Hi all,
I have been tasked with setting up a new server to replace a 10+ year old Apple Mac Server which has been running as the "Mainserver" for a small company I work at. This Mac server performs various server roles, including DHCP, DNS, and most importantly, file serving. We have roughly 50-60 clients, 98% are Windows clients, and employees use the file system on the Mac extensively for storing company data. The file system is the Mac standard (sorry, I'm not very familiar with Apple stuff, especially Apple server stuff). We want to use ACL permissions to stay as compatible with possible with Windows. Now, our Mac Server has both POSIX and ACL permissions, which often cause us weird issues when new files or folders are created on the file system.
Our network engineer is strongly inclined to use FreeBSD as the Operating System for out new server, with ZFS file system for FreeBSD installation (root) and for data storage. From what I understand, ZFS natively supports ACL permissions, so that should not be an issue. I have been testing with FreeBSD, but I am having some trouble finding server administration tools that will provide for easy administration of DHCP, DNS, and Samba file sharing.
I know that Samba 4 supports setting up the Samba server as an Active Directory Domain Controller, which while not critical, would be a great asset to our company. I haven't got Samba working yet, but I'm still in the testing phases...
My main set of questions all revolves around this idea: Can I make it so FreeBSD is at least as easy to manage as the Mac Server was?
For administering the Mac server, we use TightVNC and use various Mac applications. For example, DHCP was administered using Server Admin, and adding clients was as simple as typing in a computer's MAC address and assigning it an IP address. On FreeBSD, I have looked into using Webmin, but I am ultimately not impressed with the ease of use of Webmin. Additionally, Webmin only supports older versions of Samba in it's Module configuration (3.6? I think) which presents a problem if I want to manage Active Directory groups and users.
I've also heard that it may be possible to manage a Samba 4 server using Microsoft Snap-in Console. (I call it Computer Management, accessed from Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Computer Management in Windows).
Has anyone done anything like this? Any suggestions on graphical or web administration applications that will make managing Samba, DHCP, and DNS easy? Has anyone come across any commercial solutions built on FreeBSD that would be worth checking out?
I have been tasked with setting up a new server to replace a 10+ year old Apple Mac Server which has been running as the "Mainserver" for a small company I work at. This Mac server performs various server roles, including DHCP, DNS, and most importantly, file serving. We have roughly 50-60 clients, 98% are Windows clients, and employees use the file system on the Mac extensively for storing company data. The file system is the Mac standard (sorry, I'm not very familiar with Apple stuff, especially Apple server stuff). We want to use ACL permissions to stay as compatible with possible with Windows. Now, our Mac Server has both POSIX and ACL permissions, which often cause us weird issues when new files or folders are created on the file system.
Our network engineer is strongly inclined to use FreeBSD as the Operating System for out new server, with ZFS file system for FreeBSD installation (root) and for data storage. From what I understand, ZFS natively supports ACL permissions, so that should not be an issue. I have been testing with FreeBSD, but I am having some trouble finding server administration tools that will provide for easy administration of DHCP, DNS, and Samba file sharing.
I know that Samba 4 supports setting up the Samba server as an Active Directory Domain Controller, which while not critical, would be a great asset to our company. I haven't got Samba working yet, but I'm still in the testing phases...
My main set of questions all revolves around this idea: Can I make it so FreeBSD is at least as easy to manage as the Mac Server was?
For administering the Mac server, we use TightVNC and use various Mac applications. For example, DHCP was administered using Server Admin, and adding clients was as simple as typing in a computer's MAC address and assigning it an IP address. On FreeBSD, I have looked into using Webmin, but I am ultimately not impressed with the ease of use of Webmin. Additionally, Webmin only supports older versions of Samba in it's Module configuration (3.6? I think) which presents a problem if I want to manage Active Directory groups and users.
I've also heard that it may be possible to manage a Samba 4 server using Microsoft Snap-in Console. (I call it Computer Management, accessed from Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Computer Management in Windows).
Has anyone done anything like this? Any suggestions on graphical or web administration applications that will make managing Samba, DHCP, and DNS easy? Has anyone come across any commercial solutions built on FreeBSD that would be worth checking out?