[Gllug] Linux To MS Networking

Fri Dec 7 10:00:47 UTC 2001

Hi John (Mike, Sue),

Thought I'd reply in a single post, it gets complicated otherwise :-)

First of all thanks to all of you for your help ... I have finally got my
networking working in as much as I am getting terminal 'ping' responses
back from my Win2K server and configured my browser to work via its Proxy
server (I use a free proxy/e-mail server called Jana) which I could see
attempting to dial but due to my nightmare of an ISP (Madasafish) was
failing.

I have, as yet, to try actually connecting to shares and that will probably
have to wait until the weekend as I am babysitting four kids tonight while
my wife goes out "on the razz" ... yikes!

John:
> I gather that you are using SuSE.

Yes ... version 7.1 Professional, Kernel 2.4.

John:
> My advice would be for you to install KOffice, and use that as an
> alternative to MSOffice - I think we had some discussion yesterday
> on the network diagramming tool, which might be of use?
> Or StarOffice from Sun - your choice!

Yugh! I don't like Star Office much, mainly because of the visible page
borders and the fact that it fires up as a complete desktop where I'd
rather use applications individually as and when I wish.

So K Office is pretty good huh? I tried AbiWord on windows (from Gnome
office) but it doesn't support tables so is of limited use. Maybe the Linux
version is more advanced than the Win version, I'm assuming they are
equivalent at present.

John:
> Also I'd advise you to have a look at Evolution as your email/to-do/
> contacts manager etc. I know it is a bit heavy on the resources,
> and will require downloading Gnome libraries,
> but I'd guess that a Windows user would take to it very easily.

I would have thought ... I've checked out the Ximian website and I'm having
some difficulty finding out exactly where the binaries are (duh!). I can't
even find out id evolution supports "*.pst" files or can import from them
(which would be nice as I can import my old mail then)

John:
> > Question: can linux handle DLT (40Gb) tape drives and, if so, can it
back
> > up & restore data to an MS server across a network?
> Yes.
> I would advise you to look at Arkeia  http://www.arkeia.com
> Arkeia is free to back up 1 Linux server, and two workstations.
> Have a look at 'Compatibility' then 'Tape drives'
> You should get the month's free trial on the paid-for
> version and try that out.
> Give me a shout if you need help installing it.
> There are loads of alternatives, including the free (as in free beer)
> Amanda.

OK ... is that a suggestion for a drink at some point with some of you
guys? If so I'm right up for that (after the hubbub of Christmas has dies
down and I know enough to pronounce Linux properly [G]) ... beer is good,
beer is foamy :-)

Sue:
> Did you set the box to pick up an address from dhcp, is the
> adapter active? Mostly I can tell you about the shares thing.

It wasn't but it is now :-)

I found out that there is a command called "ifconfig" which is a little
like Nt/2K's "ipconfig" which told me that it wasn't seen. From then on I
went into YaST2 and configured the NIC (eth0) and picked up an IP address
from my 2K DHCP server (actually my 2K pretty much everything server [G])

Sue:
> I work in a mainly M$ environment, I have recently set up two Linux
> servers, one file and one print.  These are running samba and are
> member servers.  I picked up samba and the documentation from
> the samba site http://www.samba.org/ I did have a little trouble
> getting the boxes into the domain to start with but that was due to
> problems with master browser elections.

That's my next task but I can't really try it until the weekend as I'm on
the Christmas regime (shopping with the kids, babysitting etc.). I remember
at my previous job that Samba was causing Master Browser election problems
which was ultimately resolved by upgrading to the latest release of Samba.

Sue:
> The documentation was excellent and I now have robust file and print
> servers.

Cool ... thanks :-)

Sue:
> I appreciate that you want to retain a mixed environment you
> need to use the most appropriate platform for the job in hand.
> In our case NT print servers have awful problems with HP
> deskjet printers and Netware doesn't like multiple port JetDirect
> boxes but Linux solves our problem.

I am currently testing Linux both at work (where they already use some
Linux & UNIX) and at home where I was solely MS based. I guess at home it
is (unless MS gets split into separate OS, application & games companies or
Linux becomes a shed-load more user friendly and widespread) unlikely that
I'll ever get rid of MS completely because it is the premier platform for
computer games (not consoles) and my kids would kill me :-)

Sue:
> If you want any further info on samba, please give me a call.

