Tall Order? (or not???)

[WFB]

Hi...
Have been asked to volunteer on assisting a non profit organization in setting up their LAN...

Since we are operating on a little to no budget, using an OS from the Washington based company is right out...

However, I am most familiar with the M* product! However, I see this project as a perfect real world example to learn Linux.

I need to set up a server, which is going to serve as:
Primary Domain Controller (if there is a counterpart to this in Linux)
File Server
Print Server (possibly)
Mail Server

The clients want to use a feature of Exchange, "community calendar"...is there a counterpart to this in the Linux world?

I learn fast :) can anyone point me to some good resouces, either on-line or in print on the best way to accomplish this?


thanks!

[roster]

You can find lots of resources on line, but very few really cover from the very basics. I was in almost the same situation. For me the best startegy that worked was I bought a few books, start reading them and experimenting with the box at the same time and when ever I got stock asked a friend to help me out. Get redhat 7.1, it is easy to install and configure and there is lots of support for it out there. Both books and people who have used it.

good luck,

[Psycho]

There's always the Linux Newbie Administrator's Guide (http://sunsite.dk/linux-newbie)

And you will find help here if you get stuck.

--glenn

[Craig McPherson]

I've set up LANs and administered Linux servers for religious organizations. If you're talking about a fairly small facility, you can do just fine learning as you go. I would recommend picking up a few books and printing out some HOWTOs before you dive into anything too heavy, though.

Let's look through your list.

PDC - Are you talking about a mostly Windows network with a Linux server, or a mostly Linux network? If you're going to have Windows clients with a Linux server, you can use Samba as the PDC. Samba can act as a full PDC for Windows 95/98/ME. If you were planning on using WinNT/Win2K instead, Samba can't act as a full PDC for them without using one of the developmental branches which is some very complex stuff. If you're talking about an all-Linux network, Linux doesn't use SMB networking so there's no "PDC" concept, but if you want to make user accounts global across the network, you can use NIS for that, or simply synchronize the machines' passwd files with a script. NIS is more heavyweight, but also more complex.

File Server - Samba can do Windows (SMB) filesharing. The standard UNIX filesharing is NFS, which you'd only want to look at if you have multiple Linux/UNIX boxes on the network.

Print Server - Once again, Samba can do SMB printer sharing. Of course, you can do UNIX-style printer sharing as well, if you have multiple UNIX machines, but yet again this is more complex.

Mail Server - Very easy.

Hope that gets you started. I know you're on a budget, but a copy of the purple book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0130206016/qid=999150213/sr=2-1/ref=aps_sr_b_1_1/103-5622495-9666217) will MORE than pay for itself in the end. It's not Linux-specific, but it's three times as useful at what it covers than any Linux-specific books on the market. However, it doesn't go much into Samba, which is essential for what you'll be doing. Fortunately, you can read O'Reilly's Using Samba for free on-line (I'd recommend printing it out and putting it in a binder -- it'll come in very handy) at http://samba.he.net/

I hope that gets you started.

[The Whizzard]

I need to set up a server, which is going to serve as:
Primary Domain Controller (if there is a counterpart to this in Linux)
File Server
Print Server (possibly)
Mail Server

The e-smith gateway/server does all this "right out of the box". You'll need to upgrade SAMBA to get W2K machine able to logon to the domain but W9x/NT4 machines work fine. It's even configured for AppleTalk (MacOS) networks. I'm not sure about that "calander" thingie though.
It's based on RedHat 7. www.e-smith.org (http://www.e-smith.org) for more info.
<EDIT>It also does LDAP or whatever the acronim(sp) is</EDIT>

[ 30 August 2001: Message edited by: The Whizzard ]

[Craig McPherson]

Originally posted by WFB:
<STRONG>Since we are operating on a little to no budget, using an OS from the Washington based company is right out...</STRONG>

The Washington company?

You must mean Nintendo of America. They're in Seattle.

[miker]

if they expect to be able to view their calendar in outlook, forget it.

you will be better off implementing something that calendars in a web browser -- there are several for linux. I don't know of any that work with an LDAP directory though which is a shame.

Actually, you might check out bynari's solution, it is supposed to be the most 'Microsoft Exchange' compatible solution for linux -- don't know the details though and their website was sparse last time i looked

[teeitup]

RE: community calender

Check out this product by XIMIAN http://www.ximian.com/

They had a nice demo at LinuxWorld yesterday.
Email, workgroup calender, package management (for all major distros), Star Office.

Sounds like a fun project, Good Luck.

[WFB]

Thanks for the suggestions folks!

I've downloaded, and installed, played with Mandrake Corporate Server...

I've actually got everything running that I need (Samba, Web, POP)

Have a question though...

this distro uses Postfix...
I'm having a little difficulty in setting up the SMTP.
I have pertinent "A" and "MX" records in the zonefile, but I can't send through this box.
If I use the ISP's smtp server, then it works

can anyone point me to a real "newbie" basic setup of PostFix?
searchign the archives brought up quite a few topics, didn't see one that was just "general setup" type info

thanks!

[Craig McPherson]

Originally posted by WFB:
<STRONG>I have pertinent "A" and "MX" records in the zonefile, but I can't send through this box. If I use the ISP's smtp server, then it works</STRONG>

Telnet to port 25 of the mail server, and try to send an e-mail using SMTP commands. If you don't know the SMTP "language", look up a summary on Google.

Take note of when the mail server rejects your mail, and what exact error it gives you.

Most likely, you just don't have your local/trusted domains set properly in the configuration file.

can anyone point me to a real "newbie" basic setup of PostFix?

I use Exim, so I can't say anything about PostFix configuration. Exim works very well though, with minimal configuration work. You might want to consider giving it a try.

[ssadams]

like Craig said,read some docs on Postfix,and or Sendmail.They are a biatch to setup but most internet email is handled by Sendmail.I never used Qmail or Exiam(sp) but hear they are very good and worth a try.