Need a good network administrator for Mandrake 9.2

Danno13 · 10-21-2003, 02:12 PM

Just got a copy of the new mandrake linux 9.2 and am planning to run it on a server for my home network.

As I am new to linux i am not yet familiar with the commands so am after a good program with a GUI for administrating my network. I need something specifically which can deal with windows NT domains and configure user settings e.g documents folder, restriction etc.

The copy i have comes with Samba but haven't had time to play with it yet. If samba is fine for what i need please tell me!

If anyone has any suggestions i would be very grateful as am i bit lost with this at the moment.

Thank you.

david_ross · 10-21-2003, 02:35 PM

Welcome to LQ.

Samba is what you need - it handles windows authentication and file sharing.

Personally I wouldn't use a gui for configuring samba since I have seen them break many installations by screwing up config files and password files. If I was you I'd make backup copies of these before you use any gui tools.

Editing the config by hand isn't that hard anyway.

Danno13 · 10-21-2003, 02:41 PM

Thing is i'm a bit shakey at this config editing, I'd much prefer a windows style tick box sort of thing if you get me. I've never used linux before and am a bit worried about messing things up. You don't happen to know where i can find a good tutorial for editing the samba config do you?

david_ross · 10-21-2003, 03:12 PM

The default config file has pretty good examples that are commented out.
To see a full list of valid commands in smb.conf:
man smb.conf

Before making changes you can run a quick backup command so you can easily go back. I have a small script called bkp. As root create a text file called /usr/bin/bkp with:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
cp $1 $1_`date +%F_%R`

Make it executable:
chmod 755 /usr/bin/bkp

Then to backup a file just run:
bkp my.file

or:
bkp /etc/samba/smb.conf

bigVoice · 10-21-2003, 04:03 PM

Samba is definately your choice.

I've never seen the gui break anything, but I very seriously doubt I have the same level of experience as david.

That said, if you think you'll use it seriously, (and it sounds like you will), go invest in a copy of O'Reilly's Using Samba. Its a fantastic book and addresses everything I ever wanted to know (and then some).

david_ross · 10-21-2003, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bigVoice
I've never seen the gui break anything, but I very seriously doubt I have the same level of experience as david.

I'm only going by problems I've seen here or fixed for friends. I may get round to doing a full test on the samba GUIs that are available and see how they go.