[plug] Network Opinions

[Craig Ringer]

On Mon, 2005-07-18 at 13:24 +0800, Chris Watt wrote:
> Major reason we don't want to run a Windows Server is that it doesn't
> tend to have nice long uptimes and they tend to need looking after. 

I have to disagree there. A well managed windows server can be pretty
stable. Whether it's less work to run a stable windows server than a
stable Linux server is another question.

I have an NT4 here that generally only gets rebooted when there's a
power outage long enough to exhaust the UPS (yes, we have a UPS again).
It does very occasionally go flakey and need a reboot, but it's an
ancient NT4 box running Services for Macintosh, so I'm willing to cut it
some slack.

I've heard 2k server is even more solid.

The main problem is that like a Windows desktop, Windows servers rely on
their applications being decently written and well behaved. Badly
behaved apps can make the whole server perform awfully and make it
unstable. I used to see exactly this problem when I first started at the
POST and they used MDaemon for Windows NT. When I moved mail services
off that box onto a nice Debian system, everything improved dramatically
(including user happiness - thank you Cyrus).

Advice I've had from more experienced Windows admins is usually along
the lines of "it runs great, so long as you dedicate a server to each
task. Don't try to put multiple roles or apps on one server."

I think that's unfortunate, myself, and it's one of the reasons most of
the POST's servers run on Linux (but with an NT4 PDC). For some people
that'll be satisfactory, though.

> Also, I'm not being responsible for the security on such a server, as
> I am just not confident in the platform at all (from experience).

Don't be confident in the security of any platform if you have it
plugged into the Internet.

> I plan to administer my Webmin because I can do it from home then,
> rather than drive here, do work, and drive home without getting any
> cash for the trouble (I'll use some ssh, etc too).

ssh is probably easier than webmin anyway. You'll always hit the limits
of the webmin modules and need to go hacking config files eventually -
and most of them aren't exactly hard  to learn (named.conf, zone files,
dhcpd.conf, etc).

> If it's not going to be too much like repeating myself, is it possible
> to bug you all for a quick, concise list of what packages/apps to use
> and what the things are called that allow me to do things like map the
> local docs to the server docs.

At the risk of repeating myself,

"use an NT domain"

Windows is *designed* around domains. Don't even try using ad-hoc
networking, you'll go insane. Build a domain and use the features of the
domain, such as roaming profiles (which also force profiles to be stored
on the server) and network printing.

--
Craig Ringer