Linux File Server in an Microsoft Domain

[Craig White]

since you top replied, I am gonna do the same.

That is a very good reason.

What should be obvious to everyone is that proprietary software has
screwed your company over - selling you a limited product for a lesser
price in order to bait the hook and reel in the fish at a later date.

Microsoft's SBS is indeed a crippled version of their server products
made attractive by it's low acquisition cost and limited in
functionality, as you now realize, limited in extension, you cannot have
additional AD controllers - hence no backup to the domain itself and if
it dies...so does your network infrastructure.

Thus I agree with your assessment except for the notion that if they are
really locked into Exchange Server, they will never be free of the
server licensing, CAL's etc. Thus a samba member server (which will
undoubtedly outlast/outperform the SBS server might serve as a
interesting demonstration of the true lasting value of F/OSS software
especially as compared to the stilted proprietary purchase you already
own and the extremely pricey upgrade option of a less stilted
proprietary system.

Craig

On Tue, 2005-11-29 at 17:54 -0700, Bryan.ONeal at asu.edu wrote:
> The “Why?” is a really good question.  We are using a Small Business Server. 
> Microsoft’s online "tech support" and several Microsoft consultants indicate
> that the addition of another server into our small business network will require
> us to migrate away from the Small Business Server, since it has a built in
> single server in the forest rule.  We can add a second stand alone server with
> some tweaking, but once you add all the server licensing and CALs, we are
> looking at around 5K; 8K - 12K for a full migration.  Mind you this is licensing
> only.  On the other hand adding a samba server, to take over the file sharing
> rolls of our current server, costs nothing in licensing.  Seems like a better
> way to go. 
> 
> Quoting Craig White <craigwhite at azapple.com>:
> 
> > On Tue, 2005-11-29 at 14:24 -0700, Darrin Chandler wrote:
> > > Bryan.ONeal at asu.edu wrote:
> > > 
> > > >Ok, I am about to add a file server into our Microsoft domain (I
> > hope)  I have
> > > >looked at all the read me's and it seems that samba 4 should handle
> > the
> > > >Microsoft permissions no problem.  I am looking at either SuSE 9
> > Enterprise or
> > > >Red Hat Enterprise.  Any thought, recommendations, experiences, or
> > warnings? 
> > > >It's for my work so I am quite nervous.  I real would hat to have
> > them drop $3K
> > > >just to tell them “Opps! You have to drop another $8K to make it
> > work because
> > > >were going Microsoft.â€
> > > >
> > > >1) Has anyone ever done this before?
> > > >2) What can you tell me about doing it?
> > > >3) If I were to choose SuSE vs. Red Hat as an file server that is
> > integrated
> > > >into a MS Active Directory, which would you recommend and why?
> > > >  
> > > >
> > > I haven't done this (yet). I did see a very simple step-by-step at 
> > > http://www.reallylinux.com/docs/sambaserver.shtml
> > ----
> > 1 - samba 4 isn't available yet - the above link mentions nothing
> > about
> > kerberos so it has to be worthless when considering joining an AD
> > network.
> > 
> > 2 - official samba docs <http://www.samba.org/samba/docs> see 'By
> > Example' gives you a walk through and 'How-To' has all of the
> > technical
> > data necessary to join an AD network.
> > 
> > 3 - I haven't done this with AD since I am not a proponent of AD and
> > proprietary methodologies that don't extend well or easily.
> > 
> > 4 - I wouldn't expect it to make much of a difference whether it was
> > SuSE or Red Hat or even a Red Hat clone like CentOS
> > 
> > Lastly, I guess I don't understand the logic of ***why*** you want to
> > put a samba server into an entirely Microsoft network as you haven't
> > explained it.
> > 
> > Craig
> > 
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