Using linux as a server

[der.hans]

Am 18. Jul, 2008 schwätzte Nadim Hoque so:

> I recently built a server (a q9300 core 2 quad, 8gb of ram, 1 terabyte
> of hard drive space) and I was hoping for now to have it as a simple
> file server and perhaps other types one day. There are about 25
> computers on the network (24 windows 1 mac). Right now I am
> comfortable with opensuse 11, but I am willing to change to another
> distro (I liked fedora but I don't like selinux part of it) that is

The distribution is mostly irrelevant. Who will be your primary source of
advice?

If it's PLUG, I think you'll find debian-based ( debian, Ubuntu ) and Red
Hat-based ( CentOS, RHEL, Fedora ) are the primary distros used here[0].

You'll likely want to set the server up to be a Samba server. Both windows
and mac desktops will be able to access files that way. Samba is also a
print server if you need that.

Others can give you much better assistance with Samba than I can.

> more suitable to a server. Also there is a program that is called
> Geosystems and according to the company the program can be run from a

Do you have a link to more info on that product? It's a simple enough name
that I don't want to depend on a search engine leading me to the correct
product.

> server on different computers. I don't know exactly know how this is
> supposed to work, but most likely I need this computer to have WINE
> installed to make it work (the company did say some of their clients
> use linux). The most important thing though is that it must be easy to
> use (very few CLI operations) because we do not have an IT department.

You can setup X on the server. It doesn't use that many resourced. You
could also think about using webmin.

swat is one configuration tool for Samba.

> If I do than is there a good step-by step guide on how to set up a
> server for files as well as an application and maintenance of the
> server. Also, I might need to know how to use a database program (like
> filemaker or access) and again it might have to run under WINE or
> something. I am for FOSS, but I do need to figure this out or I might
> unfortunately have to use Windows Server.

[0] Yeah, I know, lots of other distros used by PLUGgers.

ciao,

der.hans
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