Topic: I love SME - new NAS iscsi installation, authentication..

[magwm]

Well then, I love my sme boxes that whirr happily while performing like athletes in our little business.

Now time has come to think about a new storage solution (which is still on an old windows machine), and I find myself comparing any offer to a hypothetical selfmade SME 8 box..

So I would like to ask you some advice, to see if my ideal is feasible with SME.

- first, I want to shy away from all proprietary slow-performing NAS implementations.  - a new SME server on decent hardware is OK - Check.
- then, I want plenty of storage on a fast raid. - raid 5+1 on hardware or software, SME can do anything - Check.
           - I was thinking of a supermicro, something like the http://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/2U/825/SC825TQ-R700U.cfm chassis, or
              http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/2U/5025/SYS-5025B-4.cfm (we have only supermicro servers and they seem to perform well)
           - I have had my share of failing raids this year, all RAID1 systems which take relative little time to rebuild (200G, 3 to 4 hours) so taking into account that I would try a raid5+1 with 1TB disks (and not the most expensive ones..),  what can I expect to be the rebuilt times?
- then, I want my user's outlook (argh) PST files on it. here comes the pain..
           - even if some of our users do have their PST files on the server, this slows down outlook a lot,
             plus having PST files on network shares is actually not supported... because outlook wants block access to the disk
- so, I thought of making ISCSI targets on the SME server, which seems to be possibile in CentOS4 and 5..
             see http://www.aspdeveloper.net/tiki-index.php?page=LinuxiSCSITargetOnCentOS and
                   http://prefetch.net/blog/index.php/2009/04/12/configuring-the-open-iscsi-initiator-on-centos-linux-hosts/
           - however this forum question http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=45856.0 did not receive any attention..
              while this forum post http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=37361.0 is a bit old..

ah, it seems that this is not possible, as ISCSI is one-to-one, not multiple to one, and not at all with NTFS on it.. which is what I would have wanted.

anyway. I still have to construct this file server.

- next I'd like to integrate it as much as possibile into the domain.. which is a windows 2003 level AD. so samba 3 to the rescue?
         - It would be very nice to join the domain, maybe give a file server role to the sme box, and to authenticate against the AD domain controller.. is this at all possibile?
         - is there any hope that there could be some form of user ACL/security audit of the files? would I see who has created the file and who accessed it and who modified it, like on NTFS? (don't shoot..)

this will be a test box in the initial phase, so I will be free to experiment with it.. until I put it into production...

well then, thanks for your thoughts. ciao from a sunny Italy,
Michel
 

[Stefano]

well then, thanks for your thoughts. ciao from a sunny Italy,

sunny italy? WHERE?

anyway, take a look at openfiler: it's centOS based (so you'll find rpm ecc)

in any case, you know how/where reach me

[magwm]

ciao Stefano! vieni in liguria...  ora abbiamo anche iniziato un Lug a Imperia.. 

anyway, I know about openfiler, but I would like to do it with SME if possible. so I can learn more about sme in the mean time and we have less different types of installations in case someon else has to put his hands on it..

M

[Stefano]

[OT]Ciao Michel.. verrò un giorno a trovarti.. forse [/OT]

about your questions:
- samba auditing: see here
- joining domain: see here

HTH

[CharlieBrady]

ah, it seems that this is not possible, as ISCSI is one-to-one, not multiple to one, ...

No, that is not true. But if you want to access files which are on ISCSI storage, there needs to be a file system on the storage, and most file systems are not sharable by multiple systems - they only answer to one master.

It's usually unproductive to ask lots of questions in one post. Make a new post for each question/area of questioning.

[magwm]

No, that is not true.

thanks Charlie, right on the spot as always. I'll give it a shot but i think it will be unlikely to find a shared disk file system that makes XP/outlook happy..

unproductive to ask lots of questions in one post

True; however I think a lot of people would like to have all this info together in a thread..  like me, for example..
anyway, what's there, is there, and it's something already..

Or am I exiting the 'small business' scope here? still, we are a company of 20 people..

ciao, and thanks, Michel

[CharlieBrady]

I'll give it a shot but i think it will be unlikely to find a shared disk file system that makes XP/outlook happy..

I agree you are very unlikely to find that. Don't waste your time.

Instead, stop using PST files. Copy all the messages into IMAP folders on the server. Your users will then have a wide choice of IMAP clients that they can use from any workstation. You will also have a more efficient and much more reliable email system.

[Stefano]

Instead, stop using PST files. Copy all the messages into IMAP folders on the server. Your users will then have a wide choice of IMAP clients that they can use from any workstation. You will also have a more efficient and much more reliable email system.

I agree.. Michel should move his users to TB, for example..

[magwm]

wishful thinkink, charlie.. stefano.. we have outlook clients and our homegrown CRM software (pre-me) accesses the outlook db to attach e-mail messages to the CRM..

so no alternative to outlook, and worse no the only version possible is 2000 .. which has a less than intelligent imap handling.. argh.

but yes, I am thinking about a new email server as well. I would like to go all-imap, but I do not want all our email to be sitting on our webserver .. in case we get hacked.. and also because the webserver has too little storage.

would it be possible for SME to forward email services to another SME?

[CharlieBrady]

would it be possible for SME to forward email services to another SME?

Please read, at least twice, the fine manual.

[magwm]

read, at least twice, the fine manual

:blushes ...

after years of using sme.. yes I probably should

for reference... http://wiki.contribs.org/Email#Internal_Mail_Servers

or just go to the e-mail panel and stare at the last few options..

sorry..