Re: [gentoo-user] OT (ish): What are the average requirements of a small business server?

[Dan Farrell]

On Tue, 3 Apr 2007 17:34:24 +0100
"Joel Merrick" <joel@×××××××××××.com> wrote:

> Hello list!!
Greetings, Joel. 
> With the advent of Vista and all the bells and whistles that it
> provides, one can't help think that a lot of this functionality is
> grossly overkill for a small business environment. I've not actually
> checked how SBS2003 will develop, but I'm sure that it will continue
> to tow the glitzier line
> Myself and a friend are looking to create a linux based system that
> contains some of the details what are listed below, but presented in a
> fashion that is easy for the end user to understand (even easier than
> webmin!). You see, to some end user I've shown webmin to, they've
> completely understood the concept, but still lacked some of the
> technical capability to properly use it and configure their servers as
> needed.
The great thing about linux servers is that their uptimes are
phenomenal.  Whereas windoze tends to get bogged up if too much is
going on for too long ,the same problems rarely affect me.  I once did
some freelance work for somebody who put a small gateway/router/email
server in their office about 2.5 years ago now, and it was literally up
all that time, for 800 days or so.  Finally something went wrong, but I
think you'll agree, that's pretty impressive.  
> Anyway, here is some of the list that we are thinking about
> implementing:
I have a few suggestions
>    * Caching DNS Server
>    * DHCP Server
I am really glad I finally got off my ass and set up the ISC dhcpcd
server and BIND.  It's trickier than dnsmasq or other simple solutions
but allows you to serve your dns information locally to both the
inside and the outside (if you've a static ip, which I will continue to
assume is true)
>    * Iptables firewall / NAT'
Unix is a virtual necessity for security ; )  This isn't difficult --
high security can be pretty easily achieved with a Stateful firewall. 
>    * Content filtering
>    * Local intranet CMS - LAMP-based
>    * Shared wiki and / or blogs
Huh?  
>    * Groupware
>    * Email server
This is the trickiest network service I've set up yet, but the
Postfix/Courier solution seems good.  Email doesn't take up much space
and so I highly recommend frequent backups and maybe a mirror or
something spread over two disks for email.  
>    * Shared calendars
>    * Spam scanning with mgmnt
I use spamassassin myself, and it seems to do a decent job. It supports
bayesian learing and daily filter updates with
spamassassin-rulesdujour.  I don't see why you couldn't run a few
seperate filters.  
>    * LDAP directory server
argh, that one scares me ; )
>    * A/V - clamd
Poor windows users... I almost feel bad for them and their virus
problems.  
>    * Database server - Mysql
For sure, and a webserver too !  
>    * Remote mounted home directories
I have always wanted to get to set up an office environment with
unified login access and whatnot.  Sounds fun.
>    * Printer sharing for Lin / Win clients
CUPS!!! Unbeknownst to most of the internet, windows supports IPP
really well.  It just fails to support anything but the most
complicated and convoluted server addresses.  I got it working with an
out of the box XP configuration at least, and didn't need to do
anything special.  CUPs config on the server side is pretty easy, and
once it's configured, you needn't do anything on the server side to keep
sharing the printers to the clients.  My linux clients even browse the
shares and find the shared printers automatically, so one of the most
beautiful things about cups is that once the printers installed, config
is pretty much done.  
>    * Terminal Services?
I don't really know what this means.  I know it's a windows thing.  I
know ssh is a great protocol and I've had it open to the net for a
long time and have never had a breakin (strong passwords == good).   
> I realise that these are a lot of services, so let's boil them down to
> a few essential services
>
>   * File sharing
>   * Print sharing
>   * Email
>   * 'Clean' Internet access to other LAN machines.
Those are the basic services I offer on my home server, and am happy to
say that the resources you need are pretty limited.  Of all the
services, file sharing is the only one which is likely to reach
hardware bottlenecks, and those can be overcome with a combination of
RAID and network bonding.  
>
> What I'd be interested in knowing, is people's experience of such
> small business environments. How much certain aspects are used... such
> as how much groupware is used etc..

> I'm sure that these are pretty open ended questions with even more
> open ended answers, but any input would be most welcome
The only other thing I would say is to set up both redundant storage
mechanisms and strong backup policies for your system.  Ideally, you'd
have two seperate computers clustered together in case somebody pours a
cup of coffee on a server or something.  Realistically, I think strong
backup policies and redundant storage (RAID-5 or a raid mirror) should
avoid any unthinkable disasters.  At one point, that computer _is_
going to go down, and the most likely and most important failure point
is the hard disk.  
> Thanks!
> Joel and Mark
sorry for the rambling, but I find this particular topic intersting.  I
hope this stuff helps a bit.  
-- 
gentoo-user@g.o mailing list