[HLUG] Content filtering server, email server, domain controller
Alex Mace
alex at hollytree.co.uk
Mon Feb 9 20:05:06 UTC 2009
I'd take a look at Google Apps for your e-mail provision. I use it on
all the domains I ever set up and it is absolutely fantastic. Tons of
storage, easy user provisioning, cheap (just £50 per user per year)
and just great. Plus you get the great Google interface.
Cheers,
Alex
2009/2/9 Matthew Macdonald-Wallace <matthew at truthisfreedom.org.uk>:
> Hi Paul,
> On 02/09/2009, 19:27, Paul Stenning (paul at vintage-radio.com) wrote:Hi all,
>
>
>
> I am looking into what is needed for a new server requirement at work
>
> later this year. If possible I would like to do as much as possible
>
> with Linux and open source, and just use virtualised Windows for the
>
> areas where Linux can't be used. Some of the requirements are:
>
>
>
> Domain controller: The clients are all Windows (will be XP Pro or Vista
>
> Business) and we want to have a proper login system whereby people can
>
> use their username and password on any PC and get their own desktop,
>
> files and settings etc. This is the sort of thing that Windows domains
>
> do well. Can it be done in Linux or would we need a Windows server for
>
> the domain controller?
> I believe that samba and openLDAP can do this. They can definitely do the authentication, roming profiles I'm not too sure about.
> Email: Currently the clients use Thunderbird to access email directly
>
> from the web server using IMAP and send using SMTP. We would like to
>
> have our own email server which fetches email from the web server
>
> (probably using POP3) every few minutes and which the users connect to
>
> using Thunderbird and IMAP as now. We would like to be able to retain
>
> messages that the users delete for a period of time and to be able to
>
> back up all email reliably. We really do not want to head down the
>
> Exchange/Outlook route. What are our options with Linux? Ease of
>
> configuration would help of course!
>
> Fetchmail, Cyrus or Dovecot for IMAP/POP3 and Exim4 for SMTP. Or you could get a static IP and run your own POP3/IMAP/SMTP server.
> Web content filtering: We want to limit the websites users can access.
>
> Some sites (adult, illegal content etc) would always be blocked, most
>
> others would be allowed for a certain amount of time each day (say one
>
> hour to allow people to use Facebook, BBC News, Amazon etc during lunch)
>
> and a selected few would be accessible all the time (the ones needed for
>
> work). We would need to be able to override the 1 hour restriction on
>
> an ad-hoc basis easily if someone needs more access on a particular day.
>
>
> SQUID (also itegrates with OpenLDAP and can be used as a transparent proxy - i.e. one that your users are not aware of). File sharing: That's easy enough - Samba. It needs to link into the
>
> domain controller stuff though so it follows password changes.
>
> Easy to do. Loads of tutorials out there on how to do this.
>
> Intranet and development web server: Easy, Apache with PHP and MySQL.
>
> I'd recommend Joomla or Sugar for an intranet. Don't underestimate the power of SugarCRM, it is not just a CRM system.
>
> Managing the whole thing: Probably Webmin. Remote access to this would
>
> be very useful but that will probably be handled by VPN routers.
>
> Personal preference of course, but I'd always go with text files. Webmin has been known to overwrite any manual changes made to a system and cause the system to completely stop working as a result.
>
> Eset anti-virus management: That will have to be done with Windows in
>
> vmware (or virtualbox if I can get it to work).
>
> I've not used Eset, but you can link ClamAV into Samba to provide virus protection on the network.
>
> Backup: On my home server I am using Simple Backup to backup to a
>
> removable USB drive every day. It works reasonably well except it has
>
> no way of notifying if the backup disk is full. Backing up to tape
>
> would be useful but there seems to be a shortage of easy-to-configure
>
> tape backup applications. It obviously needs to back up the email,
>
> documents and all user desktop settings etc.
>
> BackupPC or Bacula are your best bets IMHO.
>
> If I can do most of this with Linux I will probably go for Ubuntu Server
>
> 8.04 LTS as that's what I'm familiar with. CentOS is another possibility.
>
>
>
> So how much of this can be done with Linux, what packages are suggested
>
> and how easy is it to configure? Most is possible with Windows Small
>
> Business Server (which uses the dreaded Exchange Server) with a separate
>
> content filtering application, and I have done most of that with Windows
>
> SBS for another client. I'd like to do it with Linux this time though.
> Hope this is of some help, if you want any more advice on setting this up, feel free to contact me either on or off-list.Kind regards,Matt.
>
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