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    Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server

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    • jrcJ
      jrc @scottalanmiller
      last edited by jrc

      @scottalanmiller

      I like the option to use a Web front end, which the pre-builts seem to have. Community support for a specific build would also be pretty critical.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • JaredBuschJ
        JaredBusch @scottalanmiller
        last edited by

        @scottalanmiller said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

        You can turn those things off, of course.

        Do this.

        @scottalanmiller said in [Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server]

        Or just use CentOS, Fedora, openSuse, Ubuntu, etc. as your Samba 4 base OS. Even FreeBSD is an option.

        I would not do that. That requires more advanced knowledge of the pieces needed. Uunless the OP desires to learn those skills, doing things this way would be a waste of time when there are solid products available.

        jrcJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • jrcJ
          jrc @JaredBusch
          last edited by

          @JaredBusch said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

          @scottalanmiller said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

          You can turn those things off, of course.

          Do this.

          @scottalanmiller said in [Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server]

          Or just use CentOS, Fedora, openSuse, Ubuntu, etc. as your Samba 4 base OS. Even FreeBSD is an option.

          I would not do that. That requires more advanced knowledge of the pieces needed. Uunless the OP desires to learn those skills, doing things this way would be a waste of time when there are solid products available.

          If I could maintain it 8 hours a day 7 days a week, then I would totally build it from scratch. Something that could be fun to do.

          However, I can only maintain it from a distance and fleetingly, so having something that is tried and true, offers a solid community and has a time saving front end is what I would need in order to keep them up and running smoothly.

          I'll give NethServer a go, since it seems to check the boxes I need.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • jrcJ
            jrc
            last edited by

            NethServer would run in XenServer without issue, correct?

            DanpD scottalanmillerS 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • DanpD
              Danp @jrc
              last edited by

              @jrc It should be hypervisor agnostic.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • scottalanmillerS
                scottalanmiller @jrc
                last edited by

                @jrc said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

                NethServer would run in XenServer without issue, correct?

                Just an OS. It's CentOS underneath.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • alefattoriniA
                  alefattorini @scottalanmiller
                  last edited by

                  @scottalanmiller said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

                  NethServer is the place to look first. And they are active here in the forum.

                  Thanks for mentioning us, I'm still here. Just mention me or @nethserver
                  All things I just read here about NethServer are correct, it's worth noting that

                  • NethServer is extremely modular, you can add just what you need and nothing more
                  • if you can install CentOS 7 you can install NethServer 7, period 🙂
                  • NethServer avoids learning all those skills and saves your time. You can do almost everything by webui

                  I hope it helps.

                  scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 7
                  • scottalanmillerS
                    scottalanmiller @alefattorini
                    last edited by

                    @alefattorini Thanks for jumping in.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                    • vhinzsanchezV
                      vhinzsanchez @jrc
                      last edited by vhinzsanchez

                      @jrc said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

                      Hmm, the problem with the pre-built ones you mentioned is that they come with a ton of things that won't be needed. There is no reason for it to handle email, or web filtering among other things. AD, DNS and File Server is all they need.
                      I assume the non-needed services can be turned off so that they do not consume any resources?

                      As mentioned by @alefattorini, NethServer is extremely modular. If you just need the DC, there's no need to install/activate firewall, email, VPN, etc. Though you can also install the backup for the just-in-case scenario.

                      For help in installation and/or configuration, head out to the community forum, developers are there as well to lend their helping hand.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Emad RE
                        Emad R @coliver
                        last edited by

                        @coliver

                        Hi,

                        Can Samba4 be used to push .msi packages to AD clients ? like I do on my Windows Group Policy management?

                        coliverC scottalanmillerS 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • coliverC
                          coliver @Emad R
                          last edited by

                          @msff-amman-Itofficer said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

                          @coliver

                          Hi,

                          Can Samba4 be used to push .msi packages to AD clients ? like I do on my Windows Group Policy management?

