Hi Guys,

As a person who has seen my clients subjected to the tyranny that is MS (this wasn't my opinion getting in to the industry btw, it's just developed through experience) I'd love to be able to offer some of them another option.

My question then is, is it even possible and if so, do we have any migration documentation?

We had to do one recently (SBS 2003 - SBS 2003) due to some dead hardware and there was some documentation called SwingIT that we used. As it is patently obvious though were were going MS to MS which meant that there were no real hassles (in relative terms believe me) and so when the people turned up for work on the Monday none of them even noticed that there had been a change.

I know that there are going to be changes if we go from MS to Linux as they're not the same thing. I understand that if you want to change it's because you don't like/aren't satisfied with what you currently have and so to expect "the same thing" is futile. There are settings on the system though that would need to come across. Email accounts (and their emails) are one example. Security settings/permissions would be another. So, is there a way to bring these things across or is it a case of copying the settings manually then taking the data and switching the servers before training the staff for a day in the intricacies of their new server etc?

Email in particular is important. We would need to convert it somehow to a new format if they were going to use a new email client or alternatively can they still have a system where they can read email in Outlook even though they have a Linux server (bearing in mind they currently use MS Exchange)?

Sorry if this has been long winded but I was about to go to sleep (it is 4am here after all) and this question was bugging me so I had to come down and post it.

Thanking you for your help and advice in advance.

Tim.

The email is fairly simple, yet complex at the same time. The clients certainly could continue to use Outlook, a change of server doesn't change the clients. What would change however is the server type. The closest think linux has to an exchange server is call zimbra, but I have no personal experience with it. If you use one of the many MTAs for linux, you'd change the account type from exchange to either IMAP or Pop3/SMTP depending on how you set it up. If they make heavy use of address books or the calender feature in Outlook, then you will have to find some way to implement that under linux. Again, I believe zimbra can do that, but I'm not certain.

Here's a google on migrating from SBS2003 to samba - http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...+samba&spell=1

You 'probably' wouldn't be able to do a copy/paste kind of migration of things like ACLs and permissions, but to physically copy data from the SBS server to a new linux box would be a trivial copy and paste. Then you'll have to configure the permissions and access through samba. It is possible that somebody has a script to accomplish that, but I would expect it has to be done manually.

I wouldn't expect that you'd have much training for generic users. The server will appear largely the same through network neighborhood or whatever, regardless of it being linux+samba or SBS2003. Obviously the use of the server will be different, but I expect most of the employees never sit 'at' the server and use its mouse and keyboard!

Heres another article you may find useful. You already have a good handle on the main subject, I could see that when you wrote, "I understand that if you want to change it's because you don't like/aren't satisfied with what you currently have and so to expect "the same thing" is futile." This article won't actually help with the migration, but maybe what to expect with the forces at play around the migration - http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

Peace,
JimBass

Thanks JimBass.

I was leaning towards Zimbra myself as it has a lot of the functionality of Outlook and yet goes further (with the shared calendar being one point). I think Zimbra is sufficiently similar as to pose no real threats to my clients in terms of massive change but it's different enough that they would really appreciate the "enhancements" it would bring. My understanding though is that it becomes more of an "off site" server situation. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

As for the document (Linux is not Windows), I have read that, printed it and saved it. Any of my clients who talk with me about the possibility of changing to Linux will receive this document as I believe it's brilliant in that it shows it's not enough to just be dis-satisfied with MS, but that you have to expect real change.

Anyway, thanks for your input. I've opened the Google link in another window and will take a look at it as soon as I've finished this response.

All the best,

Tim.

On or offsite makes no difference. It will work just as fine being in the back room at an office as it would in another state. Anyone who tells you otherwise is probably selling their management services!

Peace,
JimBass

Ok, so you can run it similarly to an Exchange server for example. If you do it that way would you need another box or could you run it from the one server like you do with SBS2003?

BTW, how do you become a registered Linux user?

No, one server could certainly do both jobs, the Zimbra mail function and the samba domain controller.

You become a "registered" linux user simply by going to http://counter.li.org and telling them you run linux. Not very scientific, but nice to see.

Peace,
JimBass

Actually, I was reading up on that today. Looks interesting.

What I want to do is add an arm to our existing business whereby we give people a Linux alternative and quite a few of our clients run SBS2003 and one of the big sticking points until now has been the lack of an "exchange replicator" for those who use it (which is most).

I also saw something today about Novell's OpenExchange. Is that something like Zimbra?

I haven't used open exchange, so I can't say.

Peace,
JimBass

openxchange is a bit too confusing, at least the community edition is. Zimbra community edition is very straightforward and it works like a charm (I've set it up for 8 different customers, everyone is VERY happy with it)
Also, not to start a holywar, but for Zimbra I'd leave SuSE alone and go for RHEL4 (not 5) or, to keep things completely free - CentOS4.