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Re: [school-discuss] Replacing Active Directory with Linux File Server



I feel I have to point out the advantages of setting up a Puppet system management profile to manage most of the software installation requirements.

Puppet is easy to use, and can save you the time to individually install, manage, and update software at multiple locations.

It allows you to maintain multiple highly complex environments customized per installation without having to redo complex actions on a per installation basis. It's easy to create simple and complex profiles, after which setting up a host is as easy as assigning it to a profile and connecting it to the puppet master.

Puppet is great for cutting down on the management overhead of Unix platforms.







On May 25, 2010, at 10:57 AM, Dean Montgomery wrote:

> School district 73 did not have the option of moving from Active Directory to Samba.  Rather we migrated from Novel Server to Samba.
> 
> * Linux open/source usually comes vanilla out-of-the-box.  So samba out-of-the box is a workgroup server.  You put a bit of time reading online tutorials and experimenting and you can get it to do almost anything you want.  For the administrator, by default, everything is text-file command-line based because it is faster to work with than a mouse-gui-interface ; plus text-base allows for easy automation.  However if you want a gui there are several web-front-ends that allow access to the system from any web browser.  
> 
> * Samba is not for you if you work in an attitude-ridden environment like:
> - "I don't care how it works" or
> - "I don't want to learn anything new" or
> - "lets just spend money and have someone else solve the problem".
> Boils down to Brew-Your-Own-Coffee vs Stop-At-Starbucks attitudes.
> 
> 
> * Yes - fist time samba setup should be small - elementary school etc.  So your technicians can get used to working with samba domain and cups.  This way you can learn how to do it better for the bigger schools.  After the first school it becomes just a case of copying over the setup to the next schools.  So the first school will take a week or two of learning all the options, then the next schools only take a day or so to setup.
> 
> 
> * Spend time learning and setting up all the features.  e.g. 
> - domain logins,
> - domain login scripts,
> - print driver server - native vs postscript drivers.
> - automatic machine accounts etc.
> -- A windows user login can entail: mapping network drives, executing bat files on the client machine, installing/setting default printer to the one in the classroom, loading desktop profile for that user.
> 
> 
> * We use webmin for frontend to adding users and groups.  Webmin allows for batch user creating/deleting/modifying.  We also can apply webmin-user profiles which allows us to dumb-down the user/group interface so school staff can manage computer accounts.
> 
> 
> * We initially did not use LDAP back-end but rather synchronized accounts with ldap for other authentication services like Moodle.
> 
> ===
> 
> We are now planning on doing a centralized LDAP automated user account system so when HR and the secretaries enter names into the system they will automatically get a computer account(linux/windows), moodle account, wireless account, SIP/PBX/VOIP/Videoconferencing etc.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Dean Montgomery
> Network Support Tech./Programmer
> dmonty@xxxxxxxxxx
> School District #73