Real World Linux Consultants - What are typical network solutions? 1

[amdaxiom]

Can any Linux Computer Consultants give some real world examples of the exact use of Linux in a typical business environment? Unfortunately I have no experience here but need to know where to start. I want to test out a good system for a company and just want to know if it is feasible or not.

1. Word and Excel support - unfortunately this is required to operate any normal business that deals with the less sophisticated windows world
2. Centrally managed Anti-virus solution - set all of your virus policies on the servers and have those automatically distribute to your 500 clients. Know the exact virus definitions date on any one of those 500 clients just by looking at the server. Automatic deployment of your AV solution to your Linux desktops in your organization.
3. Centrally managed desktop management system - need something for inventory management (like what kind of hardware/software is currently installed in the environment and auto-notification if something changes on anyone of your 500 desktops). Also something to automatically deploy software to your 500 desktops. And some way of setting up policies to restrict access to specific features of the OS that you don't want certain people to have while allowing others more control as sees fit.
4. Corporate email server and groupware server - please, no smtp/pop3 only servers. Must include centrally managed address books (not just a list of all users in your organization but broken down into their departments based on information entered while creating the users). Also critical to be able to share out your email, calendar, or contacts with specific users that you want. And of course, all of this needs to be accessible not just from your desktop but anywhere on the web.
5. Central file storage/security - be able to store documents on a central server. Security granular enough to give access at a user / group level if necessary.
6. Print Server - must support automatic deployment of network printers to desktops.
7. Industry specific applications - this may be the only problem but some industries rely on certain programs (like my contracting clients all user Autocad) but I assume that Windows Emulators can take care of these specifics if a Linux equivalent is not available.

Just curious, I don't need to know the exact specifics but the names are definitely needed and I can look up the info myself.

Harry

 

[thedaver]

Well, Harry, sounds like you've got the foundation for a good book. I'll speed through some answers to your Q#'s...

1) See OpenOffice.org
2) ClamAV picks up its AV signatures from external server run by project. I would think you can run a central server like they do and tell the desktops to pull from your local server.
3a) (Central Management) This hasn't generally been something I've seen a lot of call for and I'm not sure if there's something like an Altiris or MS SMS equivalent in linux.
3b) (Centralized deployment) You can do this with scripts that can be run by each desktop during the night or at boot up. You'd have a central script and patches on a server.
4) This hasn't been something that I've been impressed with... There are many groupware solutions available on freshmeat.net (search groupware). I think Suse (linux distro) does provide an MS Exchange-like solution for a cost - never worked with it.
5) See the Samba project at Samba.org. Also, NFS is a networked file system that might fit the bill.
6) Through Samba you can share printers and you can run the 'lpr' service on a server connected to one or more printers and users can print via the network. I haven't a clue what you're asking for with your thought "must support automatic deployment of network printers to desktops". I'm having trouble visualizing what you're asking for on this...
7) Again, freshmeat.net and sf.net have tons of software for all sorts of applications, many of which were inspired by "famous" Windows apps. And, yes, you can probably get a Windwos emulator to provide some specific support.

You should also take a look at the various linux terminal services and virtual desktop solutions available. You may find that an environment that needs to be as tightly controlled as your hypothetical above might actually be better served with lots of thin-client desktops that run virtual desktops from a few centralized servers that leverage centralized storage.







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[amdaxiom]

Thanks a lot theDaver for your answer theDaver,

2) I suppose that AV is not as important on Linux anyways as most viruses target Windows desktops so this is really not a concern but clamAV seems popular.
3) I see several automatic installation tools out there including YUM, apt-get. Looks like there are things available. Not sure how easy it is to deploy something to hundreds of computers in your network but I imagine it can all be scripted as you should be able to SSH into any box and run any command that you want.
4) Someone else recommended a product TUTOS for groupware, looks like it is something that has those qualities that many large organizations like. Hence the popularity of Notes and Exchange.
I think all the file-sharing and print server capabilities are there built into most distro's, just have to figure out exactly how to use them.
6) In terms of automatic deployment of printers, I would rather not visit 500 desktops to install various printers, I would rather script it out from a central location once to get them all installed. Since I come from a Windows model my idea of this may be different than what is possible. Maybe with Linux it is simpler to manage, maybe you can just assign a printer to a group of printers and then anyone that logs into that computer in the organization automatically gets the printer for that computer. Not sure though how printer management works.

Thanks again for your response,

Harry