I was asked to help out a small company with IT solutions. Initially, I was going to redesign their old website (hosted by a third party company) but then (as they liked their new website) they also asked me to help them out with their office IT infrastructure. I don't normally do it so I am not really experienced in it (especially in the windows environment.)
I'm going to ask some basic questions.

The office consists of 10-15 computers running a mixture of Windows 7 and Vista (connected to a router - I haven't been there yet, but that's the impression I get after a conversation on the phone. No any kind of server). Obviously, the company doesn't want to pay much (Windows Servers etc). The problems they have are as follows:

1. No sharing of files, documents.

Any open-source tools that could help them with sharing, collaboration?
Ideally local, if not something that can be installed on their 3rd party hosting)


2. No backup solution (which medium would you recommend and which open-source software? AFAIK, Window 7 has a backup feature. I don't think it exists in Win Vista)

3. Sharing outlook calendars (I guess that would be tricky without an exchange server?)

I'm going there on Friday so I'll have a better picture of the situation.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

it should be easy . make a linux server with FreeNAS and connect it to the router all the pcs are connected to.

If you load up a Linux machine with adequate disk storage and run SAMBA, every workstation can mount a share (or two, or 12) on the SAMBA server as if it were a Windows server. We use this at my workspace. (~80 people, 6 departments)

While I might be barbequed for saying this ... I think that they are basically a Microsoft shop and that I see no particular reason to gratuitously impose any changes upon them. Microsoft-provided tools and technologies ought to be able to service their needs in an uncomplicated way without additional purchases, even if they do not yet know about them or do not yet know how to use them. (Or, perhaps, do you?) You might need to upgrade one of their computers to a server-edition of Windows, but I think that Windows still remains "the shortest distance between two points" in this situation. I would keep them where they are ... in Redmond territory. (And I don't mind suggesting this on a Linux forum! I think it says absolutely nothing negative .. not about Linux, not about this client, not about Redmond; none of whom need any defenders anyway. This is simply "my two-cents-worth prescription.")

Good observation, but let's keep in mind what the OP said: He needs to talk to them about their needs and wants and desires first. Then he can get a feel for how adventurous they want to be, and go from there.

It may be that he wants to let them continue with Windows at the end-user phase and put Linux in as a network/internet hosting solution.

Or not.

But if he did, he could gradually introduce them to other open source solutions and go from there, such as using Open/Libre Office for their office suites, or putting new employees on strictly linux machines and maintaining the Windows machines while gradually replacing the software and OS as people become more familiar with Linux.

So find out what they are comfortable with, and go from there. Personally, I bet they'll like the idea of Windows for end users and linux in back, saving them the expense of Windows Server.

If they would like to be able to do a text search of all their documents via a web browser, generating a list of matching documents then open or download (depending on how the web browser is configured) chosen ones, docoll could do that.

It would require a Linux server, ideally Debian.

why ideally Debian, if I may ask?


If it has to be all inside MS-shop stuff, there's a free version of SharePoint (similar to MSSQL/.NET Express stuff), which may do all that they need. Though not sure if that needs to run on a Win Server OS

Because that's the distro I developed, tested and put it into production on

Early versions were on CentOS. I run part of it on Slackware 13.1 as a personal Desktop search facility.

I am happy to check that it runs -- and write documentation to suit -- on other distros if there is a demand.

You may want to look into some of the OOS small office servers as a better value compared to Windows server.
There are a couple of projects that apply: Amahi for one, Ubuntu has an offering, Zentyal (eBox) may be a possibility, and there are others.

This site has one SA experience using Debian: http://users.telenet.be/mydotcom/how...xsbs/intro.htm

I am not sure of the ClearOS state, but it may also bear looking into.

Certainly Linux offers better support for certain standards based operations (DNS, network File storage, routing, backup and recovery, Email and Email filtering, etc.) as compared to Windows servers. In addition, if this client has been running WITHOUT a Windows server or Active Directory, they may be well motivated to AVOID that whole can of worms in favor of less expensive open sources solutions.
They may be locked into a Windows based desktop, but not into a Windows based network or world. While they may even be open to a non-windows desktop solution, I would not advise that route without careful analysis of their business and practices to ensure that such a solution would be nearly transparent for them.

It certainly appears that Linux based back-end solutions would solve the questions presented by the OP better than MS-Windows servers. He will be better able to determine that by on-site observations and discussion thatn we possibly can in this forum.

Thanks all.

FreeNAS and SAMBA

Good suggestions. Today I have been playing with samba at home and it seems that it might be what I'll go for. There are some things that are still not working as I'd like them to but that's for another thread.

I agree with you. I'm all for linux and open-source but it'd make sense to use MS solutions in MS-only environment. The problem is that with linux/open-source solutions I can test things at home. I don't know the first thing about windows servers and am not going to buy one to practise (they are too expensive). I'd also want to minimise the cost on their part. As I mentioned before, a linux server with samba might solve most of their problems.

Haven't looked at it yet. But I'll definitely play with it (on Slackware, though)

Initially, it was my first thought but it does seem to require a win server.

So far a linux based back-end solution seems to be a cheap but good and reliable solution in terms of sharing files. I assume they can back up stuff to the linux server as well. The only problem remains that that might still want to share their outlook calendars (quick google suggests that it IS possible without Exchange. I haven't looked at it yet)


I don't think I'd want to migrate all of them to linux. It's too big a job for me (time) and them (learning) but we'll see

The most immediate problems for now would be:

1. backup medium suggestions (linux box hd? tape? which software?)
2. I'd probably have to clean their boxes (lots of crap installed, viruses?, etc) Any good tools?

