Single Box as PDC/File Server/DHCP Server?

In reading through the various SAMBA HOWTOs, I see a lot of references
to using Samba as a primary domain controller or a file server. I
have a network of about 20 machines in MS Workgroup mode that I would
like to migrate over to a single Linux server.

Is it possible to use a single box as a primary domain controller,
file server, run CUPS, and DHCP server? Are there drawbacks to doing
it, if its possible?

Thanks all.

> In reading through the various SAMBA HOWTOs, I see a lot of references
> to using Samba as a primary domain controller or a file server. I
> have a network of about 20 machines in MS Workgroup mode that I would
> like to migrate over to a single Linux server.
>
> Is it possible to use a single box as a primary domain controller,
> file server, run CUPS, and DHCP server?

Sure. You could also throw in HTTP, FTP, DNS, SMTP, POP3, and just about
anything else you wanted.

> Are there drawbacks to doing
> it, if its possible?

The more you intend to do with the machine, the more hardware you'll
need, but that's a given. : )

steve

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In comp.os.linux.networking (E-Mail Removed) <Mark Miller> suggested:
> In reading through the various SAMBA HOWTOs, I see a lot of references
> to using Samba as a primary domain controller or a file server. I
> have a network of about 20 machines in MS Workgroup mode that I would
> like to migrate over to a single Linux server.

> Is it possible to use a single box as a primary domain controller,
> file server, run CUPS, and DHCP server? Are there drawbacks to doing
> it, if its possible?

Sure, it doesn't even sound as if you would need a large box,
just make sure you have enough RAM and don't run X on the system,
runlevel3 is all you need.

To get even more rid of M$, while reducing administrative work to
a minimum, even the oldest systems (P75 - 32 MB RAM) will work
fine as disk-less clients.

http://www.ltsp.org/

Good luck

--
Michael Heiming (GPG-Key ID: 0xEDD27B94)
mail: echo (E-Mail Removed) | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
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In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
"(E-Mail Removed)" <Mark Miller> writes:

> Is it possible to use a single box as a primary domain controller,
> file server, run CUPS, and DHCP server? Are there drawbacks to doing
> it, if its possible?

Yes, it's possible. The main drawback would be if you had enough clients
that running all these services on one system would put too much of a
strain on it for the hardware you use. In your case, the file server
function is likely to put the heaviest strain on the system; chances are
all the others together won't use as much RAM and CPU time as the file
server, and almost certainly not as much disk space. Thus, if your
system's powerful enough to handle the file server duties with a good
margin, you should be able to add the others without causing problems.

Of course, there are also security implications to running multiple
servers on one system. For file server and PDC functions, these risks are
minor, since both duties are handled by Samba. For the others, though,
it's conceivable that an intruder could leverage a bug in one server into
a more serious break-in using another server. For instance, maybe they
could use a CUPS bug to overwrite Samba's smb.conf file, giving the
intruder full read/write access to the entire system. This risk is pretty
small if you keep the system protected behind a firewall, though.

--
Rod Smith, (E-Mail Removed)
http://www.rodsbooks.com
Author of books on Linux, FreeBSD, and networking

In message <(E-Mail Removed)>,
"(E-Mail Removed)" <Mark Miller> wrote:

> In reading through the various SAMBA HOWTOs, I see a lot of references
> to using Samba as a primary domain controller or a file server. I
> have a network of about 20 machines in MS Workgroup mode that I would
> like to migrate over to a single Linux server.
>
> Is it possible to use a single box as a primary domain controller,
> file server, run CUPS, and DHCP server? Are there drawbacks to doing
> it, if its possible?
>
I've got such a setup here, a machine running DHCP, DDNS, web server,
Samba/PDC, IMAP server and others I've forgotten. However, this is for a
home setup where the number of users is limited and it's also a Via
Mini-ITX box (because it's small, quiet and relatively low power) with
limited performance. However, it works just fine and exists happily with no
keyboard, mouse or monitor, I use ssh to talk to it when it needs a kick.

Dave
--
mail: da (E-Mail Removed) (without the space)
http://www.llondel.org/
So many gadgets, so little time...