I am trying to set up a server for my small business. I may have bitten off much more than I can chew here. I have very little experience with Linux but I really want to learn. I built a server and I have installed Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS, it is up and running fine. Now I just need to get it communicating with my other machines.

Here are my goals for this server:

I want to set up a domain for my business network, using this server as the primary domain controller.

I would also like to set this server up with Samba shared drives for the rest of the network.

I would like to create a MySQL database running SugarCRM CE software, which will also be installed on the client computers.

I don't know how to set up a domain network with my Ubuntu box as the PDC. I have tried several tutorials so far; I have installed Samba, but I can't ever seem to get access to the server from any of the other machines on the network. I have since tried to remove Samba completely and start from scratch but the conf file still has all of the changes I made before removing and re-installing Samba. I also am not sure how to partition off space for shared drives. I have installed the software packages to create my LAMP server already but I am stuck on how to configure everything. I created a MySQL database and got SugarCRM installed and pointed to the database, but I don't know how to configure Apache to go online with everything, right now everything is working but it's working on "localhost" not out on the net for my other computers to access. Any help would be very appreciated, even if it is just pointing me in the right direction of an existing tutorial or something. I just want to make sure that I am doing everything properly and that I am not missing any steps in the set-up. Please help this newbie!!!!

It sounds like your trying to fix all your woes and run an entire environment from a single machine. Personally in your position I would consider virtualization and attempt to create several small virtual machines in order to facilitate your needs. I've had great success with Proxmox virtualization , they also provide turn key linux servers to accomplish exactly what your trying to do. It's important to learn how to use linux, but if your wanting to get up and running fast, there is no better way I have found than to just run Proxmox and turnkey linux virtual machines for the applications I need. They have prebuild filesharing servers as well as a PDC server, and a TigerCRM server. Please read up on them and see if that would be a good fit for you.


Here is the link for the proxmox server software, this will install a complete virtualization solution in one disk , keep in mind this will WIPE your hard disk
and install this software http://www.proxmox.com/products/proxmox-ve

Also you can install directly form Proxmox turnkey linux servers
Here is a link to the turnkey linux distro and how to use their prebuilt canned linux machines.

http://www.turnkeylinux.org/

Keep in mind this is just one route to go, considering the amount of things your wanting to do , its always better to just virtualize and keep seperate servers for seperate tasks.

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Thank you very much for your input and helpful links. I will definitely consider this route, it may be the way to go at this point. I like the idea of minimizing the chance for me to screw everything up, but at the same time, I like to learn and if I just install a pre-built solution, I worry that I won't be able to diagnose and fix any problems I may have as easily as if I set everything up myself and learn as I go. Does that make any sense? Also, could you please elaborate on why it is better to virtualize and run everything on its own VM instead of just using one environment for domain admin, file-share, and database storage? That may be a very stupid question, but I am very new to all of this. Again, thank you very much for your response, any help is VERY appreciated!!!!

The main attraction of virtualization is that you can isolate certain functions of the server to that virtual machine, and also back those up by cloning the VMs on a regular basis. That way, if something goes wrong, you not only have you backup, but you have the other services running, uninterrupted.

The downside of virtualization is that you will need one relatively powerful machine, versus several smaller, less powerful machines, to do the same jobs. If run headless, that may be just fine. But the server is going to be juggling jobs that are normally split between multiple machines.

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