[Novalug] Samba / Old Ubuntu installation

Tue Apr 20 15:49:00 EDT 2010

These are good ideas.  I am a firm believer in Virtual Servers, but am
unfortunately stuck with my current situation.

Question for you both.  This client has over 600  gigs of data that need to
be accessible from this server.  I can't imagine creating a virtual server
this large.  Is there a better way to do it?

Bob

On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 1:21 PM, Bryan J. Smith <b.j.smith at ieee.org> wrote:

> Couple of things ...
>
> 1) I agree on the P2V approach
>
> Make your OS hardware-agnostic and virtualization is the way to do this.
> Ubuntu supports KVM/libvirt, so that's a built-in option.  Alternatively,
> consider
> the funds for VMware vSphere (fka ESX and related products) or, if you want
> to forgo management tools, just the free/low cost VMware Server.
>
> 2) Your LDAP server(s) do _not_ need to be your Samba server(s).  ;)
>
> This isn't the pyramid stack of Windows Networking where everything must
> be inter-related and cannot be changed (and things "just break" sometimes
> as a result).  You can install a separate LDAP server.  You also don't need
> to do this today.  You can convert your users to LDAP at some, future date.
>
> One project I really suggest you consider is FreeIPA, which addresses the
> entire stack of DNS, Kerberos, LDAP (including use of NTUSER schema
> instead of IETF standards) when you're dealing with Windows and Windows
> client assumptions.
>  http://www.freeipa.org
>
> Future considerations ...
>
> A) Never install an Ubuntu release for server duties other than LTS
>
> I've seen some really bad examples of companies hose themselves
> because they went with a non-LTS release.  It really leaves a bad, and
> quite unwarranted, taste for Ubuntu when people choose a non-LTS
> release.  Storage support in Ubuntu has bitten some of my customers
> at times as well, but I'm going to be biased there.
>
> B) 3ware for hardware RAID
>
> I know everyone likes to buy Tier-1 OEM and virtually all of them ship
> their own hardware RAID cards, but consider buying one without a
> hardware RAID card (leave the drives "dumb") and throwing in a 3Ware
> PCI-X or PCIe card (as appropriate) instead.  Buy two if you really want
> a backup.  They not only work out-of-the-box with every Linux distro, but
> the firmware is included in the GPL 3w-9xxx driver and auto-updates the
> card (removing that separate, manual step of verifying firmware-driver
> compatibility and manual upgrades of the firmware itself).
>  http://www.3ware.com
>
> ________________________________
> From: Brander Snaxe <brandon20va at yahoo.com>
>
> If time is short and all you really want to do is upgrade the server
> hardware, then may I suggest installing a Hypervisor on the new server and
> then doing a P2V conversion?
>
> Since I am a vmware guy, I suggest loading ESXi onto the new server and
> then using VMWare Converter Standalone to get Ubuntu 5.05 onto the new
> hardware. You could then mess around with upgrading on the side or just
> forget it all together.
>
> I'm sure there are other VM solutions such as Xen or even a true solution
> to your original goal (converting OS and migrating users on physical
> hardware), but this is all I can think of right now based on a short time to
> implement and my experience.
>
> --Brandon
>
> On Wed, 4/14/10, LinuxBodger <linuxbodger at gmail.com> wrote:
> >Good evening folks,
> >
> >>I have an issue I hope I can get some assistance with solving.
> >
> >>I have a client running a Samba server on Ubuntu 5.10.  The server was
> >not upgraded to 6.06 as there were issues with the megaraid controller
> >driver that weren't solved until later versions.  My client has now
> >purchased a new DELL server with the Perc 6/i RAID card.  I have been
> >asked to replace the old server with the new.
> >
> >>The current samba installation uses tdbsam and NOT LDAP so I don't
> believe I can set the new machine up as a BDC to replicate.
> >
> >>My first thought was to clone the original server to the new server and
> >then do an in-place upgrade of the OS.  That would eliminate the issues
> >with machine accounts and keep me from having to touch each desktop
> >machine to reconnect to the domain.  Unfortunately, teh cloned
> >installation does not see the current RAID array, so I am unable to get
> >it to boot.  If anyone can tell me how to pass on a controller driver
> >to the kernel to boot, I would appreciate it.
> >
> >>My second attempt to was to use a backup server (identical to the
> >original) and do an in-place OS upgrade prior to recloning and
> >restoring to the new server.  Unfortunately, during the upgrade process
> >I discovered that 6.06 won't recognize my network card.  This of course
> >prevents further upgrades until a new card is installed and tested.  I
> >still don't know if this will work in the end.
> >
> >>My third idea is to do a full LTS installation on the new server and
> >move/copy the machine accounts from the old machine to the new
> >machine.  Is this even possible?
> >
> >>I have spent an awful lot of time (hours and hours) working on this and
> >not getting anywhere.  I am getting really tired of recloning and
> >rebooting machines and waiting for the arrays to come up etc.  Any
> >thoughts and assistance would be appreciated!
> >
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