Linux fileserver for XP, Vista and mac's

Hello everyone,

I’m not going to say that I’m a linux newbie cause that will become evident when you read my question.

Where to start, well firstly let me summarize the scenario for better understanding:

At the moment in our office we have 3 XP desktops, 1 Vista desktop, 3 iBook notebooks, 3 iMac desktops and 1 Mandriva Server/Desktop. ALL of them currently networked either cabled or wirelessly to a simple ADSL 4 port router that supplies the whole office with internet.

Also at the moment the Mandriva Linux desktop is supplying the office with a Cups server connection to a Samsung printer. (Was a ***** to setup with the variety of operating systems in the office, but its working beautifully now!)

My question or scenario is as follows:

We need the Linux server to become a file backup server on top of being a CUPS print server. It needs to have a fully shared corporate folder that all employees can access as well as have a private folder for each user. (We also would like to incorporate a automated backup system that backs up each users folder and the main corporate folders once a week, but that is a story for another time or maybe it should be kept in mind when it comes to partitioning of the RAID)

What have I done sofar playing with SAMBA:

PARTITIONING:

1) Setup a RAID 1 hardware raid on the server.
2) Made a separate partition for /Home (300gig – I wanted to keep the partition holding the companies info separate from the rest of the machine to help make it easy for upgrading or recovery.)

Partitions: 1st - Primary /boot 200mb
2nd - DATA /home Most of the space (+/- 300Gig)
3rd - Swap / 1.5 x Ram size ( 4 gig )
4th - Root /root Root ( +/- 8 gig)

** The problem I had with separating and using the /home folder for the corporate folder is that it is owned by root and even if I changed the permissions the server reset the permissions to Root every 5 min thus stopping everyone from accessing it.
I solved this problem by changing the /home folder ownership to “nobody” and Walla everyone can access the Corporate folder. (BUT the glitch is everyone, even people I don’t want to have access to it has!!!! Not good)

I KNOW IM WRONG IN THE WAY I SET IT UP AND PARTITIONED IT. IS THERE ANYBODY THAT CAN HELP ME WITH THIS PROBLEM AND SCENARIO!!!????

Any advice or help would be much appreciated!

Thank you
PhatKamfer

Try creating a subdirectory in /HOME to nest you filesharing tree.

ex /HOME/CORPORATE then /HOME/USER1 and so on...

I believe that the permissions should not be reset to root for subdirectories of /HOME, 'cause if they did then each user with a login account would lose their priviledges to their home directory. This way you can give everyone access to their own /HOME/USER folder and still limit acces to the CORPORATE folder...Loy

That is precisely what I did. I partitioned my home folder with 300gig space separately and in home I created a Corporate folder for all to share. I then created all the users and subsequently each user was given a folder in the Home folder.
I then gave everybody permission to access the Corp folder, but because it was created with root for some reason no-one could access it. I then obviously tried to change ownership of the Corp folder to one of the staff members instead of root and for some reason it worked then. but it only worked for say 20min, because for some unknown reason it keeps reseting the ownership of the Corp folder to root and so stopped everyone from accessing it. again. Dont know why. Could it be because home is by defualt owned by root.??

Once again thank you for your reply.

There could be a number of reasons the perms. are being reset....Barring that investigation, try creating another user called "Corporate" and share out the home folder for that user. You aren't having the same problem for all of the other users are you ? Loy.

Hello Loy,
Sorry, but have been thrown in the deep end here with another project and subsequently have not had a chance to work further on my linux problem.

That said, I have got another question for you. Maybe you will know. I have got 12 pc's in a office, 1 linux fileserver, 3 Vista, 4 iMacs, 4 Winxp and 1 wireless ADSL router. 8 connect wireless and 4 cabled.

The question is. How can I or what software can I use to monitor each computers internet bandwidth usage??
I'm planning to add a wireless gateway to the network and make the internet run through the linux server first, but how can I monitor it on the server?? I have attached a mock up of the network.

Thanx
Phatkamfer

To monitor bandwidth, you can use IPTABLES.... look here ->

Linux.com :: Bandwidth monitoring with iptables


To limit bandwidth, check this article... ->

Linux Online - Bandwidth Limiting HOWTO

Hope this helps..Loy.

Thank you Loy. Appreciate the help.

Keep well.