[Samba] What project should I use ?

[Intrepid One]

First off I will probably be going with Compaq Servers (now called HP Servers, but they are still Compaq Proliants to me).  I have good experience with them and good support.
Also I am getting a good deal on a refurbished one right now.

I am hearing SAMBA (with the new releases this month) a lot.  Probably will go with it.  But I will still test a Samba-TNG server.

OFFTOPIC
Not to go off-topic but... I can vouch for IDE RAID.
I helped setup a large legal document depository.
(Put Simply:  Large file system to store gigs of tiff images, linked to a database for attorney's to index the documents. Also had a cluster of systems doing OCR, Secure Web Frontend to the documents and information.)
Well we needed around 1TB . SCSI was a bit expensive.
We went with a RaidZone OpenNAS <http://www.raidzone.com> which has a total of 1.2TB of usable RAID5 storage.
It is a wonderful system and has been going for 9 months now without a glitch.
It has hotswap drives and a hotspare. We also have a 900GB native tape backup system.

Who else can say they have 1.2TB.  =)
/OFFTOPIC

BACK on Topic

I have liked the work of SUSE in the passed.  I am only LEANING towards RedHat.  Personally I love/use GENTOO, but if I were to leave there would need to be a support plan in place.  Also, I can only buy from a company that will be around for a while, and I don't know about the stability of the other Linux companies (the ones that sell products I mean).  If you haven't used GENTOO you should, its amazing.

All Client systems will use Win2000.  Only major problem (outside of the endless problems that all MS products have) is with WordPerfect 8.  Corel does not support it under Win2000.  I have a few users with win2000 and they only have a few problems in WordPerfect, but those can be avoided.  By the way, this is for a law office, thats why they use WordPerfect 8.

You read my mind.  The old server will be the test server.
The backup server will probably be an IDE system, since I don't need high redundancy on it.

I will have other servers to.  Fax server (might go in mail server), proxy w/ virus scanning, etc...

Oh and I am looking to replace the Hubs with HP Procurve Switches.

Most of that was offtopic, just wanted to clarify on John's post.


Thanks
--
Intrepid


----- Original Message -----
From: John H Terpstra <jht at samba.org>
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 22:53:35 +0000 (GMT)
To: Intrepid One <trep at linuxmail.org>
Subject: Re: [Samba] What project should I use ?

