What Windows s/w are you running that will be difficult to replace in a Windows environment? ~kari <div>On 7/23/06, <a href="mailto:kyle@caliberis.com">kyle@caliberis.com </a> <<a href="mailto:kyle@caliberis.com">kyle@caliberis.com</a>> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">This is my first post to this list. I posted the below message on the FedoraForum.org message board and it was suggested that I pose the question in this forum to reach people with similar needs and experiences. I'm looking for opinions on the best way to set up new servers and the network in general at a school that I do volunteer work for. Last year following the untimely demise of the Windows 2000 Server computer that served as the DC and file/print server, we successfully configured a Fedora Core 4 box as a PDC to take its place. This year we're looking to begin a shift that will eventually lead to a network in which Windows clients are the exception. The reason we want Windows clients to be the exception is primarily out of lack of funding for software licenses. The reason for "eventually" is that it will take a while to find suitable alternatives for all of the software currently running on the Windows platform. The things that I would like to be able to handle in whatever setup I end up with are: (must haves) 1) Centralized authentication and authorization - This was the main benefit we received initially from moving away from computers that were connected in a "workgroup" mode and implementing a Windows domain and allows for much better control over the management of the workstations. 2) Controlled access to Internet resources. The organization is a school and the potential exists to be held liable for situations where children access inaproppriate content if it's determined that the school did not at least attempt to put adequate controls in place. 3) Secured files - There is a subset of the documents in the organization which must be protected. 4) Reasonably sensitive management - The administrator at the school is not an IT professional and should be able to manage the day-to-day operations of the network without advanced knowledge. (would be nice) 5) Terminal services - The school has a lot of older machines that could yield additional value to the school if they were able to be utilized as thin clients. Also, I suspect that replacing machines with LTSP Terminals (available on eBay for $50-$150) would have a lot less administrative overhead than supporting a standard PC. 6) Virtualization - The move of clients to Linux could go much quicker if an environment was available in which to run those Windows applications for which no alternatives have been found if they could be run in a virtual machine. I believe that I can achieve this using the free VMWare server as a host for Windows 98 and that the licensing of the Windows operating system allows for the machine code to execute on a single machine with no restrictions of the number of instances of code that can run on the single machine. The things that I have at my disposal to implement a solution: 1) A cable Internet connection 2) A DLink broadband router - I use this because I've never been able to successfully plug a Linux machine directly into a cable modem. This also acts as a firewall and I've defined no virtual servers. 3) Three identically configured Compaq 6400R servers. These servers have 4GB RAM, three 18GB drives, and 4 500Mhz PIII Xeon processors. 4) Two network attached printers that support PostScript 5) Approximately 50 client computers at varying stages of decay ranging from 450Mhz machines with 128MB RAM (more typical) to a 2.4Ghz machine with 1GB RAM (the outlyer) 6) No money (although when all other options have been exhausted some can be located at times) I believe that my final solution will involve the following software packages: - LTSP - VMWare Server - Samba - NIS - Squid Proxy - Dan's Guardian Any thoughts, suggestions, horror stories, or reference implementations would be much appreciated! I should also mention that while I "get by" as a home user of Fedora I'm not extremely skilled or knowledgeable in Linux. _______________________________________________ K12OSN mailing list <a href="mailto:K12OSN@redhat.com">K12OSN@redhat.com</a> <a href="https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn">https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn</a> For more info see <<a href="http://www.k12os.org"> http://www.k12os.org</a>> </blockquote></div> -- *-*-*-*-*-* <a href="http://blog.karimatthews.com">blog.karimatthews.com</a>