Windows SMB Server Equivalent in Linux? - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

FanIn80 · 10-13-2011, 01:25 PM

I know I could technically install a desktop distro and then just throw in a LAMP install, but I'm looking for something a little more server and a little less desktop (if that makes any sense).

MS has their SMB offering which is Windows Server with MS SQL, Exchange, AD and IIS packaged together. I'd like to find something similar in a Linux distro. I know about Ubuntu's console server offering, and I'll be using a couple of them in VMs, but I'd just like an overall GUI to use for looking after the day-to-day stuff that comes up on the larger scale.

Mind you, now that I've typed all this out, I suppose I could use a desktop distro and then put all my server stuff into console VMs...

Anyway, I'm looking at CentOS right now. I'm going to sandbox it in a bit and see if it's what I'm looking for, but in the meantime, I was hoping to gleam off someone else's practical experience.

Needs
- GUI for day-to-day network tasks. Users, permissions, configs, etc etc. Just all that daily crap that comes up.
- MySQL production server
- Apache web server (production)
- Tomcat application server (production)
- SFTP server (production)
- Exchange-esque server of some sort (I haven't looked into this yet, and it's a little bit down the road, but if someone has some knowledge in this area, I'd be all ears)

Anyway, they don't all need to be part of one distro. I have 16GB of RAM and a 6 core processor, so I can split a few of these things off into VMs. I mostly just need a general server with a decent GUI. Also, when I say production, I do mean production, but on a fairly small scale.

photon · 10-13-2011, 01:29 PM

CentOS would basically be my recommendation, it's Red Hat for the most part.

Ubuntu probably has better GUI and more user friendly, but you'll find more online support for CentOS if/when you get stuck.

And doing a desktop install and running a server off it it isn't a big deal IMO for small stuff, but for true security people seem to recommend a dedicated console only system.

photon · 10-13-2011, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by photon

And doing a desktop install and running a server off it it isn't a big deal IMO for small stuff, but for true security people seem to recommend a dedicated console only system.

A little more on this, RedHat has their server distro and their desktop distro (Fedora), and for the most part the difference is just what software is installed and what gets into the repositories for upgrading.

The server distro is a lot more strict of course.

But even the server distros for RedHat/CentOS or Ubuntu include options to install GUIs and other desktop type software.

I know lots of servers in production running GUIs for ease of administration.

Rathji · 10-13-2011, 01:48 PM

Wont find anything like SBS (assuming that is what you are talking about) straight out of the box on any Linux distro I know of, if you find out I would love to hear about it. When I looked into it recently the biggest problems were something that resembled AD without having 2-3 (or more) parts cobbled together. I talked with a senior Linux admin and he said that for AD, Linux people just use AD, because there is no other good option out there.

If I was doing something like this I would use Ubuntu server, and then set up a VM with a GUI management suite. I don't remember off the top of my head what the name of the one I used was, but some quick searching has found Webmin that seems to do the same thing, but through a web interface. Alternately, you could always just install Xwindows on the server box.

sclitheroe · 10-13-2011, 02:02 PM

Mac Mini running Lion Server is going to have all this out of the box. I'm not necessarily recommending it unilaterally, but if we're talking Windows SBS, Linux, etc, it's certainly in the mix for easy GUI admin of each of the things you are listing as a requirement.

photon · 10-13-2011, 02:06 PM

Does Lion Server have a repository and package manager? I.e. can I do the darwin equivelent of "yum install tomcat"?

Or if I wanted to put Tomcat on Lion Server would I have to install from source? (Well Tomcat's a bad example because it's Java, but MySQL say).

sclitheroe · 10-13-2011, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by photon

Does Lion Server have a repository and package manager? I.e. can I do the darwin equivelent of "yum install tomcat"?

Or if I wanted to put Tomcat on Lion Server would I have to install from source? (Well Tomcat's a bad example because it's Java, but MySQL say).

There are multiple available package managers like MacPorts and Fink that will do this, and do it quite well.

sclitheroe · 10-13-2011, 02:28 PM

FanIn, were you the guy that works at a non-profit?

FanIn80 · 10-13-2011, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

FanIn, were you the guy that works at a non-profit?

No, I'm a full-time student looking to do some project work to pay the bills.

...so kinda the same thing.

Rathji · 10-13-2011, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

FanIn, were you the guy that works at a non-profit?

That would be me.

FanIn80 · 10-13-2011, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Mac Mini running Lion Server is going to have all this out of the box. I'm not necessarily recommending it unilaterally, but if we're talking Windows SBS, Linux, etc, it's certainly in the mix for easy GUI admin of each of the things you are listing as a requirement.

Hmm. After reading this, I went and tossed up a Lion VM in Parallels (Lion supports that now, btw) and then installed the Server portion from the App Store (I forgot I get that free with my Dev account).

I think you're right. It does seem like the best way to do what I need to do. The only catch is I need to figure out a way to hack it onto my PC server hardware...