> My boss Just bought us a IBM Netfinity 5100 to replace our aging Novel 
> server.  he wants to upt NT on it but I told him we should install Linux on 
> it. We use it for File and Print serving. I told him we can use Samba to do 
> this and save the company a butt load of money.

We use Netfinity 5500 and 7000 servers with Linux on them.  They work 
great, and have yet to crash in about a year and a half.  (Other than for 
power failures of which we seem to have a lot.)

> I know IBM supports Linux on the netfinity's so it shouldn't be to 
> difficult to install linux on it.     The server would also hold our source 
> code (Visual Basic, C++, Clipper).

> Any input would be helpful.  I am trying to make a good case to my boss.

I have been using a Samba server for file & print services for quite some 
time, in a small-office environment.  It works far better than even an NT 
system would be, as long as you can live without the domain controller 
crap that never really did much for me anyway.

The only problem we've ever had is that one of the jetdirect print 
servers that runs a printer locked up and it froze the rest of the print 
queues because the interface between samba and the printer subsystem 
depends on the "lpq" command returning with a result code relatively 
quickly.  Because lpq queries the remote printer as part of its job, and 
the remote printer was down, the whole thing hung up.  We disabled the 
offending print queue once we figured out what the problem was, until we 
got the JetDirect back online.

> Has anyone already set up a Linux server to do File and Print serving 
> (Using Samba)?  If so how difficult is it to do this?

Easy.  For Windows NT clients, samba is actually quite a bit faster than 
NT server (according to the last benchmarks I remember, anyway), and it's 
slightly slower for Windows 95/98 clients.

> We use Win98, WIn98Se, WinME on thye desktop and a couple Win2k machines 
> and an NT machine for Applicatin testing. We also use the NT machine to do 
> backups with.

I certainly hope you are considering using Windows NT on the desktop, or 
Windows 2000 if you're ready.  I feel sorry for you having all that junk 
on the desktops.

> Also, has anyone set up a dialup/dialin server with linux?  We have 5 
> machines that are used for clients to dialup to us to upload and download 
> stuff from us and they are useless IMHO!  The crash every night (all run 
> win98) (There are some network issues with this too but that is being 
> worked on).  Has anyone used multiport serial cards under Linux successfully?

Yes, yes, yes.  Also pretty easy, once you figure out how it's all going 
to work.  I use a Cyclades-Z serial port card; they have an 8Zo card with 
8 ports and a Ze card that uses up to four 16-port rackmount modules, for 
a maximum of 64 ports.  The Cyclades is natively supported in all Linux 
kernel code; you may have to compile it in if the kernel you are using 
doesn't have it or doesn't have a module for it.

> I know lots of questions, but I am hoping to give enough info to my boss 
> that he might at least take a look at using Linux.

My experience shows that Linux is a far better server platform than NT
just because I haven't even had to mess with any of the servers other than
to change tapes for a matter of years, for some servers.  NT machines
require a lot more administrative time, tender loving care & feeding, etc.
etc. etc., all of which costs $$$.  Also, you never run out of licenses
with Samba on Linux, which is a HUGE source of aggravation for me when it
happens on NT server.  (Happened, since it doesn't happen anymore!!)

--
Jim Ockers (ockers@ockers.net)                     Ask me about Linux!
Contact info: please see http://www.ockers.net/

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