> Oh Intrepid One,
> 
> You ask such amazing questions! Of course you will excuse a little bias on
> my part I am sure.
> 
> Without doubt I'd use Samba. Right now the stable version is 2.2.7a (as of
> this morning).
> 
> I'd build a box using 3WARE IDE RAID - it's faster and more cost effective
> than SCSI is today.
> 
> If price point is an issue, check out the Tyan K7 2462 motherboard. You
> might like to deck it out with two MP2G+ CPUs (cheap but effective). I'd
> look at 4 IBM 80GB+ 7200rpm IDE drives off the RAID storage (on the 3WARE
> 7500-4 controller) and one 60GB 7200rpm IDE boot drive on which I'd
> install my OS. Consider 1Gb/s ethernet to an etherswitch that has 1 Gb/s
> port and the rest 100Mb/s. That combo will punch a load of performance.
> I'd add in about 1GB DDR RAM - also cheap and it means you will not be
> starved when your users hit the system hard.
> 
> If price point is not an issue, check out HP and IBM servers - you can't
> beat them for quality, support, realiability. Same configuration concepts
> as above.
> 
> PS: The 3WARE IDE RAID give you an I/O bandwidth of up to 452MB/s,
> compared with 320 Mbits/s on fastest SCSI. Big difference in poerformance!
> 
> As for the OS: LINUX, LINUX, LINUX!!!
> 
> As for the brand: Did you seriously check out SuSE Enterprise Linux Server
> and SuSE OpenExchange server? Did you check out SCO Linux 4.0 Server?
> Before you jump to the conclusion that Red Hat is your only choice, check
> out SuSE and SCO, it might not change your mind, but at least will open
> you choice to other possibilities.
> 
> I'd also seriously look at updating all workstations to a common OS
> platform. It will make your life of administration a lot more peaceful.
> I'd look seriously at ZAW (Zero Administration Windows) - for more
> information you probably want to hire a consultant who knows MS Windows
> NT/2K/XP inside out (PS: I am available ;)). IT will seriously reduce your
> maintenance overheads. Samba is a great platform to build this on
> (commercial plug!).
> 
> The only bit of the change that will NOT be seemless is the update of user
> workstations and notebooks. For the rest, you should be fine except that
> your Win NT/2K/XP machines may need to re-join the domain (assuming you
> now do use domain security). This will only impact you if you migrate
> entirely from NT -> Samba. You could always continue to use your NT Domain
> controller just for authentication - not nice, but useable and possibly a
> good migration strategy. That way you can migrate the PDC after all the
> other issues have been smoothed over - ie: progressive migration rather
> than abrupt change.
> 
> PS: Your old server would be a good 'test server'.
> 
> I hope this answers your questions.
> 
> - John T.
> 
> 
> On Thu, 12 Dec 2002, Intrepid One wrote:
> 
> > I am going to list my current plans for rebuilding a Law Firm’s network.  I hope that someone will be able to tell me which project (samba or samba-tng) would be a better choice, or if staying with MS is the only choice.  If my plan could be changed for the better, input would be greatly appreciated:
> >
> > A lot of this information is useless for my questions, but I am throwing it in anyway.
> >
> > --------
> > CURRENT SETUP (to be replaced/updated)
> > 1 Server (Proliant 1600: P2-450 (single), RAID5 SCSI storage)
> >   *MS Win2000 Server
> >   *File and Print Services (file size ranges from 1kb to several 100mb).  Currently around 10gb in shared files.
> >   *MS Exchange 5.5 Server (Public Store 2.5GB; Private Store 3.0GB).
> > 50 Desktop Users (Compaq Deskpro's w/ P2-300 up to Compaq Evo P4's.  DeskPro P2-450 is the most common)
> >   *MS Win98-WinXP
> >   *WordPerfect 8
> >   *MS Office 97-2000
> >   *MS Outlook (running with Exchange in Corporate Mode)
> >   *Several Database Applications
> > 10 Laptop Users
> >   *WinME-XP
> >   *WordPerfect 8
> >   *MS Office97-2000
> >   *MS Outlook (running with Exchange in Corporate Mode & Offline Folders)
> >   *Offline Files or Briefcase to keep files on laptop and backed up on server
> >   *Several Database Applications
> > Network Hardware:
> >   *HUBS (evil slow junky hubs, to be replaced of course).
> >   *ISDN (I know... what the heck were they thinking? ISDN? 60 users and an overloaded Exchange Server). (Also soon to be replaced with sDSL or T1).
> > --------
> > PLANNED REPLACEMENT (I will focus more on things relating to SAMBA, and some holes will be left as I don't know exactly how to do some things with SAMBA yet, or at least I don't know the best route.)
> >
> > *ALL Clients will be moved to MS Win2000 (wanted to go with OpenSource Software all around but that is not a viable solution for a law office at this time)
> >
> > Main File/Authentication Server (Microsoft would call it a PDC)
> >   *Linux or *BSD for OS (probably RedHat Linux as they offer the most corporate support).
> >   *Nice powerful system with RAID5 storage, redundant parts, blah blah. Still won't need to be as expensive as a new Win2000 Server.
> >   *Will handle authentication either through UN*X password system w/ SAMBA duplicating that(passwords could be pushed to the other servers) or thru' a pam or ldap design.
> >
> > Backup File/Authentication Server
> >   *Automated (through scripting) backup of main file server.
> >   *Backup Tape System (probably an Ultrium drive).
> >   *Backup as many services as possible for Main Server.
> >
> > Test Server
> >   *Name says it all. Used to test experimental projects/code.
> >
> > Mail Server
> >   *Here is where things get more complicated.  I am not asking the SAMBA team for total help here as mail services are not in SAMBA's view.  I will be keeping the Exchange 5.5 Server or replacing it with Bynari InsightServer (unless someone knows a better product).  I MUST have a single login.
> >   *After connecting to the Main Server they should not have to put in another password (for email or backup files).
> >   *Exchange uses a directory system (not very compliant but it exist) and most alternatives use LDAP.  Therefore I will have to use OpenLDAP at some point in the authentication scheme.
> >
> > That long (hope I don't get made into a troll) email leads up to a few questions.
> > Samba or Samba-TNG or stay with Micro*leech*soft?
> > What is the best route for a single authentication across multiple UN*X servers?
> > Any other experiences with moving an office with my structure to all OSS (Open-Source Software) in the server room.
> >
> > Major Concerns:
> > Single Authentication
> > Seamless Change from users point of view.
> >
> > Thank You
> > --
> > Intrepid
> >
> 
> -- 
> John H Terpstra
> Email: jht at samba.org

-- 
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