[Lilug] Multi-Site Suggestions

[Chris Knadle]

On Sunday 08 February 2009, Michael Lee wrote:
> I have a situation where I have users in several different
> locations. Currently they are all VPN'ed to the main office so they
> can access an Oracle Server using Red Hat that is central to their
> operation.  I really don't have access to the Oracle Server and
> really don't want to touch it if I can help it.
> All the desktops are those "other OS's"
>
> My problem is that I have to get all these desktops on some
> shared/private storage directories with roaming profiles, login
> scripts and central authentication with mixed clients ( Windows,
> Mac OS ).
>
> I have been tossing around a single server accessible via the VPN
> vs. multiple servers at each location that sync user directories,
> shared folders and maybe ldap tables, I'd love to run Postfix,
> Samba, Squid, and all the other linux goodies.  I was even thinking
> of a private IRC so persons in the separate offices can "chat via
> the channel"
>
> I figured I'd toss it up to the group for ideas.
>
> So far I've looked into Debian, Ubuntu, ClarkConnect, SLES, back to
> Debian. I'm about to load up a server and go back to Ubuntu again
> so I can take a look at ebox as a management tool.
>
> Any suggestions?

You'll most likely be needing an LDAP directory, and if you have 
multiple sites to replicate LDAP data, then you'll most likely want 
multi-master replication.  Unfortuantely this is one important 
feature that OpenLDAP (slapd) does not support.  You can find ways of 
living without the feature, but it's a convenient thing if you have 
other administrators at the locations where LDAP servers will be 
deployed that you'd like to allow to add or change entries for their 
sub-organization and have the changes propagate.  There are several 
choices for directory servers that support multi-master replication, 
many of which are commercial and require per-seat licensing.  One of 
the ones that's free is Red Hat Directory Server.  Since you've 
expressed an interest in running Debian, I'll just pass along the 
following link, which explains how to install RHDS on Debian Stable.

      http://directory.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Howto:DebianEtch

   -- Chris

-- 

Chris Knadle
Chris.Knadle at coredump.us