Hi Im about to replace an old win2000 server at work. This servers function is to share files to our workers here in Norway and the US. Im interested in using linux as a fileserver. What would I need to set up a secure fileserver for our local users here in Norway, and our people abroad? I tried to install a samba fileserver, for testing purposes, but im not sure about how secure it would be in a production environment, with lots of users, and sensitive data. Any input and links to examples would be greatly appreciated.
RE: file server I only know of 2 other possibilities. 1) FTP server 2) Groupware server for FTP you can browse through the tutorials here: http://www.howtoforge.com/howtos/ftp I use a groupware server called "E-groupware" in the Ubuntu distro. It is available for other distros & Windows. ( I just prefer Ubuntu ) E-groupware allows my users to check their e-mail, share files, bookmarks, contacts, documents, calendars, and more depending on the plugins you choose. It uses a database for all information. You can also choose different methods of verifying logins. The downside is it is web-based. Information on E-groupware with a working demo can be found here: http://www.egroupware.org/
Thankyou for your answer. I can`t use an ftp fileserver, since it has to be userfriendly, and secure. Your groupware suggestion is interesting, but im not sure if it is the way to go in this case. I`ll look further into it, but my main goal is to create a fileserver that windows desktop users can mount from any location with internet. And the connection has to be secure.
Thanks for the suggestion. I was thinking somewhat in the same direction. What is the best samba administration program these days?
If your are trying to keep it simple you might check swat - Samba Web Administration Tool. It is in most Linux repositories.
I believe it is more or less a firewall. I also ran across another possible solution for securing samba and still having the ability to keep it simple. The program is called stunnel. I am still researching it myself, but here is the link: http://www.stunnel.org/examples/smb_grant.html
I think I`ll try out ebox this monday. It has several functions that im interested in testing out. And it looks to be very userfriendly. But your link also looks useful. I might implement something like that on a smaller scale. Thanks for your input.
I think I found something that meets all your needs. It has the GUI for administration, VPN, fileserver, etc... Falko's Guide: http://www.howtoforge.com/fileserver_with_sme_server7.1 SME wiki: http://wiki.contribs.org/Main_Page
Thankyou for your input. I read falkos sme guide a while ago - but im leaning more to mandriva or ebox at the moment. For more userfriendly gui`s, and more impressive features. I also like the fact that the madriva system can be installed on a native debian etch, and ebox is made for debian. And Debian is the linux distro i`ve had best experience with.
Today I installed ebox. The documentation was a bit thin, but the web proxy and fileserver seems to work great. However, I have a couple of questions that might lean more to samba/ldap than ebox itself. I successfully created groups, and user that were member of the groups had access to the folders. My question is; is there an easy way to sync the ldap directory to another server easily? Or perhaps a NT/AD server? Im not sure if I want to use ebox as a domain controller. I was impressed with how easy it worked, but the poor documentation, and at times - slow response is something I would like to avoid. But as a simple fileserver and webproxy, it looks great.
