Question

An organization has decided to move from a windows server environment to a Linux Server Environment. The organization requires to offer email, web, fileshare, printing services to its users which are predominantly using MAc OS and windows clients. These services would be provisioned from the newly created Linux server.

a) Outline some of the issues the system administrator needs to consider when designing the solution?

b) How would you resolve the issues ?

c) What tools would you use in linux offer the functionality described above ?

Answer 1

a) Issues to consider:

• Most of the issues are to be experienced with hardware. There are different types of drivers required in both operating systems.
• There are also many Windows applications, especially from different vendors that are not compatible on Linux.
• Unlike Windows the apps can't be found in a store but have to be downloaded from storage servers.

b) Main steps to resolve the issues:

• Test DVD or USB live memory device to see if hardware support is offered by Linux for certain applications.
• It is better to use open source apps that offer the same functionality if the previous apps on Windows are not compatible on Linux.
• All the required repositories for apps to be installed should be downloaded first manually.

c) Tools to use in Linux for the given functionality:

• Linux offers many apps under LGPL. There are different email clients offered by Linux that can be used on the desktop and opened whenever required. For example, Geary is such a service.
• For web, one can use Opera, Chromium, or GNOME web on Linux.
• For fileshare features, one can go for OwnCloud which is a dropbox for Linux users. GlusterFS is another service similar to dropbox.
• Linux offers printing services via Line Printer Daemon. This is a service that can be easily accessed on the network by different users.