Good morning.

I am about to purchase a new server for my company to replace an old server that's used as a fileserver/print server for ~20 Windows desktop users. The old box has Red Hat 8.0 with Samba running on it, and it's functioning as a PDC. I plan to install a modern Linux distro on the new machine and to configure it just like the old machine. I'm posting this because I'm not an expert, and I want to get this right the first time.

My questions are:

1. Are there any problems loading a modern Linux distro on new hardware that includes a RAID controller? I'm looking at buying a SATA RAID 1 server.

2. I prefer a GUI environment for my server admin activities. Given this and all that I've outlined above, is there a downloadable Linux distro that stands out as superior for what I'm trying to do? I'm not interested in buying a $400+ "Enterprise" version of anything-- Red Hat 8 was free and its simple "Server" install worked great in this small environment.

3. Call me simplistic if you must, but does configuring Samba on my new machine consist mainly of copying various files from my old /etc and /home folders to the new machine, or will there be "version conflict" issues? I'm especially interested in copying smb.conf, my groups and security settings, my directory structure, and of course all the users' files.

4. I'm looking at buying an internal DAT tape drive for the new box. I've found a $430 HP unit that looks perfect, but it's a USB drive. Most motherboards these days have internal USB headers, but are there any Linux issues with this approach? Any backup software recommendations? (I want automatic nightly backups of all data and configuration files).

Sorry if this is a little long -- I just want to cover the important bases. Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

Ok, here are some short answers that hopefully light things up a bit:

1) there could be, but if the controller is not any odd, yesterday-invented from-the-caves-of-africa thingie (ie it's some "common" controller) then the new distributions (Ubuntu 6.06, Fedora Core 5 etc.) should be able to work with it. I recommend getting a LiveCD of the distribution you're trying to install, if possible, and using it, ensure that the thing works before you go installing. But it's more probable that it just works than that it does not.

2) Then I recommend either Fedora Core 5 (a big set, a lot of stuff you don't need) or Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (=Long Term Support), which has a LiveCD that you can use to test the hardware just before you start the installer, has the newest nice graphical environment (Ubuntu's concept is "simplicity for new users", basically) and is very easy to use; it has it's own Server Edition that comes with some server software (check LAMP at ubuntulinux.org) that's quite ready for use from the first go. It's a one-disc install, after which you can get the rest of the stuff you may need, frmo the web with apt - very simple. And cheap, it doesn't cost you anything if you don't want to buy support.

3) In most cases yes, you can try copying the config files you need, over to the other system, and after that read them carefully through to see if some paths have changed etc. You could copy over the files, test if it works, if not, then see which parts do not work and alter the configs a bit to get them work. It's a good idea to read Samba's (and other apps you mentioned) website for what has changed in recent versions.

4) I don't see any reason why that would be a problem. Check HCL and perhaps google a bit to see if there are problems with Linux and that specific device. But again, I don't see any direct reason why there would be problems.