Topic: Shifting to SME

[francois.chaer]

Hello Everyone,

i have been working for the last 2 decades with Microsoft windows clients and servers, but with the new financial struggles that Small Businesses are facing, i am trying to shift to SME 7.5 and up servers for my clients.
the problem is that i have zero knowledge in Linux world, all my clients use MS applications and OS and to be honest i am scared to take that path, but on the other hand it is too promising as an investment for me and my clients considering the very low cost for owning, maintaining operating and or upgrading a server of that kind, with all the benefits that exceed by far those off even the best MS servers.

all my clients are between 5 and 20 users, all using MS products and applications, 80% of them are architects and or graphic designers, which means heavy processing and RAM usage, plus the normal file and print sharing, adding some proxy setup and email.


below are few questions that i would like help with them , and they will be like a small study for me to be able to decide if should i ever choose to start implementing SME instead of MS Servers for my clients.


1- is this a good server to start with, knowing that it will only be for my own learning usage?
    Intel CORE2 processor with around 4GB RAM, and 2 x 1GB hard disks with raid (or mirrored).

2- what should i consider if i want to start replacing MS servers with SME ?

3- depending on the brief explanation of the caliber if my clients, what server hardware shall i go with ?

4- last but not least what is the best way to go this path, i know everyone has his own way of treating things, but few suggestions from the experienced in here will really make my life easier

thank you all for reading this and contributing in helping me choose whether or not to take this new path in my career.

Francois



 

[cactus]

2- what should i consider if i want to start replacing MS servers with SME

You should consider all the functionality they use as well as the most required features by them, e. g. are they using functionality that can only be run using for instance MS SQL server or other MS propriety software?
Are they using Exchange? What are the main features? Could they be satisfied with the groupware solutions that are supplied by stock SME Server or one of the contribs?

[francois.chaer]

hi cactus, and thanks for your reply,

Until i get familiar with the whole Linux world, features and concepts i will not be implementing any SME servers, but when i do start it will mostly be for File and Print sharing, proxies and gateways. these are cross platform and should be easy to administer if i am not mistaken.

Do you think, starting using Red Hat Linux on my desktop would help get in this faster? or the difference is too big between Linux servers and workstations ?

if yes what Linux OS i should be using, Red Hat, or another ?

thanks
Francois

[cactus]

Until i get familiar with the whole Linux world, features and concepts i will not be implementing any SME servers, but when i do start it will mostly be for File and Print sharing, proxies and gateways. these are cross platform and should be easy to administer if i am not mistaken.

If that is the case you are in easy waters. SME Server is default configured to do that for you without much additional configuration. A good and thorough read-through of the manuals is advised as a lot of the answers to questions that beginning system administrators have can be found in there. If in doubt you are always free to ask.

Do you think, starting using Red Hat Linux on my desktop would help get in this faster? or the difference is too big between Linux servers and workstations ?

It might help, as SME Server is based on CentOS (and therefore RedHat), however because SME Server uses a web based server-manager to do most of the tasks the command line instructions are a little bit different, but most of the times administration through the command line is not necessary.

if yes what Linux OS i should be using, Red Hat, or another ?

SME Server is based on CentOS, so I would go for CentOS. SME Server 7.x is based on CentOS 4.x, where SME Server 8.x (which is still in beta) is based on CentOS 5.x. You can take the latest of either one, but with the 4.x tree some hardware might not be (fully) supported.

[francois.chaer]

thanks again Cactus, you are really helping me out on taking that decision, so one more question about Active Directories already implemented at clients offices, what will happen when i switch to SME, how will the integration be, is it hard, time consuming, do you recommend (i will read all the documentations and FAQs available later on) but your answers will help me decide if or not go for the whole thing.
thanks again

Francois

[cactus]

thanks again Cactus, you are really helping me out on taking that decision, so one more question about Active Directories already implemented at clients offices, what will happen when i switch to SME, how will the integration be, is it hard, time consuming, do you recommend (i will read all the documentations and FAQs available later on) but your answers will help me decide if or not go for the whole thing.

SME Server does only support NT4 style domains (ATM) so no AD. However work is done to integrate LDAP into SME Server, this is done using SME Server 8. SME Server does support groups and domains, which can be configured through server-manager.

Depending on the functionality of AD you use, you might be missing something compared to your MS SBS setups.