If it's OK I wouldn't mind being able to direct e-mail rather than go
through the group ... sometimes one gets better responses that way and less
to trawl through if you know what I mean :-)

Mike:
> You need to run a dhcp client on your machine.  most distros come with
one, and you should just need to make a config file change - others have
already made suggestions. What you get is distro-specific - dhclient or
pump are possibilities, though I'm sure there are others.

> Secondly how do I map read/write shares to my domain controller. Someone
> suggested Samba as a solution which I plan to investigate and I have
found
> a couple of web-sites that offer utilities that do this ... haven't tried
> them yet.

Mike:
> Samba will serve shares. To map them, you want smbfs, which you'll
> need to compile into the kernel, or as a module. You can then
> mount smb filesystems onto your machine. Samba comes with a bunch
> of utilities, one of which (smbclient) can be used as a sort of ftp-
> like program that speaks smb.

I tried this on SuSE at work under the advice of a colleague here (the only
reason I don't use him heavily as Linux support is that he's from Belgium
and has a heavy French accent making it difficult for me to understand him
at times) and, despite being able to connect to the Internet (proving my
NIC as functioning) I couldn't get Samba to function. I think I'll try at
home :-)

> There's one other thing I'd like to ask (and I'm guessing no matter which
> way I ask it some will take umbrage so I might as well go for it) ...
> PLEASE if you plan to suggest something along the lines of getting rid of
> NT/2K then don't ... I really would appreciate helpful advice not
> evangelism :-)

Mike:
> But evangelism's so much more *fun* :-).

Not! My hobbies are computing and debating religious fundamentalists both
of which feature extremely evangelistic individuals ... trying to get a MAC
enthusiast to admit that PC's AND MAC's are both good machines is like
trying to get a theist to concede that atheism isn't immoral!

Mike:
> There's not a lot you can't do, it's the learning how that's tricky...

In other words RTFM ... groan ;-)

Mike:
> Yes. Most DLT drives are just SCSI tapes, and you can build SCSI
> tape support into your kernel easily. You can then use tar or cpio to
write to
> the tape.
> If you're serious about network backups, I'd suggest Amanda. To back
> up and restore data to an MS machine, you'll want Amanda to run smbtar
> for you, though you will have trouble getting coherent backups
> of the registry (everything else should be fine). Many Amanda users find
> it viable to make their NT boxes dual boot. I've heard of setups where
> the NT machine has an rsh server on it, and the Linux box remotely shuts
it
> down, it reboots into a very minimal Linux setup, and Amanda then
> pulls all the filesystems across the network onto tape.

Yes I'm serious ... I have a network at home and so look after all my
wife's documents (and my older kids homework) which is valuable to them,
all my own docs and a shed-load of MP3's and the thought of losing them
gives me the screaming meamy's ... OK, not really but you get the gist.

Mike:
> Personally, I back up two Intel servers, one Intel workstation, and
> a Solaris server nightly with Amanda, the Intel boxes to a 35Gb DLT
> drive, and the Sun to a DDS3 drive. Amanda will operate your tape
> drive in streaming mode - I regularly get 6Mb/s write to tape, and
> it produces less wear on the tape heads. Amanda wants some disk space as
> a "holding area", and if you forget to change the tapes, it'll back up to
this
> space, and you can change them next morning, and simply flush
> the forgotten backup out. I've not seen any other system that does this.

You mean streaming like backing up multiple sources simultaneously? Like
Legato does?

If I tell you my backup takes run to well over 70Gb (though only once a
month) at present you'll probably see why I have a need :-)

Mike:
> So, it runs fairly fast :-). If you use software compression,
> it'll calculate compression percentages for you - I'm using H/W
> compression in this case. You can also throttle use of network bandwidth
> to prevent it from hogging it all.

Yeah ... network bandwidth can be a problem during backups ... at present I
am only using Win 2K backup (which is shyte but all I got) which grinds the
server to a halt.

Anyway peeps ... thanks for all your help :-)

James

James C. Rocks,
Technical Development Consultant
Archway House,
Canary Wharf.
EQUANT
E-Mail:    james.rocks at equant.com (work)
Phone:   07771-767405 (mobile), 0207-5226856 (work)

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