I am new to Linux, so this question maybe dumb but I am hoping someone can lead me in the right direction. I am not looking for exacts just some steps and I will do some additional research on my own before asking anything else.
So here is my question: I am working in a small company and we would like to setup our Suse Linux Enterprise 11 Servers to run Domain Logins / DHCP / DNS /File&Print/ LDAP / GroupWise / FTP and a web site. We plan on having 3 virtual machines to do this. In what order and programs should be installed to accomplish this?
My goal is to have our employees to be able to login to any of the Windows workstations and get their proper users rights and not have to have that user be installed on the machine specifically. We have had times where the employee was working on the weekend and drive failed and was unable to login anywhere else cause they weren’t installed on the machine.
I am new to Linux, so this question maybe dumb but I am hoping someone
can lead me in the right direction. I am not looking for exacts just
some steps and I will do some additional research on my own before
asking anything else.
So here is my question: I am working in a small company and we would
like to setup our Suse Linux Enterprise 11 Servers to run Domain Logins
/ DHCP / DNS /File&Print/ LDAP / GroupWise / FTP and a web site. We plan
on having 3 virtual machines to do this. In what order and programs
should be installed to accomplish this?
My goal is to have our employees to be able to login to any of the
Windows workstations and get their proper users rights and not have to
have that user be installed on the machine specifically. We have had
times where the employee was working on the weekend and drive failed and
was unable to login anywhere else cause they weren’t installed on the
machine.
Thanks in advance,
Ken[/color]
Just a thought…if you were running ZCM, you could setup a Dynamic
Local User policy. That way users could login anywhere and ZCM would
take care of creating the local user. I do that here and we are not a
large company.
I am working in a small company and we would
like to setup our Suse Linux Enterprise 11 Servers to run Domain
Logins / DHCP / DNS /File&Print/ LDAP / GroupWise / FTP and a web
site. We plan on having 3 virtual machines to do this. In what order
and programs should be installed to accomplish this?[/color]
Ken, you say you are a small business. Take a look at:
It includes ZCM and as Ken Etter said:
[color=blue]
Just a thought…if you were running ZCM, you could setup a Dynamic
Local User policy. That way users could login anywhere and ZCM would
take care of creating the local user. I do that here and we are not a
large company.[/color]
You posted in the SLES forum rather than an OES forum so I do don’t
know if you run OES. You want to “run Domain Logins”. Are you planning
to use Domain Services for Windows (DSFW) which is available with OES?
What software are you currently using?
Do you plan to install new/additional servers?
How do you manage your VM’s: Xen? VMware? …
–
Kevin Boyle - Knowledge Partner
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I am working in a small company and we would
like to setup our Suse Linux Enterprise 11 Servers to run Domain
Logins / DHCP / DNS /File&Print/ LDAP / GroupWise / FTP and a web
site. We plan on having 3 virtual machines to do this. In what order
and programs should be installed to accomplish this?[/color]
Ken, you say you are a small business. Take a look at:
It includes ZCM and as Ken Etter said:
[color=blue]
Just a thought…if you were running ZCM, you could setup a Dynamic
Local User policy. That way users could login anywhere and ZCM would
take care of creating the local user. I do that here and we are not a
large company.[/color]
You posted in the SLES forum rather than an OES forum so I do don’t
know if you run OES. You want to “run Domain Logins”. Are you planning
to use Domain Services for Windows (DSFW) which is available with OES?
What software are you currently using?
Do you plan to install new/additional servers?
How do you manage your VM’s: Xen? VMware? …
–
Kevin Boyle - Knowledge Partner
If you find this post helpful and are using the web interface,
show your appreciation and click on the star below…[/QUOTE]
We are running Netware 6.5 right now but we are wanting to get away from the per user fees so we are trying to stay away from OES if possible. We have bought new servers and a SAN so this is what I am doing all my experimenting on currently. Once I learn enough about them and know they are setup correctly we plan on placing them in as our production servers.
The virtual servers will be ran on VMware with Vcenter for fail over.
As for Domains, I figured it would be the cheapest way to go to allow our employees to jump to a new machine if required.
I am up for all suggestions as to what the best and cheapest route would be.
I am up for all suggestions as to what the best and cheapest route
would be.[/color]
As they say, the devil is in the details…
You are using GroupWise and that is licensed based on the number of
users. While there may be no “per user” fees for open source products,
those products will need to be patched. If you want patches from
SUSE/Novell, you will require maintenance and that is based on a user
count.
