Topic: opinion / suggestion for good structure needed

[Rebels]

Hello,

As a relative newcome to sme I would like a helping hand for a good structure to implement SME 7.

I have/need the following.

1. Cable modem
2. Belkin Pre-n router with wireless lan
3. SME Server 7.0 (server or server/gateway mode)
4. W2k3 server
5. Several thin-clients for using basic Office applications and Internetbrowsing

I prefer to use Vmware.

Can anyone help me with tips/hints how to configure the hardware and software for a stable and secure system.

Any help would be appreciated.


Eric

[meanpenguin]

Hi Eric,

You would need to provide more info on what you need to do.

What you've asked is.  I got some lumber and nails.  What is the best way to build it.   You need to tell us if you are building a house, toy plane, or an office building, what you are going to use it for, how many users, ...

Ed

[Rebels]

Ed,

It's for small office and home use.

I need a mailserver and webserver. Running SME for sever years now and that's okay for me.

Also I need some windows office apps, excel, word, powerpoint and some other windows applications.

I prefer the use of thin clients so updating, security, etc. is more easy to manage. Any idea how often children form 8-14 create trouble....?

Now sme 7 is out and stable I would like to upgrade. This is in my opinion an ultimate moment to make the good choices.

Questions I have are for example which system should be the dns server, should the router be bypassed or sme. How to create a windows server and a sme server in vmware mode.

Any suggestions...?

[meanpenguin]

here is what I do.

Internet -> Linksys 54G -> Switch -> (SME in Server Only, all workstations)
I turn off all DHCP except for the Real SME server
port forward port 25 to the Real SME for mail


In the Real SME, install VMWare
   Bring up the windows server on a VM.


For the web server,

1. I bring up another SME server in Server only mode in a second VM.  
2. All web stuff is here.  
3. That way if somehow one of your web apps has a bug, it's limited to this VM SME server.

Thin Client as in Terminal Services?  
There are some docs on Linux Thin Clients...

Local DNS should be handled by which ever server is providing DHCP.
Internet DNS should be handled by a DNS provider   (bunch of free ones out there)

What do you mean "How to create a windows server ... in vmware mode"?

1. Search the forums on getting and installing the VMWare
2. Create a VM using the UI
3. Insert the Install CD and start the VM

BTW, what is the Windows Server for?

Ed[/list]

[Rebels]

Ed,

The windows server is for the basic office applications.

I want to use the thin clients for internet, mail and office programs. No noise, small, etc.

Eric

[TrevorB]

Ed,

The windows server is for the basic office applications.

I want to use the thin clients for internet, mail and office programs. No noise, small, etc.

Eric

And you can manage them via the smeserver-thinclient contrib.....
http://mirror.contribs.org/smeserver/contribs/trevorb/7.x/Thinclient/

I personally run Thinstation, but there are quite a few out there.

Trevor B