Thank you

That would be great

I guess it's hard for a new FOSS project to gain acceptance, popularity and reputation so first users are very valuable.

When installing on Slackware:

• Depending on the file types you want to index (details in the documentation), install antiword, catdoc and unrtf (Slackbuilds available).
• Create /srv/httpd/htdocs/docoll instead of /var/www/docoll (assuming Slackware default Apache directory usage) and later in the installation procedure create /srv/httpd/htdocs/docoll/$instance instead of /var/www/docoll/$instance (where $instance is "default" for the first docoll instance).
• Create directory /srv/httpd/cgi-bin/omega/ and (change lib64 to lib on 32-bit systems) symlink /usr/lib64/xapian-omega/bin/omega as /srv/httpd/cgi-bin/omega/omega.
• Copy the sample Apache config file for docoll as /etc/httpd/docoll.conf and edit it, changing paths to suit. Here's mine with #@ marking the changed lines
  
  Code:

  # Apache configuration file for docoll
  
  #@ <Directory /var/www/docoll>
  <Directory /srv/httpd/htdocs/docoll>
      # Ensure required settings in case defaults have been changed
      Allow          from all
      DirectorySlash On
      Options        FollowSymlinks
      Order          Deny,Allow
  
      RewriteEngine  On
      RewriteBase    /
      RewriteRule    ^/*$ /cgi-bin/omega/omega?DB=default&FMT=docoll [L]
      RewriteRule    ^omega-(1.0.23)$ /cgi-bin/omega/$1/omega?DB=default&FMT=docoll [L]
      RewriteRule    ^([^/]*)/*$ /cgi-bin/omega/omega?DB=$1&FMT=docoll [L]
  </Directory>
  
  #@ <Directory /usr/lib/cgi-bin/omega>
  <Directory /srv/httpd/cgi-bin/omega>
      # Ensure required settings in case defaults have been changed
      Allow          from all
      DirectorySlash On
      Options        FollowSymlinks
      Order          Deny,Allow
  
      RewriteEngine  On
      RewriteBase    /
      RewriteCond    %{QUERY_STRING} (&|^)DB=([^&]*)& 
      RewriteRule    .* - [env=OMEGA_CONFIG_FILE:/etc/opt/docoll/%2/omega.conf] [L]
  </Directory>

• Edit /etc/httpd/httpd.conf to include /etc/httpd/docoll.conf.

Notes:

1. The SlackBuild for Xapian Omega 1.2.8 was submitted a while ago but has not been published yet. Please ask if you would like the unapproved version.
2. unrtf sometimes hangs, using 100% CPU. The Xapian Omega omindex program will kill it after 5 minutes.

In my thirty-plus years in this biz, I have cleaned-up after many a person who tried to bring Linux into a shop that was perfectly happy and productive with what they had ... making them unhappy and unproductive and getting run out of town on a pole.

Find out what they are doing with their computers and what they need in order to get productive work done ... then make that happen, using whatever operating system may be required.

Also, make damn sure that you are talking, from the very outset, with the actual decision-maker ... not some flunky in IT, or some other minion that's going to have to get approval to pay your invoice.

After I've spoken to the director of the company, it seems that they don't want as much support as they (someone else) had initially indicated. The director said that they have no need for cleaning the boxes or helping them with emails. Hey, whatever the boss says. On the plus side, I'll do another website for them (they're opening another business and want a separate website for it.)

It turns out that the only thing they need is some shared folder for documents and a backup solution.

In terms of sharing files, I think I'm going to get them some NAS device (with samba protocol) and am still not sure about the backup medium.

I wouldn't even have to buy any NAS but they don't have any spare box.

What do you think about the NAS solution?

You may want to look into FreeNAS ( http://www.freenas.org/ ) for the NAS server. You still need to add a server and drives, but it supports a WIDE range of operating systems and protocols.

Unless you have already, you will need to have a discussion about the kind of backup solution they will accept. Something that runs ON the workstation and backs up to the NAS is reasonable, but you will need remote NAS or tape to back up the NAS data and provide DR restore in the case of disaster.

Being a little "old school", I prefer to use honkin' BIG tape and store them safely offsite. Everyone today is talking about storage in the 'cloud', but that just means paying to store on someone else's server where you cannot get to it in a disaster if the internet access is down: I consider that non-optimal.

There are cross-platform solutions, centrally managed solutions, client based solutions, as well as manual backups to consider. If they want workstation backups, I recommend convincing them NOT to go with an entirely manual system. It is very common for operations people to simply forget, make a mistake, ignore error reports or logs, and have NO good backups for MONTHS of data.

There are so many backup offerings (Free and open, free but closed, commercial support open source, and closed source commercial) and so many are "good enough": one of them should be a good fir for your clients needs.

I have implemented Open Filer in more than couple of places for NAS application and it has been working for me great for long. The system it was installed on are dell server grade machines though and they are hardly reset unless power goes out and ups runs out of battery. One thing that I like about Open Filer is its ability to integrate in Windows AD and manage permissions on shares using AD credentials. This does not seem to be your purpose as of now, but you may never know. This could come handy if they plan AD infra.
And as far as backup is concerned, we use Backup PC server and Delta Copy on clients for incremental backups. This works and you dont pay for anything. Everything is free of cost. You may want to look into it.