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Old 02-18-2010, 07:49 PM   #1
gennoske
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Advice what best linux distribution can do things like windows 2003 server


Hi everyone,

Please help me i need some advice about the linux distribution, i had plan to design a linux server. The situation is this i want to create a linux server that can act like in windows 2003 server his function is AD, file sharing, User Policies. Also i want is windows client can connect to linux..

What is the Best Linux distribution i use in order to do this project plan..


PLease help me... Thank you in advance...
 
Old 02-18-2010, 08:31 PM   #2
evo2
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Windows style file sharing is done with samba which basically *every* distro has.

I'm guessing "AD" is a reference to windows "Active Directory". A quick google returns lots of info about linux alternatives: it seems samba can do it too.

I couldn't work out what "User Policies" are though. For those of us who don't use windows, what are "User Policies"?

Evo2.

Last edited by evo2; 02-18-2010 at 08:34 PM.
 
Old 02-18-2010, 08:59 PM   #3
GlennsPref
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Quote:
Hi, Welcome to LQ!

LQ has a fantastic search function that may save you time waiting for an answer to a popular question.

With over 3 million posts to search it's possible the answer has been given.
All nix's are capable of doing this job.

samba and NFS and squid (proxy cache) servers, clients, monitoring, firewalled, proxied gateway server.

apache, php, install "lamp"
Quote:
task-lamp - Metapackage for the Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl server​ 
This package is a meta-package, meaning that its purpose is to contain dependencies for running LAMP-server, allowing easy installation of a comprehensive LAMP testing/development setup. For a production server, you may prefer to install a subset of the dependencies.
A page that may help you decide, a page devoted to linux and networking.

http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/

It's free to use,

I run My Mandriva system as a "firewalled proxy server, desktop"

cheers, Glenn
 
Old 02-18-2010, 09:03 PM   #4
DragonSlayer48DX
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Quote:
Originally Posted by evo2 View Post
I couldn't work out what "User Policies" are though.
That would be the same as permissions.

FWIW- Any SERVER version will do the job. You will want Server, not Desktop. And yes, Windows clients can connect to any Linux Server- otherwise the internet wouldn't work.
 
Old 02-18-2010, 11:02 PM   #5
Smartpatrol
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...

Last edited by Smartpatrol; 03-11-2010 at 10:05 PM.
 
Old 02-18-2010, 11:11 PM   #6
linuxlover.chaitanya
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Originally Posted by Smartpatrol View Post
Why not just use 2003 server? It does all that 2003 server can do the best anyway.
I would also second this thought. But yes, you can upto some extent alternate the use of Windows 2003 / 2008 server working as AD. But you would not definitely get all the options that are available in windows AD. Samba and LDAP can provide some alternatives. Fedora has got directory server that you can download for free.
 
Old 02-19-2010, 06:23 AM   #7
routers
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i think ClearOS suite the need
 
Old 02-19-2010, 06:27 AM   #8
cantab
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Pretty much any Linux distribution will do what you want. Some may offer more user-friendly configuration tools mind.

A few possibilities spring to mind:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a major commercial server distro. If you want commercial support, it may be a good choice. But of course you'll have to pay.
CentOS is a rebranded RHEL. It's free and fully compatible with RHEL.
Debian has long been regarded as great for servers.
Ubuntu LTS has a server version; if you're used to Ubuntu desktops it might ease your learning curve.
The BSDs are not Linux, but they are similar. (GNU/Linux is based on the concepts of Unix, while the BSD family inherited the actual code from one version of Unix).

The main features of server distributions are more conservative software choices, and often longer periods of security updates.
 
Old 02-19-2010, 06:40 AM   #9
GlennsPref
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There ya go! CentOS!
 
Old 02-19-2010, 07:04 AM   #10
johnsfine
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For the direct question: Which distribution is best for this?

1) Centos is best

2) It doesn't make a really big difference. Many other distributions would also be suitable.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gennoske View Post
function is AD, file sharing, User Policies. Also i want is windows client can connect to linux.
How to actually do all that is the more complicated question.

What do you mean by "connect to Linux"? Do you mean run programs on Linux?

The Cygwin software includes xwin and putty programs that are two good ways of running Linux programs from a Windows keyboard/mouse/monitor. Putty runs a Linux terminal session (command line mode) in a Windows window. It is very low overhead. Xwin runs a Linux desktop in Windows window, so you have full Linux GUI support in a session in Windows. But xwin is high overhead and may be complicated to set up.

Cygwin is a set of free Unix like tools that run on Windows.

Last edited by johnsfine; 02-19-2010 at 07:06 AM.
 
Old 02-19-2010, 05:01 PM   #11
Bratmon
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You might want to give this a read as well.
 
Old 02-19-2010, 08:12 PM   #12
jefro
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I am kind of fond of OpenSUSE.
 
Old 02-19-2010, 10:38 PM   #13
gennoske
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let me explain a scenario of what i ask before. my plan is i want all user in windows client to transfer in linux server, i want the user entry a password and the linux will be the one to verify and the roaming user files will save the data in linux machine..
 
Old 02-20-2010, 01:45 AM   #14
mesiol
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Hi,

i do not think Samba can work as an Active Directory master, if i mention correctly, Samba will work as NT 4.0 domain controller, which is not the same.

Also policies do not only refer to permissions, policies e.g. provide the ability to distribute software to clients. Is Samba able to do does in the actual version? I do not use samba because i have a complete M$ free environment, so it is not required.

Are you planing to use more than only the file services of M$? are you planing to integrate in an existing AD or create a new one?
 
Old 02-20-2010, 02:16 AM   #15
linuxlover.chaitanya
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gennoske View Post
let me explain a scenario of what i ask before. my plan is i want all user in windows client to transfer in linux server, i want the user entry a password and the linux will be the one to verify and the roaming user files will save the data in linux machine..
As far as authentication is concerned, Linux can take care of that. LDAP is what is there in Linux for AD in windows. You will need samba for windows communication.
To make the Linux machine to be file server, you will need to enable nfs and samba so that both Linux and windows clients will be able to save the files. Else you can also use any NAS distribution like FreeNAS.
 
  


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