Hello all,

I have a Company that has recently co-located their Windows 2003 Server to
a datacenter.  The system has been in a LAN environment for 15 years.  The
main file server consists of 2 Dell 2800 poweredge file servers with just
under 2 TB of stored files on these 2 servers in an array (don't know what
type either 5, or 10).  The company is an engineering firm and so the
project files involve AutoCAD .DWG, .DWF, and PDF drawings, along with
excel, doc, and pst files (exchange server is also co-located with the
database at 16 GB but is physically separate from the file server).

The clients to this system are now connecting through VPNs to do work on
their workstations.  In principle it sounds great however the biggest issue
is the AutoCAD drawings.  The average drawing file in AutoCAD Civil3D is
not small 100K to 250K and each file references other shared networked
drawings (called externally referenced drawings).  These files can be the
same or larger.  This presents an issue with bandwidth (they are limited to
5Mbps for the entire firm to share).

I was thinking that each work site would improve there performance by
setting up an onsite mirror of the co-located file server and that each
site mirror would sync to the co-located server  2 -3 times per day.  This
would be only for the file server, exchange would continue pointed to the
co-location site.

My questions are based on using Linux w/Samba on a file server to mirror
and sync with the Windows file server:

1. What recommendations for FOSS backup synchronization software does
anyone have experience with that they could recommend for this type of use.

2.  Given the fact that populating the mirrors will take an enormous amount
of time up front is there any recommendations again with item 1. or
procedurally that will make this an easier process.

3.   Any other pitfalls or thoughts regarding the VPN, tunneling, ssh,
connections between mirrors etc that come to mind again in relation to FOSS
software, Linux and Samba.

Just as a further note, the files stored on the server are standard Office
documents and AutoCAD formats, as well as jpeg, TIFF, PDF, GIF.  there are
no databases or web servers running on the system to contend with.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and advice

-- 
James