When you say the “cheapest route”, I hope you mean the TCO for a period
of time (3-5 yrs). You have to include support, maintenance, and
upgrade costs. You may find a more cost effective solution as compared
to one where only acquisition and setup costs are initially considered.
If you qualify for NOWS for Small Business, it’s a real bargain! Please check out your costs. It is licensed in increments of five
users and includes maintenance and technical support on all the
component products. Compare those costs to what you would pay for a few
individual components.
Before deciding how to proceed, you have to know what tools (software
components) you have at your disposal.
By the way, how many employees in your organisation? Even if you are a
small business, if there are more than 200 employees, you would not be
eligible for NOWS for Small Business and this discussion would likely
take a very different direction.
–
Kevin Boyle - Knowledge Partner
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as Kevin already pointed out, it’s the TCO that counts for businesses - and license costs are only a part of that.
We’re mostly running open-source products and try to keep the costs down. But there are a few side notes to that…
We’re running very few physical servers - but those hosting our production environment are running SLES, which even for basic support (“updates”) needs to be licensed. So although “open source”, it’s not “free”. For the few Windows machines we need to support, we’re running a SLES11 Samba server VM that does all the account permissions management, tightly integrated into our LDAP to keep in sync with our main environment (Linux). There’s a SAN/NAS usable both from the Linux and the Windows world. And there’s Linux-based backup and VoIP and and and…
But: We know what we’re doing, with years of experience with most of the components involved, and still spend hours, days and sometimes weeks of fiddling with all the bits & pieces of the environment. From our perspective, that’s ok - our business depends on know-how in exactly this environment, so to us it’s “training on the job”. You, on the other hand, seem to be in a much different position.
While you actually can get away with a bare minimum of license costs, you’ll soon find yourself spending much more on education, or on external support, or both. I agree with the other answers that you might be in a much better position if you’d spend some money on a software package with “export know-how built-in” and support.
We are a small company of 35 people max. We were aware that there is a per user license fee for GroupWise but we understanding that Suse Enterprise Linux is a per Physical server license.
Is Suse Linux not a per Physical server license for maintenance?
I do know that the NOWS product would make the server Administration a lot easier but the cost is just not in our budget range at this time.
We are a small company of 35 people max. We were aware that there is a
per user license fee for GroupWise but we understanding that Suse
Enterprise Linux is a per Physical server license.
Is Suse Linux not a per Physical server license for maintenance?
I do know that the NOWS product would make the server Administration a
lot easier but the cost is just not in our budget range at this time.[/color]
My company is about twice the size of yours…so bigger, but still a
relatively small firm. I am just about done with a NetWare 6.5 to OES
11 conversion. Administration is great…but OES works well for my
users too. The transition was very smooth from their end. And I
wouldn’t want to give up things like iPrint…that just makes printing
easier for everyone. I’ve also implemented NetStorage now - runs
great on OES - and that is a plus for all of our iPad users. Make
sure you look at the whole picture.
Licensing and maintenance options can be complicated. You need to talk
to your Novell/SUSE Reseller. Please do, especially if you are
concerned about costs.
It is your decision to choose the products you feel are best suited to
your business needs. As a consultant and reseller, it is my job to
ensure my customers have the correct information they need to make
those decisions.
[color=blue]
We are a small company of 35 people max.[/color]
Then you likely qualify for the Small Business pricing. Please check
with your reseller.
[color=blue]
We were aware that there is
a per user license fee for GroupWise but we understanding that Suse
Enterprise Linux is a per Physical server license.[/color]
Yes, GroupWise is “per user”. There is a cost for the license and if
you want patches or support there is an additional annual “maintenance
cost”.
[color=blue]
Is Suse Linux not a per Physical server license for maintenance?[/color]
There are many maintenance options. Costs vary considerably depending
on (for examples):
the platform
one physical server vs unlimited virtual instances
the number of CPU sockets: 2/4/8
whether you only need patches or support too.
[color=blue]
I do know that the NOWS product would make the server Administration a
lot easier but the cost is just not in our budget range at this time.[/color]
I hear you. Many small businesses are in the same position and are
looking for ways to reduce costs. Costs are important to all of us.
Novell has been listening too. They recognise that while NOWS offers
great value, it is more than many small businesses can afford. That is
why they announced NOWS for Small Business.
Do your homework. You may find that the per-user licensing cost and
maintenance for NOWS for Small Business is less than what you are
paying for GroupWise alone. If you are still convinced that you don’t
look at those solutions, we’ll be happy to help with SLES any way we
can.
–
Kevin Boyle - Knowledge Partner
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