[clug-talk] Project: Linux on AD Domain - Part01

[TekBudda]

>> Up to this point I have been using roaming profiles to stores her
>> Windows data (TBird/FF profiles, documents on H drive, etc.) on the
>> server in D:\[USERDATA]\PROFILES\Lisa & D:\[USERDATA]\HOME\Lisa, with
>> the appropriate information going to the correct folder.
>
> Not sure how useful this is going to be since the drive letter is
> meaningless in Linux.  This means that things like the FF and TB
> profiles are not really portable.  You can script up a work around but
> this is a lot of work for little gain.
Sorry I should have fixed that.  The drive letter is simply how it is
referenced in WIndows.  The path for the share is something like
\\SERVER\USERDATA\PROFILES$ & \\SERVER\USERDATA\HOME$.  The profiles
gets handled automatically by its reference in AD & the Home drive is
mapped with net use H: \\|SERVER\USERDATA\HOME$\Lisa.

I understand what you mean about the profiles being stored under a
drive letter.  I am wondering if in Windows if I created a map in My
Network Places without a drive letter reference & then moved the
TBird/FF profiles into that folder on the server... or even locally
for that matter.  For the most part Lisa access a shaw account through
pop & a shared gmail account through imap on her computer.  WE also
have a shared profile & home drive (CamLisa) that I envision being
used on a kitchen computer, but the drive N should be accessed on any
of our logins.

I know I oculd set up Linux & Windows TBird profiles but that would
create duplication of the locally stored imap stuff which isnt that
bad except that one of the folders is about 3 GB in size, whihc would
now make it 6 for lisa & 6 for me...if you get what I mean.


>> In some of my discussions with people it was suggested that in order to
>> do the same thing (roaming profile) with a Linux box, that I should
>> create a "Profile-Linux" folder (using samaba) on the server that the
>> linux home directory would go in.  But one problem that I would have is
>> having both OS's using the data for TBird, FF, My Documents, Audio,
>> Video, etc.
>>
> Most of the folders are not a problem.  You could just sym-link the
> Documents, Pictures, Videos etc. from the Windows profile to the Linux
> one.  The FF and TB profiles as I already mentioned have OS specific
> path nomenclatures in the configs of each profile.
WOuld the above work?  I had the thought of having one set of shared
folders (HOME & PROFILES) on the server & then both the Linux & The
WIndows stuff being store din the same folder.  Or would that
completely bork things?

> I use Zindus to keep my TB contacts synchronized with my google apps
> mail contacts.  I also use IMAP for actual mail storage.  This
> combination is pretty awesome, even more so if you have an Android
> phone.  Blackberrys and Iphones have apps that can get you most of the
> way there, but I am already living the dream with Android.
I think I have used Zindus or somethign similar for syncing my
contacts.  I have also used Plaxo for keeping things synced with
Outlook as well.  I am evetually going to try 7 fold all of the is
stuff togetehr.  Right now everything is all over the place.  Could I
not use the contacts in AD & have those accessed across the network to
be used with TBird, Outlook, etc.?

I don't have an Andriod YET (waiting for Bell plan to die & for WInd
to build more towers), but that is definately something I am looking
at going forward.  Even to get TBird & outllok syncing with Google (or
whatever) so that I can use Motorola Phone Tools to sync to my Razr2
for now.


>> My plans have changed a bit since that point in time & I am looking to
>> build a NAS (any suggestions for a good NAS software?) to store
>> everything on instead of the server.  With this in mind, I am wondering
>> if seperate folders are even needed or would I still need to separate
>> things?  To complicate this further, I also lookin at adding Mac OD X to
>> the mix & trying to do the same things.
>>
> A few of my friends are happy with FreeNAS.  I personally have a Linux
> machine with a lot of hard drives (Linux software RAID and LVM FTW) that
> I share out the network via Samba.  The clients include XP, Vista, Win7,
> Linux, and a couple of appliances (technically the WDTV Live is Linux
> based, but it works really well).
I think that is one of the ones I have heard about.  Anothe ris
OpenNAS or something?  The plan is to have it go on a small form
factor 700 Mhz box & use that as storage for everything.  I will
likley include ftp or som sort of remote access to it as well.  I will
then be connecting an external drive to that box & syncing the 2 so
that I have a portable backup solution.  SOmneone else suggested a
project called gluster to do the syncing.  From what he said it looks
like a neat solution , but I havent had a chance to look into it at
this point.


>> Rigth nwo I have Windows Server 2003 as the only server, but would like
>> to get it syncing with OpenLDAP running on CentOS as a BDC, until I
>> switch to CentOS/OPenLDAP running as the PDC & a virtualized Server 2003
>> as teh sendary.
>>
> You may wish to look into Franky (http://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Franky).
>
> Otherwise you will need more than LDAP to have the Linux box act as a
> BDC.  You will also need to setup Kerberos and DNS (Bind) since both are
> also integral to Active Directory.  I believe bind is easier to
> integrate than it used to be, but Kerberos can be a pain if you have
> never dealt with it directly (Active Directory is actually using
> Kerberos under the hood for authentication).

Yeah I knew I woudl need to have a dhcp server & DNS on the C|entOS
box as well.  I just skippe dthat part.  Thanks fo rthe advice about
the kerberos also.  I have worked with BIND a bit in the past so I
shoudl be ok with it...although DNS always seem like a blackart at
times...but maybe that is just me.