School server

Orion

I've bought 18 XP pcs and a server (high-end pc really) for a small primary school. The server will just really be a file server with a public share and private home dirs for staff, probably a dhcp server and maybe a print server.

Rather than spend good money on Windows+seat licenses for this basic requirement I'm going to use Linux with Samba. My gut is telling me to go with Ubuntu as that's the distro I'm most familiar with. Setting up Samba etc is easy on any distro I know. But I thought I'd ask here if anyone else has done anything similar and if another distro would be more suitable for this purpose. Also are there any pitfalls I should watch out for?

Thanks.

ntlbell

go with what your comfortable with if that's ubuntu then ubuntu it is.

bman

Yeah, I would also say go with what you know.

If it's primary (only?) function is as a server and it's a bit underpowered for the task then you should switch off all services you don't need. There'll likely be a load of stuff running by default that won't be necessary.

Orion

It will be only a server - file/dhcp and maybe print server depending on whether or not I can get the printer working in Linux. I agree with both of you to go with what I know - that's why I'm thinking Ubuntu in the first place. Decision now is whether to use the server download or the desktop. I've downloaded the server edition but I'll probably install xorg and gnome (or maybe xfce) on top of it (it might be easier to have a gui occasionally but it won't be booting into it by default) - there's no need for all the non-server crap in the desktop edition and I can install anything else I need as required.

ethernet

Install Webmin and disable the X Server and graphical desktop environment when not needed. Webmin is very handy when you don't want to be SSHing into the server to make a couple of changes to config files.

Orion

Nice - I'll do that. I built it today using Ubuntu 8.04LTS server. I installed ubuntu-desktop but not gdm so it only boots to terminal. It'll be useful if I ever need a teacher to do something when I can't ssh to the box for whatever reason. But webmin may come in very handy too.

djmarkus

If you really want a challenge you could set samba up as a domain controller.

Orion

Thinking of that too. Got a link to a HOWTO?

Johnboy1951

You may find some useful info here as well as some ISOs of preconfigured School Servers

http://belproject.org/phpbb/index.php?sid=9b7c8ba4144c22eedd2b927f6e306f26

djmarkus

http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/samba-pdc.html

Here is a good start, i wouldnt bother with LDAP or any of that craic.

Orion

djmarkus wrote: »

http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/samba-pdc.html

Here is a good start, i wouldnt bother with LDAP or any of that craic.

There's no need for LDAP - It's going to be a simple file and print server. I might even let the broadband router look after DHCP. All I really want is single sign-on for teachers on the XP boxes to run a login script that will map their own home directories. And for everyone else to map a public share. No pupils will have a personal login - it's only a primary school I'll have a read of that page - thanks.

Red Alert

I've done a domain in Samba, it can be a pain but when you get it working it's super. I'd say let the broadband router handle the DHCP. Printer shouldn't be a problem.

Rambo

Remember when setting up samba as a print server you also have to setup
cups.
and get samba to published the printers drivers
http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/netsysm/article.php/3621876

Orion

I remember - I've done that bit before. It's not too hard as long as the printer is supported in cups.


[edit]"The installation CD also contains PostScript Printer Description files (PPDs) that Mac and Linux users can add to their Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) configuration"

That'll do Ted