Looking for Large Scale SAMBA Install Success / Failure Stories

[George, Michael]

Samba Users,

I am looking for a Large Scale SAMBA success or failure story.  I have been
using Samba for a long time without any issues, however replacing many
Netware servers with Linux/Solaris running Samba is a different story. Here
is what is running through my mind

1. Novell 4.x causes a never ending stream of problems, including attacking
and flooding the network with NDS tree fragments.  Essentially a DoS attack.
Not to mention to go to Novell V 5.0 and possibly get software that works,
Novell want hundreds of thousands to to upgrade.

2. Do I really want to take on the headaches of file and print services for
the PC community? Sure I could grow my team, but how robust is samba?  The
big three of user complaints are 1) I can't login, 2) I can't print, and 3)
The server is down.  This would expose me to all 3.  Wouldn't it be
better/easier to form a new Windows2000 team and give them the cash from the
Novell upgrade and do a migration?

3. How well does Samba work with things like Micro$oft access?  Will Samba
do all the locking properly?  We already have an Access Database corruption
problem. Will it get worse, stay the same, or get better?

4. Samba = MicroSoft Networking = spam the network with NetBeui traffic.
What is the network impact?  Not to say that IPX is a network lightweight by
any means, especially with the recent Novell NDS spams.

5. I trust UNIX (Linux / Solaris).  UNIX to date has not failed me.  It has
hosted databases, applications, webservers, faxservers, served disks, and
printers and basically runs SOLID.  

Please help me take the plunge or stop me before I make a big mistake!  I am
typically a UNIX/OpenSource biggot, but I have learned the "using the right
tool for the right job" usually is the right thing to do.

Keep up the great work! Samba rocks!

Michael George III

perotsystems Corporation / Rouge Steel Account
Office: 313.317.6724  
email1: mgeorge3 at rougesteel.com
email2: Michael.George at ps.net