samba server or samba with LDAP..

Hi,

I have to setup a server with following requirements:

1. The server is based in US and the clients are in India
2. It should act as a file server and a backup server(RAID 5 used)
a. File server requirements
. Should be able to logon users
. Should restrict the users to a specific directory
. Simultaneous access by minimum 15 users.
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. Is it possible to have a remote samba server and clients in other place?
. Simultaneous access?
. My main concern is whether samba configuration is enough or i need to configure samba with LDAP.
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. Is it possible to have a remote samba server and clients in other place?
Yes, but you need to secure the connection by something like a WAN link (e.g. VPN over Internet (see IPSEC VPN (freeswan) or SSL VPN (openvpn)). This is mandatory as CIFS is not secure.

. Simultaneous access?
No problem

. My main concern is whether samba configuration is enough or i need to configure samba with LDAP.
Both can work. samba alone can be managed easily till 50 - 100 users.


BUT
CIFS is NOT a good protocol to work over long distance connection : it's a chaty protocol and latency will make it very slow to use. There is WAN optimisation appliance that can correct that it's very expensive.