Arch Linux

Harey

Member

From: Bavaria, Germany

Registered: 2007-03-24

Posts: 359

General questions about network setup

Hi everybody,

I am in the process of migrating the network of our small nonprofit-organization from windows to linux. I searched for a while and had a look at several distros but it seems that arch is what we need ;-) Some months ago I migrated my own laptop and desktop at home to arch and learned a lot about KISS since then. But now I need some hints that point me in the right direction. The net consists of a router (running fli4l for firewalling, ntp, dhcp and dns-server), a main Server (SuSE 9.1 samba domain controller by now) and a backup server (arch). There are some workstations running Win2000 or XP and two arch systems with a KDE-desktop.

How can I manage single sign on for all these machines? NIS seems to be insecure, LDAP very complicated. Any other options? Maybe someone with a working configuration as an example? The setup should take care about the possibilty of one server going down and the backup server then taking all services over.

On each windows machine I needed antivirus and desktop firewall software. Any need for this on linux machines? I am a bit concerned about degrading performance since all workstations are 1GHhz Durons which is not so much these days...

By now the main task for all workstations is doing some text processing and spreadsheet work. The servers do the file sharing using samba. In the future I want to set up an internal email server, maybe some kind of networked PIM-Software for all users. What would you use for this purposes?

Are there any other things I have to keep in mind while setting up a small network like this?

Thanks for your help.

Harvey
BTW, English is not my native language so don't shoot me if I put something wrong ;-)

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Linux is like a wigwam: No Gates, no Windows and an Apache inside

TB2

Member

Registered: 2005-09-06

Posts: 25

Re: General questions about network setup

If the main tasks are text processing and spreadsheet work, then why are there any Windows machines? I'd install Linux on all of them, pick out the fastest (if there is one) and install XP on virtualbox on it - for emergencies, if there's a task Linux can't master. Then you will also be able to drop samba and there's loads of IPM programs for Linux.

If you install a firewall on the server, you won't need firewalls on the clients, thus saving ressources. And if the performance seems a bit too sluggish, switch from KDE to a more ressource-friendly DE, like Xfce, Window Maker or Fluxbox.

In general I think it's better if all machines run the same setup. Mixing Win2000, XP and Linux machines can be done, but I think it's not recommended

Harey

Member

From: Bavaria, Germany

Registered: 2007-03-24

Posts: 359

Re: General questions about network setup

If the main tasks are text processing and spreadsheet work, then why are there any Windows machines?

Because this environment has grown over years and is now moving towards Linux. And there is some special software that only exists as windows software (medical databases) which I was not able to run in Wine. Virtualbox is a good hint, though I am using vmware in the moment for my own boxes. So vmware-player would do as well, I guess. 

Then you will also be able to drop samba...

Mmmh, I'm a bit concerned about that. I suppose you suggest using NFS/NIS? Isn't that believed to be insecure?

and there's loads of IPM programs for Linux

Well, not so much if you are looking for a networked one which archlinux supports. Evolution looks nice though I'd personally prefer Kolab, but for groupware features it needs a server which I wasn't able to find in the repositories. And making packages is not one of my skills...

switch from KDE to a more ressource-friendly DE, like Xfce, Window Maker or Fluxbox.

Tried XFCE, which looks nice, but I need a login manager for my users. Had a look at slim, but was not able to configure it right. The wiki seems to be outdated here. It runs on boot, but never lets me login. I come back to the login screen in an infinite loop. Still looking for a solution here.

In general I think it's better if all machines run the same setup. Mixing Win2000, XP and Linux machines can be done, but I think it's not recommended

This is what I am thinking too. And I want to migrate, but in the moment there are some caveats I have to deal with.

Harvey

Last edited by Harey (2008-01-29 12:39:25)

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Linux is like a wigwam: No Gates, no Windows and an Apache inside