You make good points about distributing work among servers, although there are talking points on both sides of that issue. I haven't even looked at virtual servers yet.
The starting point was replacing our SBS 2008. We had a decision to make. Microsoft has dropped the SBS product and its replacement, Server Essentials, does not do Exchange. This office is a pension management firm and putting anything in the cloud is not an option at present. Yet our users are VERY familiar with the Windows interface and rely on roaming logins, redirected folders etc. Our solution was to go with Samba4 AD/DC which provided all the functionality of SBS except for Exchange. To replace that we opted to use Sendmail/procmail/Dovecot/IMAP which has worked very well with only a few minor issues (e.g. Shared calendars are not writable by non-owners). To that end, I sought to move all SBS functionality to the Samba4 AD/DC. Since SBS required being the DHCP and DNS servers, I did the same for the Samba box; didn't really think about it otherwise. Not that much going on, really. The Samba server is 98%+ idle. It does have email and redirected folders, but shared files are kept on a different, NAS server, web hosting and internal pension applications on another, SQL Server on another, QuickBooks on another ... With Windows 10 now joining the fray to harvest as much data as possible off users' workstations, we need to look for a more secure alternative for staff workstations. Hence my investigation of LTSP and VNC. Fortunately, our managment has grown increasingly tired of Microsoft's abandonment of this market sector (we recently downgraded from Office 2013 to 2010 for this reason). Unfortunately for my objectives, Microsoft *does* priovide pretty nice user interfaces and features in its products. It'll be difficult to duplicate redirected folders on non-Microsoft clients. Tell me, were you able to run multiple monitors to one workstation with LTSP? --Mark -----Original Message----- > From: "Christopher Roberts" <c...@tridentgarages.co.uk> > To: <ltsp-discuss@lists.sourceforge.net> > Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2015 12:04:59 +0100 > Organization: Trident Honda > X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook 15.0 > > > Actually, my intention is to run LTSP *on* the Samba4 AD. Why not? Given > that, the same host would be running DHCP -- > unless LTSP wants to take > over DHCP? > > Is there a problem running LTSP on the same host that currently runs DHCP? > > I have learnt the hard way that combining server functions is generally a > bad idea. Personally I wouldn't even store data on the LTSP server, that way > you can easily upgrade or replace LTSP with minimal user disruption. > > You have think about your future - having to update and maintain a server > that is doing multiple functions - well, you're in danger of having an > over-complicated mess. And when things go wrong - yikes! > > These days I tend to have my servers virtualised and then spin up new VMs > for each function. Life is simpler that way and you have the other benefit > of being able to snapshot servers before upgrades. > > > Well, in fact, I think DHCP *is* needed and Samba4 wants to update DNS > > -- which needs DHCP. Not totally sure about this, will research, but > > I recall that Windows SBS HAD TO BE the DHCP server and DNS server. > > Our Samba4 AD server is certainly *not* the DHCP server, and I don't believe > that is a requirement, providing the information being given out by the DHCP > server is correct for your Active Directory network. > > > I'm wondering if you could tell me more specifically why LTSP and > > Open/Libre Office didn't work out for you with Samba4 AD? > > That's precicely the target platforms I'm looking at. Esp the > > OpenOffice thing -- we're looking at migrating away from Win7 > > (more precisely, we're looking at never going to Win10!) and > > OpenOffice is a logical replacement for Office 201x. > > Well we are motor dealers, and as a franchise holder we have no power over > the franchise. When they send us Powerpoint presentations laden with videos > and transitions and heaven knows what else - we *have* to be able to view > them. When they send us Excel spreadsheets laden with Visual Basic macros - > we have to be able to use them. Open|LibreOffice are very good, and if > you're not beholden to anyone - they should be perfectly good enough. > > And don't forget we do now have Office 365, which works on Linux in a > browser. > > > Thanks for your feedback > > My pleasure, having used LTSP exclusively at our dealerships for 8 years, it > was a great sadness to move away. It was mainly our directors who struggled > with LTSP, most of our users preferred the simplicity of a Linux desktop and > the fact that it all just worked. The directors tended to feel the > compatibility issues most keenly, I think because often people outside of > our organisation judged us on why we could not do things that every other > Honda dealer could do. > > If I was ever to move back to LTSP again, and it is certainly a possibility, > this is how I would do it: > > 1. Samba4 Active Directory server > 2. Samba4 File and Print server > 3. Windows 10 Pro PCs for the directors, with Office 365 and mapped folders > to the Samba4 file and print server. > 4. LTSP desktops for everyone else, based on Lubuntu 14.04 LTS and with > mapped directories to the Samba 4 file and print server. > 5. LibreOffice set to open and save in evil MS Office formats (perhaps > Strict ooxml). > 6. X2GO installed on the LTSP server for remote users to access via > OpenVPN. > > Includes some serious compromises to my FLOSS ideals, but would be a > workable set-up for our specific needs. Sadly business and FLOSS are not > always comfortable bed fellows, but I do the best I can. > > Chris. > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > _____________________________________________________________________ > Ltsp-discuss mailing list. To un-subscribe, or change prefs, goto: > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ltsp-discuss > For additional LTSP help, try #ltsp channel on irc.freenode.net > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _____________________________________________________________________ Ltsp-discuss mailing list. To un-subscribe, or change prefs, goto: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ltsp-discuss For additional LTSP help, try #ltsp channel on irc.freenode.net
