I have been running a customized version Amahi for a couple years for my Samba server. It is time for an upgrade, and I will be moving away from Amahi, as they have abandoned Fedora for Ubuntu.
Back when I selected Amahi to replace my 15 year old NT server, I looked around and only considered SME Server as an alternative, but they were still on Centos 4.7 with the Centos 5 based version still off in some future.
So I am now looking around again. My 'needs' are small: NT style shares with mobile profiles. I only have half a dozen XP systems here. I suppose at some point I will be adding Win7 systems.
So far I have two options:
Pull off the config files from my Amahi server: Bind, DHCP, Samba, and probably MySQL. I had customized things enough (and few of my 'bug' fixes made it back into the base) that I know what to pull out to make a viable server.
Go with SME Server 8.0 which was released back in May and is based on Centos 5.8.
So my question to all of you is, what other options are out there? A Win7 future kind of makes SME more attractive than rolling my own. I would NOT be using SME for my mail server. That will be in a separate post.
On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 9:47 AM, Robert Moskowitz rgm@htt-consult.com wrote:
Look at ClearOS. I haven't used it beyond installing in a test VM, but it looks like it would be a suitable SME replacement with a more up to date code base. And it should be usable as an email server too whether on the same host or not. Or if you understand the configs well enough, just roll your own from a CentOS 6.x.
On 12/05/2012 12:09 PM, Les Mikesell wrote:
What distro is it based on? A quick browse through the website did not yield this info. I am going to have to get on their forums to see if they can provide my Win server needs, which are not so much...
As for mail, I will have to look at it. I looked at Zarafa a couple years ago, and can't remember why I rejected it.
On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 12:12 PM, Robert Moskowitz rgm@htt-consult.com wrote:
The previous version was based on CentOS 5 code. I believe that for the current version they did their own RHEL rebuild due to the delays in the Centos release - and ended up taking even longer.
As for mail, I will have to look at it. I looked at Zarafa a couple years ago, and can't remember why I rejected it.
I haven't looked that recently - the older versions used postfix with cyrus or dovecot - and you could do a certain amount of fiddling with the underlying configs yourself.
On 12/05/2012 02:29 PM, Les Mikesell wrote:
I will then check to see if it offers the functions I need.
I have a postfix/mysql/... server built by following something like this:
http://library.linode.com/email/postfix/courier-mysql-fedora-12
I like postfix and mysql. I have been working on this today, and it looks like most of the pieces are now there. the postfix built in Centos 6 is showing mysql support, so I am hoping I do not have to build it from srpm, as in the past. I have a few more steps to complete for testing this out.
On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 5:04 PM, Robert Moskowitz rgm@htt-consult.com wrote:
I think ClearOS uses LDAP under everything including your initial user list which is something that made it sound attractive - and should make it easy to have multiple servers with the same user base. However I haven't needed it enough to set one up completely. I used to use several SME servers in remote offices (and generally was comfortable giving the local office administrator the root password to add users and shares where I would never have done that with a normal linux distro). But, due to business changes, now headquarters is elsewhere and I'm in a small remote office... I did help a friend set up a couple of the previous ClearOS versions for home and small office use and they are still going a couple of years later.
On 12/5/2012 7:47 AM, Robert Moskowitz wrote:
So my question to all of you is, what other options are out there? A Win7 future kind of makes SME more attractive than rolling my own.
I don't understand that justification? Samba is Samba, the configs are pretty straight forward.
On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 11:41 AM, John R Pierce pierce@hogranch.com wrote:
SME is a little more than a config writer - it combines some concepts across applications into a simple web interface. Define a group in the web interface and you get both an email list and a unix/samba permissions group. Enable an application and you get the port(s) open in iptables. Specify an IP address, name, and MAC address and you get both DHCP and DNS configs. Create a file share (i-bay) and you get web, ftp, and samba access with optional permissioning by groups. And so on. With bare linux you not only have to understand the configuration of many different applications, but the relationships among the applications. ClearOS takes the same task-centric, not application-oriented approach.
On 12/05/2012 01:04 PM, Les Mikesell wrote:
What he said :)
I really could not use SME's email in the past, as it would not allow an email address to occur in multiple domains. Or rather the hoops you had to jump through were extreme. This addr I am using here is in a number of my domains that I run. I like it that way.
Even if I use the same base, I will run my Share server and Email server on separate systems.
On 12/05/2012 12:41 PM, John R Pierce wrote:
Well yes and no. And I DO have working configs from the Amahi server to 'run' with. But there is more to it if I want to have a system that can add users and systems with some level of ease. It HAS been a couple years since I have fiddle with the configs, and thus my point about more than just running the configs...
On 12/05/2012 12:19 PM, Robert Moskowitz wrote:
What I did in the past was use the samba RPMs from enterprisesamba.org:
http://www.enterprisesamba.org/samba-packages/red-hats-rhel/rhel-6/
With the LDAP rpms that come with CentOS.
I also used the application called LDAP Account Manager to add new users and groups:
https://www.ldap-account-manager.org/
In my case, I was doing e-mail in a separate system ... but several e-mail systems read from LDAP accounts, so this can be used for e-mail accounts too if needed.
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John R Pierce -
Johnny Hughes -
Les Mikesell -
Robert Moskowitz