[Samba] Q: Samba4 AD DC & small office file sharing

[Rowland Penny]

On Tue, 29 May 2018 09:57:50 -0700
Jeremy Allison <jra at samba.org> wrote:

> On Tue, May 29, 2018 at 05:54:49PM +0100, Rowland Penny via samba
> wrote:
> > On Tue, 29 May 2018 09:18:49 -0700
> > Jeremy Allison <jra at samba.org> wrote:
> > 
> > > On Sat, May 26, 2018 at 02:47:24PM +0100, Rowland Penny via samba
> > > wrote:
> > > > On Sat, 26 May 2018 09:21:01 -0400
> > > > Marco Shmerykowsky via samba <samba at lists.samba.org> wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > > In lieu of virtualization, I wouldn't be opposed to some
> > > > > small, inexpensive appliance type device (sort of like
> > > > > the Netgate firewalls that run pfsense).
> > > > > 
> > > > > I came across the MintBox Mini Pro
> > > > > (http://www.fit-pc.com/web/products/mintbox/mintbox-mini-pro/)
> > > > > 
> > > > > Any experience or alternate suggestions?
> > > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > Yes, just about any 64bit computer on the planet.
> > > > 
> > > > I know the wikipage says it isn't recommended to use a DC as
> > > > fileserver, but I have never understood why. Every DC is used
> > > > as a fileserver, what do you think 'sysvol' & 'netlogon' are ?
> > > > Yes, they are shares serving files aka 'fileserver', anybody
> > > > want to argue this ?
> > > 
> > > No, it's certainly being a fileserver there. The key here
> > > is 'recommended' :-). Doing a DC + fileserver on a box just
> > > uses more resources that could be more productively :-) :-)
> > > used in just serving files (Jeremy, who loves the file serving
> > > part of Samba, the DC part less so :-) :-).
> > 
> > I am not saying that using a DC as a fileserver in a very large
> > organization is a good idea, but in a small office, it is more than
> > capable. Lets not forget where all the authentication is carried
> > out, it is on the DC, so if you only have a few computers and
> > users, then it is possible to use the DC as a fileserver. If
> > everything starts slowing down, then it would be time to add a
> > separate fileserver. Stop me if I am wrong, but didn't a certain
> > company produce something called an SBS ??
> 
> Yeah you're right. The main thing to do I think is set expectations
> appropriately. e.g. for a so-and-so spec'ed machine, you can expect
> x authentications per/second and y IO operations per second
> simultaneously.
> 
> Problem is, I have no idea what x and y are :-).

No and nobody else does and we never will do, if we keep saying 'do not
use a DC as a fileserver'. 

Rowland