Re: [Hampshire] Home server

On Tue, 2009-02-24 at 23:28 +0000, Gordon Scott wrote:
> Hi Guys,
>
> I've just started setting up a home server on a nive little ITX box,
> based upon Ubuntu-server Intrepid Ibex.
>
> But .. the setup might make sense for a server farm, but for a small
> three/four machine network it seems disproportionately complex.
>
> Can anyone give a pointer to a straight-forward basic setup for
> NFS+Samba serving, and UPnP? I'm guessing that mail shouldn't bee too
> bad as I already use postfix.
>
> Ubuntu's setup uses LDAP, which has so far taken we two evenings of
> messing about, to achieve I'm not sure what. They seem to think I need
> it for Samba. I'm not convinced, and it seems grotesquely complex and
> arcane to manage the way they advise.

Hi Gordon,

I feel your pain with LDAP - (any anyone who has to suffer AD too for
that matter). For you setup it does seem a tad overkill - but there is
some logic in it.

The key issue with access to any server is who is allowed access to
what. The old 'who can log in, what can they do' kind of gig. LDAP is
one way of doing it - but for a handful of users it may not be the best
way. Basic *nix accounts and good old fashion permissions may well
suffice. These fit nicely together with Samba and I've been using it for
so long like this I would struggle to remember how I did it!

As for Postfix it has its little quirks but simple alias lists (mashed
through postmap) are more than suitable - or even interfacing it to a
mysql database for a bit more flexibility - avoids the need for LDAP.

LDAP is rather brilliant in terms of speed and it has it's uses. It is a
bit of a miserable monkey to administer - but that probably comes down
largely to my ignorance of it and wanting to avoid it at all costs!

Good luck Captain :-)