                          I believe so... You'll still need a Windows workstation with rsat installed to configure the group policies.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • scottalanmillerS
                            scottalanmiller @Emad R
                            last edited by

                            @msff-amman-Itofficer said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

                            @coliver

                            Hi,

                            Can Samba4 be used to push .msi packages to AD clients ? like I do on my Windows Group Policy management?

                            Yes. The only push mechanism is Group Policy and that works just the same.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                            • dbeatoD
                              dbeato
                              last edited by

                              I would not recommend Zentyal however is like the SBS of Linux AD with Email. I would prefer Ubuntu or something of the like as noted above on previous comments.

                              JaredBuschJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • JaredBuschJ
                                JaredBusch @dbeato
                                last edited by

                                @Eltolargo said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

                                I would not recommend Zentyal however is like the SBS of Linux AD with Email. I would prefer Ubuntu or something of the like as noted above on previous comments.

                                That is opposite the stated goal. A single box to handle it all. The advantage to these distributions is that they do not require an all or nothing approach like SBS did. Instead, you turn on only the features you want.

                                dbeatoD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • dbeatoD
                                  dbeato @JaredBusch
                                  last edited by

                                  @JaredBusch said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

                                  gle box to handle it all. The advantage to these distributions is that they do not require an all or nothing approach like SBS did. Instead, you turn on only the features you want.

                                  that's true I am not a fan of having too many roles in one server.

                                  JaredBuschJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • JaredBuschJ
                                    JaredBusch @dbeato
                                    last edited by

                                    @Eltolargo said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

                                    @JaredBusch said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

                                    gle box to handle it all. The advantage to these distributions is that they do not require an all or nothing approach like SBS did. Instead, you turn on only the features you want.

                                    that's true I am not a fan of having too many roles in one server.

                                    AD/DNS/DHCP are all pretty normal to be on a single server.

                                    dbeatoD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • dbeatoD
                                      dbeato @JaredBusch
                                      last edited by

                                      @JaredBusch we agree on that no questions about it. I meant having email, firewall, Ad/DNS, DHCP, file server and VPN in one server that is a lot.

                                      alefattoriniA Reid CooperR 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • alefattoriniA
                                        alefattorini @dbeato
                                        last edited by alefattorini

                                        @Eltolargo said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

                                        @JaredBusch we agree on that no questions about it. I meant having email, firewall, Ad/DNS, DHCP, file server and VPN in one server that is a lot.

                                        @Eltolargo you're not forced to do it. You can install a module on a server and another module on another one sharing the userbase. NethServer can join another remote NethServer using LDAP or AD
                                        Scenario:

                                        • NethServer1: firewall with VPN, Proxy, ecc..
                                        • NethServer2: mailserver, personal cloud and fileserver

                                        NethServer1 joins NethServer2 so you can use NethServer2 users/groups for authenticated proxy or VPN users
                                        That's just a pretty simple example.

                                        dbeatoD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                                        • Reid CooperR
                                          Reid Cooper @dbeato
                                          last edited by

                                          @Eltolargo said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

                                          @JaredBusch we agree on that no questions about it. I meant having email, firewall, Ad/DNS, DHCP, file server and VPN in one server that is a lot.

                                          I agree, too. Keep that stuff separate. Especially if you are dealing with Linux, you don't have a licensing issue making you want to smoosh them all together.

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                          • dbeatoD
                                            dbeato @alefattorini
                                            last edited by

                                            @alefattorini said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

                                            u're not forced to do it. You can install a module on a server and another module on another sharing the userbase. NethServer can join another remote NethServer using LDAP or AD
                                            Scenario:

                                            NethServer1: firewall with VPN, Proxy, ecc..
                                            NethServer2: mailserver, personal cloud and fileserver

                                            NethServer1 joins NethServer2 so you can use NethServer2 users/groups for authenticated proxy or VPN users
                                            That's just a pretty simple example.

                                            Oh yeah, I agree with NethServer, I was just saying about Zentyal. I have used it in the past and not a big fan. I just came too late to the post so sorry 😞

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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