Hi folks, I've been reading the definitive guide to samba3 and Samba3 by example as well as scouring on line for advice. Sometimes however I find different suggested solutions to the same problem, so perhaps the list can give me some help with current strategies for these issues. We are a small office and are currently going through an IT refurb. Previously we've had a mix of laptops and desktops running Win2k or WinXP with roaming profiles on samba 2.2.3 This has worked pretty well, people tend not to change computer but thee roaming profile has been of help in a couple of hard disk crashes. Our new setup is all XP and mainly desktops - about 15 of them with just three laptop users. My thought is to stick with roaming profiles and configure the desktops not to save the profile data - that should let users swap machines if one dies and at the same tme not leave huge chunks of other users' data on the hard disk. Is that a reasonable strategy? Does it make sense to map My Documents to the user's home folder or is there a benefit to bringing their entire profile over the network at the start of the session then copying it back when they log off? Will I see any great benefit from upgrading to Samba3 or should I stick with what works? We have a couple of laptops that I'd like users to be able to check out if they do need to work outside the office. Ideally I'd like them to be able to ge their data onto the laptop and remove it when they finish using it after a few days. Is there a sensible way to do this with samba or is this really a task for a VPN connection? Final issue is Outlook. If I remember correctly, it doesn't like PST files living on a Samba share. What's the best way for me to deal with these big PST files. As I mentioned we're a relatively small office. We're also running gigabit to the desktops and laptops, so I'm not too concerned about shifting pretty large quantities of data if that makes a difference to how we should proceed. Any thoughts or advice would be really appreciated. Russell.
Keep using roaming profiles. With Gigabit ethernet, you shouldn't experience performance problems. However, having My Documents on a network share may cause problems with the laptops. Upgrading to Samba 3 shouldn't cause major problems, but test it first before going live. The laptop issue again sounds like you need roaming profiles. You will also need a VPN for them to be able to log onto your network remotely. Performance may be an issue here. I'd suggest they log onto the network at work first to get an updated local copy of their profile. Re. outlook. I'd suggest that if you have a problem, switch to Thunderbird. Your users will love you for it! Russell Horn wrote:>Hi folks, > >I've been reading the definitive guide to samba3 and Samba3 by example as >well as scouring on line for advice. Sometimes however I find different >suggested solutions to the same problem, so perhaps the list can give me >some help with current strategies for these issues. > >We are a small office and are currently going through an IT refurb. >Previously we've had a mix of laptops and desktops running Win2k or WinXP >with roaming profiles on samba 2.2.3 > >This has worked pretty well, people tend not to change computer but thee >roaming profile has been of help in a couple of hard disk crashes. > >Our new setup is all XP and mainly desktops - about 15 of them with just >three laptop users. My thought is to stick with roaming profiles and >configure the desktops not to save the profile data - that should let users >swap machines if one dies and at the same tme not leave huge chunks of other >users' data on the hard disk. Is that a reasonable strategy? > >Does it make sense to map My Documents to the user's home folder or is there >a benefit to bringing their entire profile over the network at the start of >the session then copying it back when they log off? > >Will I see any great benefit from upgrading to Samba3 or should I stick with >what works? > >We have a couple of laptops that I'd like users to be able to check out if >they do need to work outside the office. Ideally I'd like them to be able to >ge their data onto the laptop and remove it when they finish using it after >a few days. Is there a sensible way to do this with samba or is this really >a task for a VPN connection? > >Final issue is Outlook. If I remember correctly, it doesn't like PST files >living on a Samba share. What's the best way for me to deal with these big >PST files. > >As I mentioned we're a relatively small office. We're also running gigabit >to the desktops and laptops, so I'm not too concerned about shifting pretty >large quantities of data if that makes a difference to how we should >proceed. > >Any thoughts or advice would be really appreciated. > >Russell. > >
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 Russel, While I can't really say I'm the voice of experience, I've got a 20-computer, 15-user network with samba.... A few points that I used, and hopefully someone else will set us both straight. Plus we're using Samba 3.x, so YMMV. 1) PST Files. When setting up each new user's Outlook, I move the PST file into Application Data. It's copied over with the profile on login, and back to the samba server on logout. While it's a load on the network during logins, at least Outlook isn't manipulating large PST files over the network all day. 2) My Documents. For each computer (We're using W2K) I just did the following: Join domain. Login as user for first time. W2K auto-created a roaming profile on \\server\username\profile Make \\server\username\MyDocuments Re-map My Docs to the folder on the server Setup outlook, etc. This way other users could access My Documents without digging through the profiles. Plus, keeping them on the server proper meant that if someone forgot to log off for the evening, at least their documents would be backed up and current. As for laptops, still looking for a good solution there. The one laptop I have setup (out of three) uses roaming profiles and offline files for the user's home directory. This is rather kludgy, though, but I don't really know of any way to have someone log onto the domain with a local profile. (Plus she uses regular workstations, so getting info synced between the server and the laptop would be tricky.) samba-request@lists.samba.org wrote:> 8. Best practice in small office (Russell Horn)Hi folks, I've been reading the definitive guide to samba3 and Samba3 by example as well as scouring on line for advice. Sometimes however I find different suggested solutions to the same problem, so perhaps the list can give me some help with current strategies for these issues. We are a small office and are currently going through an IT refurb. Previously we've had a mix of laptops and desktops running Win2k or WinXP with roaming profiles on samba 2.2.3 This has worked pretty well, people tend not to change computer but thee roaming profile has been of help in a couple of hard disk crashes. Our new setup is all XP and mainly desktops - about 15 of them with just three laptop users. My thought is to stick with roaming profiles and configure the desktops not to save the profile data - that should let users swap machines if one dies and at the same tme not leave huge chunks of other users' data on the hard disk. Is that a reasonable strategy? Does it make sense to map My Documents to the user's home folder or is there a benefit to bringing their entire profile over the network at the start of the session then copying it back when they log off? Will I see any great benefit from upgrading to Samba3 or should I stick with what works? We have a couple of laptops that I'd like users to be able to check out if they do need to work outside the office. Ideally I'd like them to be able to ge their data onto the laptop and remove it when they finish using it after a few days. Is there a sensible way to do this with samba or is this really a task for a VPN connection? Final issue is Outlook. If I remember correctly, it doesn't like PST files living on a Samba share. What's the best way for me to deal with these big PST files. As I mentioned we're a relatively small office. We're also running gigabit to the desktops and laptops, so I'm not too concerned about shifting pretty large quantities of data if that makes a difference to how we should proceed. Any thoughts or advice would be really appreciated. Russell. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iQEVAwUBQzqd2PJjqPbXBLJ6AQjKLQf/eTi8iZKw7CjoTZC99hrt05SfnbpdMdNo 6fwndfJ8oM9U3YYZDP2IcldG7XTZhlL3PLnVe/0JlzlTMnoKS38vDf1Wtm4+dHO2 WBJgahvR9dcWstaEADEeZkwfxN7OozmLnd9eh0nGcH9hJKpkudaHRIAcBRlw6UVS fuZpqPxAkJid5BpdTeQZRVdTm6WEyGJgftjTZOExasYTaDyc5JYFk32t6NtfGeWq kB5jv2n5Y0990SO/tEUp1UNZkSh1JUoVyS4mhC7V+IGu4/q4jjD74NDzXHFJX2FE 7BXbklrUoY6/tnjozQyyrUvwy+eKSl9HODbKFqpBTqWZ9Ng5Rd5bjw==cTQT -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----