how to setup an LDAP server. I'm thinking at some point, maybe we can collaborate on how to simplify the technical jargon and make the creation of objects more user-friendly to administrators with little to no prior knowledge of LDAP.

Future Roadmap for jetDS

If the server community could step up and work with jetDS, administrators will want DHCP Server (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), DNS Server (Domain Name System), and 802.1x authentication throgh FreeRADIUS. These are the graphical features that is not available in Cockpit and can only be managed from the command-line interface. jetDS with Directory Server is just the start of making server management better for administrators.

To make LDAP object creation a little easier for administrators, I'm thinking the community could reduce the technical jargon and include some presets for user/group creation that will make it easier for administrators to understand and get their foot in the door once administrators understand how object creation works. We could also have additional presets such as having the ability to add MAC addresses to organizational units. This is useful for things such as MAC Authentication Bypass where switches with 802.1x configured can interact with FreeRADIUS and have it assign VLANs to devices that have their own MAC addresses.

For jetDS-to-jetDS replication, we need a way to simplify the setup. Something as easy as joining a Windows Server to a domain in an existing forest. An Active Directory (AD) forest is the highest level of organization within an Active Directory logical structure. It serves as the primary container for all domains, users, computers, group policies, and other network objects within an enterprise environment. Currently, administrators could get confused between the three types of replication modes:

• Supplier
• Hub
• Consumer

Administrators could get confused regarding why the secondary LDAP server cannot be edited and replicated to the primary LDAP server. Windows Server handles all the replication process automatically.

Sometime in the future, I am thinking about enterprise administrators who would definitely want the ability to set policies per organizational unit (OU, for short) in LDAP. Right now, there's Ansible, Puppet, and Chef, but none of those automation and orchestration systems come close to that of Group Policy for Windows Server Active Directory. I could imagine Ansible and 389 Directory both integrated and talking to each other, but we don't have that capability right now. Group Policy in Windows Server Active Directory is a policy-enforcement engine, not a scripting engine unlike PowerShell for Windows. Being able to set policies for users, groups, and any forms of objects is the most important part of centrally managing users and groups and that is something that we want to see in jetDS. Automation and orchestration systems and per-OU policy management are considered apples and oranges.

That is the kind of vision that I want to see for jetDS.

jetDS Needs a Certificate Management System

Core Certificate Management

• RFC 5280 Compliance Checker — Validate certificates before deployment
• Serial Number Management — Ensure all certificates have valid, unique serials
• Certificate Lifecycle Dashboard — Expiry tracking, renewal automation
• Trust Store Management — Easy certificate installation to system trust stores

Enterprise Features

• Multi-CA Support — Manage multiple certificate authorities
• Certificate Templates — Prebuilt configurations for different services
• Auto-Renewal Integration — Automatic certificate renewal before expiry
• Revocation Management — CRL generation and distribution

User Experience

• One-Click Certificate Generation — For common services (web, mail, LDAP)
• Certificate Export Wizard — Convert between formats (PEM, DER, PKCS12)
• Bulk Operations — Deploy certificates to multiple servers
• Migration Tools — Import from problematic sources (like OPNsense!)

Why Not Go Back To Windows?

Because we might as well give up our computers and servers and live in the times before computers ever existed.

All joking aside, that "go back to Windows" question is unhelpful and outdated. Windows Server has had a graphical user interface for about 30 years now. Why can't jetDS do the same but be managed via a web browser? I want to cater to enterprise administrators at some point in the future by employing whatever the tools they need, be it managing network services or when it comes to managing OU-based policies (OU is Organizational Unit for storing users and groups including other forms of objects).

And I'm actually being serious when I say that even I would gladly give up on computers. If I am blind and I don't want either Windows or Mac, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Fedora, etc. has inconsistent support for assistive technologies such as screen readers and magnifiers (for those with visual disability), I could simply say goodbye to computers and live a life without computers. Yes, I know I am silly, but I would hope there are people out there who would find the truth behind the statement I made. Of course, I never give up on computers despite some of my struggles I work with every single day.

If Windows Server is so easy to get Active Directory setup and going, can't jetDS be just as easy as Windows Server if managed from the comfort of a web browser?

Credits and Acknowledgements

jetDS is built upon the hard work of the open-source community. I would like to thank:

• CachyOS: For the `pacstrap` Calamares module, which provides granular package management for the installation process.
• KDE: For creating a desktop environment with robust accessibility features that enable jetDS to serve visually impaired administrators.
• HerbFargus: For creating a basic script for a splash screen upon boot and shutdown.