[Samba] SMB Network design guidelines

[Carlos Vidal]

Thank you very much for your suggestions, they are valuable.

After reading them I'm leaning more towards the single mega-domain
option. Thanks to the network segments and the human resources
database we know were people are, the same for the computers,
therefore the domain info is redundant. A domain per remote site was
fine 5-6 years ago, when they were opening offices as independent
replicas of the HQ and the network connection was a on-demand ISDN
link to send/receive e-mail. Today we are upgrading the ADSL
connections to 20/1mbps in all offices and 4x20/1 in the HQ (at
30Euros/month per link is a bargain! :-)

On 7/26/05, Robert Schetterer <robert at schetterer.org> wrote:
> Hi, so my answers are filled in
> ...
> done this setups with vpn 4 offices and 100 users , no problem
> mostly networking questions.
> the more dicussed question was using outlook/exchange ( or linux
> dervirat ) and pst files et, since the users wanted to have groupware
> features like outlook.

I'm lucky, these guys use a web site for groupware and standard
POP/IMAP clients for the e-mail, so, as you say, it is just the
network, I wasn't sure if a single mega-domain would hold, or if it is
worth to have a full blown Active Directory on Win-2003 server.

> this will help you using profiles and policies, laptop moving users and
> so called roadwarriors may give the most pain as they need vpn
> setups and other policies

They give more pain anyway, with their viruses, spyware, downloaded
games, home "improvements", hard disk damages, etc. The special
profiles and VPN setups are just a minor nuissances :-)

Thanks again!

Carlos