[HLUG] Content filtering server, email server, domain controller

[Paul Stenning]

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?

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!

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.

File sharing:  That's easy enough - Samba.  It needs to link into the 
domain controller stuff though so it follows password changes.

Intranet and development web server:  Easy, Apache with PHP and MySQL.

Managing the whole thing:  Probably Webmin.  Remote access to this would 
be very useful but that will probably be handled by VPN routers.

Eset anti-virus management:  That will have to be done with Windows in 
vmware (or virtualbox if I can get it to work).

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.

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.

Thanks!

-- 

Best regards,
Paul Stenning

www.vintage-radio.com
www.vintage-radio.net
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www.sp-tech.co.uk