Running both Windows and Linux Servers How???? 1

[StNixon]

Hi all: I may be in a situation where I will soon have to run both Linux and Windows servers.
Windows servers and Desktops because some of our core applications only run on Windows and Microsoft SQL and most of our clients are using Microsoft.
However we can save a lot of money if we dump Exchange and go to Zimbra.
How do I get this to work? How do I get all this to play togeather nicely?
How do I replace the Domian Controller (or do I need to).
I will still need to support 2 or 3 Microsoft servers how do I provide what they need (Active directory, etc.), or do I really need this?

Any reference sources would be VERY useful.

Stance

 

[RhythmAce]

The big boys who run server farms, have their own internal dns servers. As luck would have it, most flavors of linux come with Bind which is a full blown dns server. The actual daemon itself is called "named" so you should have no problem finding info on how to set it up. If you have no experience with dns, it could be a little rough but there is no shortage of help either. Rather than setting port forwarding on your router, you would allow dns to point to the correct server ip address. You would setup apache and IIS as you would if they were lone servers but each would be set to only listen for one address.

 

[2excellence]

OK RhythmAce,


Let us start from the beginning.
Where do I find the instructions - Step by step, so I can take this real slow.

My situation is slightly different.
I am presently running Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 servers. I would like my VERY secured server to be my Linux but all clients so far are Windows XP and 2000.

Are there any follow along instructions on the internet we can use as a guide.

Stance have you found anything as yet?

 

[giganetwireless]

This is a very simple tutorial that helped me, maybe it'll help you out some??

http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_ubuntu_6.06

Regards

 

[2excellence]

Thank you, I will read up these instructions later. It seems very detailed, which is good.

 

[gb0mb]

A linux bind server runs to a "Standard". Window clients will have no problem getting DNS info. I bet most name servers on the internet are running some sort flavor of *ix or BSD.

I would think Zimbra has built in integration for active directory.

If you want to leave your AD in place. Build a Linux server with samba and integrate that into AD. It is easy just Google it. The Linux samba server will pull down group rights and user accounts from AD.

You then can have all ure *ix/BSD systems authenticate via samba to AD.

Gb0mb

........99.9% User Error........

 

[busster]

For linux servers, check out SAMBA. Along with SAMBA, check out Webmin which will make administering your Linux server much easier. Take some time and choose your linux distribution unless that decision has been made for you. There now are some nice distributions just for servers.

 

[StNixon]

Thank You all. As it is things are changing so it looks like I will only be able to do the Zimbra email server setup. I don't think I will need SAMBA as Zimbra is supposed to work directly with Outlook.
SO now I need to pick a distro and get a test box setup.

I like the WEBmin suggsetion, I think Red Hat has a product like SAMBA for AD integration.

Thanks please keep the info coming.