Linux servers all the way!

[brewmiser]

I am sure that there are alot of Linux users on this site so you guys might like to hear this.

I work for a small MEP Engineering Firm "AS the IT Department". We have about 60 computers on a small Novel file server. We have a fractional T1 internet connection at 1 Mbps, up and down. We have a firewall, DNS, Email, VPN and Web/FTP server all using Linux as the server operating system. Last year we incorporated a Linux backup server that connects to the Novel server and does our daily backup's. As well, about 3 months ago we put in a MySQL server running on Linux, but we have yet to use it (still learning that one).

We have always had Novel as our main server and it took some discussion and persuasion to decide to make our company a complete Linux office (other then the desktops, which some will be coming soon). So as of this weekend we will be implementing our main file server into a Linux samba server and everything should be brighter in the end!

I am a little worried about this change over. We have never had a problem with our Novel server in the 10 years we have had. It has always worked flawlesly with no lock ups or problems. Do you think that Linux can give us the same satisfaction? Let me hear what you guys think.:rolleyes:

[Mntsnow]

Well I personally havent run my linux servers over about 180 days without a reboot because of security patches, hardware replacements/reconfigurments ect. but once they are fully setup and configured correctly they sure seem to run nicely. One thing I dont like about linux is how bad their file system can get hosed due to a improper shutdown so I highly suggest that it been on a good strong ups system

[brewmiser]

I have seen that happen here once. I do have two APC 1400 UPS batteries, that should do it.

[Praetorian]

Are you running an ext2 fs Mntsnow? Those take a while to repair the meta data on the hdd after a crash. Use something like Ext3 or ReiserFS and you'll be fine. It'll repair the disks and be fully booted in minutes.

To change from Ext2 to Ext3, do this...

tune2fs -j /dev/xxx

Before you reboot, in /etc/fstab you need to change the FS type from ext2 to ext3. Don't forget that part. ;)

[Mntsnow]

I do run Ext3 on my stuff Praetorian :) and it does help... but I've seen how long it takes to boot some of the systems, clients in the data center I work take.....They just dont boot anywhere near as fast as a 2k server does after a crash....

[brewmiser]

But the question that I have Mntsnow does your linux servers crash as much as your 2k servers?

[Mntsnow]

Truthfully about the same......I personally have had 2K servers over the 180 day mark several times and truthfully I've personally havent had a linux box last long enough to go over 180 days with me tinkering with it :D.... I even have a 2K server I built for a friend of mine that is still running SP1 in their office (not connected to the Net) and that box has not even had a reboot in 400+ days.. go figure

But to honestly answer your question directly would be to say YES the Linux boxes crash and burn More often than my 2K servers on average.

(partially due to operator error :D)

[brewmiser]

This will be our first real test of linux for a file type login server. We have had great success with our firewall, email and DNS server's. They have never crashed on us, except for 2 hard driver failure's, which where out of our control.

We have a real linux expert that does all of our server software setup, he is an outside source that does a great job with them. All I have to really do is administor them, i.e., add users, delete files, etc. So I hope that this Samba server will do the same.