[plug] Network Opinions

[Timothy White]

> What Distro would people recomend?  I'm enclined to go Debian Based
> because it natively supports Apt-Get, etc. etc.
> 
I'd also have to say go for Samba domain. Use Debian or Ubuntu. I
found it slightly easier on Debian although if it was a server
installation of Ubuntu it should be almost as easy.

I also found it very easy to migrate a Samba domain to a new server.
Copy files (NFS mounts to keep it live), then start Samba domain
controller on new server, tell old server to stop accepting new
sessions (ok, so I just took it down, after closing all active
sessions) and they all found the new server easily. I had migrated
DHCP a few days before so they where all using the new server for the
internet gateway and stuff.

I'd have to say, keep it simple to start off with. Get a domain, get
windows computers to authenticate. Then work on groups (getting the
mappings right) and scripts for adding users. Work on login scripts,
they can save your life!

Finally, test the 'domain' with 3 or 4 computers simultaneously to see
how it performs under load. You may find some little glitch. For me it
was linecontrol freezing the server for 30s every time you went to
dial.

Once you have a domain running, it gets easier to get another running.
I also had a good tutorial I could follow step by step, not sure where
it is now though. Probably in the Samba 3 docs somewhere.

Tim