I just wanted to write to you guys and thank you for all of your help and hand-holding as I upgraded our company's file server from a Pentium 200mmx running Novell 4.11 to a nice P4 server running Linux and Samba 3.0.9. It took from September to the end of December to accomplish it, but I have gotten compliments from several users about how smooth the transition was.
My environment includes every version of Windows since (and including) Windows 95. I even have a computerized saw on my network, and it is happily getting its cut files from the Samba server. I only have about 60 users, so I guess it is a much smaller install than most. But Samba is running extremely lean, and not bogging the server down at all. Below is a brief summary of what I did: 1. Used 'rsync' to keep all of the data on the new server up-to-date with what was on the Novell server so the users would not lose any data in the transition. 2. Completely rearranged the shares and the way they are presented to much users, while providing some shares to certain users who needed to see certain drive letters for their ancient (RBase, QBasic) applications to work. 3. Improved security and eliminated home directories for users who have not worked here for years and years. 4. All printer drivers except for the pen plotter are now stored on the server. Printing via CUPS+Samba, and the print performance has outstripped the Novell print server by thousands of percents. 5. LDAP for authentication to not only Samba, but most UNIX servers, incoming and outgoing mail servers, and implemented a searchable white-pages while I was at it. 6. I am using Kixtart for login scripts. Drive letters are assigned based on group membership and machine type, and roaming profiles are implemented with folder redirection for non-laptop machines. My users are very very happy, and my boss is extremely pleased with the price-point and the performance. I just wanted to let you guys hear of a Samba success story. I will be happy to offer any advice for what I have learned along the way. Appreciatively, Misty -- To unsubscribe from this list go to the following URL and read the instructions: https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/samba
