A whole lot of help with a new big NAS

[White Cuban]

im moving up the ranks in my school, even though im still actually studying here, i've gotten some respect getting some servers up and running, now this is the biggest thing yet.

my school is starting a project, and im helping the tech dudes. we have a big budget, and if we need things, stuff. recommend.

the project will mainly start in summer vication, since all computers in school are running novell 5, the techs want out, its a big mess. they're throwing the novell server, and reformatting 500 computers, sucks for them eh?.

the novell server was responsible on a file storage, which was tunneled through a modem, to a firewall, to a bunch of hoops and switches to a network in school responsible of most computers, which have novell client on them, the students can log in, and have folders of their own.

the system in last 3 years, became an hell for everyone, they're getting rid of it.

now i need some VERY STABLE this is extremely important, i cant stress this part out enough, if this becomes unavailble, this means many teachers woulden't be able to do anything.

easy to learn and handle and simple.

it will need to jump through a bunch of hoops and serve files to computers that 95% of them are running XP.

The problem is, we need some kind of premission system's, and something simple, so teachers could do some login or something and have a new drive mounted, or something, for storage, up until now novell served everyone, students would get users and everything, they're getting rid of it, and we need space just for teachers and stuff.

ill try to draw this for you

ok, over heres the internet, internet goes into a modem, which makes everything inside the school have an internal ip of 192.168.* (inside the network)

this goes to a firewall, which splits into a network called DMZ, and Users.

DMZ is where most computers sit, its the server's area, they have port 80,22, and more open.

i need a server, from DMZ, to reach the users through the firewall, and be able to serve files, with a basic use.

like them having to open a file, and a drive would be mounted.

i want to keep FTP off the table now, many teachers barely know how to use computers, but heavily depend on them, FTP would make this mess a hell.

and make it simple for the techs to manage. to delete, expand and more features to adjust the "users" in this software/whatever enviorment.

so, im in need for a OS, and a Software mainly.

i know this is something which requires heavy jobs, theres over 5 months to plan this, but we need a starting point, help me here. if i manage to help the school lead this project, you have no IDEA what this means for me in the school, i would get a godlike position among everyone :p

[kyro]

congrats on getting up in ranks :) you will do lots of progress.

if you still on novell info, try to search at novell wiki's like http://developer.novell.com/wiki/index.php/Developer_Home

and i suggest you take a look at FreeNAS http://www.freenas.org/

http://developer.novell.com/wiki/index.php...Install_FreeNAS

[White Cuban]

novell is being kicked out of the door.

edit: okay i looked at it bit, i didn't get what its about, a system based on freebsd? also, looks a bit puzzling. it seems like freebsd with a skirt, i would prefer having a naked OS and dressing it up instead of getting something extremely handicapped incase of.

Edited January 6, 2009 by Matan Mates

[kyro]

ya, basically if you take off the skirt you see freebsd shedevil :p

http://www.howtoforge.com/network_attached...ge_with_freenas , you cant go much wrong, you can search for other options too but i have tried freenas (but some 2-3 years ago and things might have changed) and its very good for NAS option.

[White Cuban]

i saw that, now, okay, say i install that and everything, can anyone here help me brain storm how can i make the computers on start up run a batch script (yeah, i know how to make them run the actual script, just how to make it i don't know)

to make it use something like SCP to mount it after confirmation. something like this

teacher comes to a computer, on the desktop he has a link he knows will prompt him for user and password, then it automatically mounts it on my computer, after he validates. no, it cant be the SCP, it needs to be just enter password and user, and automatically mount their folder, how do i do that with the freenas + SCP, i saw the last chapter, which gave me this idea, but i need them to use some script which asks for user and password then mounts it, how do i do this. brainstorm folks.

[p858snake]

You need/should be running a proper server in the school that will handle all the user accounts/permissions ect and have the NAS separate and have it use the permissions based on the user accounts and their groups, the server would aslo be able to have the client run scripts on login ect as well. You need something as the backbone, not just a NAS.

I would have all the computers running in the network area and then have the internet come into firewall and that directly into the server to share it out, which sorts out those problems as well.

[White Cuban]

how do i do that? create 2 nodes that one handles premissions and one handles the users prems

[p858snake]

It all depends what operating system your going to be running for your server

[farmeunit]

On a side note: Novell is actually very stable. We are running a Novell network, but it is 6.5. You can do a lot of things with Novell and Zenworks. It's a beautiful thing. You can image all your machines, set group policies, etc.

On-topic. You should do what Peachey said and have your NAS separate from your main server which will handle the authentication, etc.

Here is a quick link regarding OpenLDAP http://www.linux.com/feature/114074

[Vlad]

If you're going to be running a network with 500 windows clients, I'd STRONGLY recommend buying AT LEAST THREE machines with Windows Server 2003. All three will be your domain domain controllers - one as a primary, one as a backup, and the third as a tertiary backup which you can use to test things like updates or important driver/bios updates. They'll handle domain policy, accounting, all that jazz, but NOT act as fileservers. Put everything Windows behind the firewall. You might even consider denying your Windows servers access to the internet completely (yes, you'd need to install updates by hand then).

If you really have a big budget, buy a REAL NAS solution and don't waste your time with something like FreeNAS (not that FreeNAS isn't a good hobbyist project, but if you're REALLY serious you'll want enterprise level support to cover your ass). You're going to have to do the leg work yourself and search around for NAS solutions. Get on the phone and call their reps. I suggest buying at least two of whatever you decide on so that you can hot mirror/create snapshots/have a failover/etc.

If you weren't dealing with 500 windows clients, I might suggest you spend time learning openldap, spend time learning kerberos, spend time learning samba, spend time learning freeNAS, etc, etc, but quite frankly, if you're under time constrainsts and aren't already an *expert* in those, it would be naive to think you can just jump in and have everything under control and I'd be a jerk for telling you to. I realize Linux and FreeBSD are tempting because they're free and for some peripheray services (such as gateways or NON-CRITICAL, small fileservers) they are good options. I realize the communtiy support /can/ be great. But on Sunday night when the **** hits the fan and your NAS is down, you're going to want to be able to call out a tech support rep to your site and have them fix it.

What most young system admins, especially those raised on Linux and BSD, don't realize is that management often wants a plan of action and/or someone to hold accountable. I should know, I went through that teething process. If your FreeNAS box hiccups for whatever reason, you DO NOT want your plan of action to read "post on the FreeNAS forums". That will make you look bad AND they'll hold you accountable for it. At least if you purchase a support contract, you can say "the NAS went down, Dell was contacted, a rep arrived an hour later and resolved the problem two hours after that."

But by all means, do start learning Linux, get familiar with all the tools and protocols. Get FreeNAS and play with it. Phase OSS in when you can and in a manner you can support. Test, test, and re-test EVERYTHING. Document EVERYTHING. If you're managing others, tell them that their tasks aren't done until they're documented. Getting a LAMP server with a wiki on it is a great way to get your hands dirty with Linux administration.

To all the people who are inevitably going to argue with me: if he were good enough to implement OSS in the manner required he sure as heck wouldn't need to post here asking how to do it.

[StevoIBM]

im moving up the ranks in my school, even though im still actually studying here, i've gotten some respect getting some servers up and running, now this is the biggest thing yet.

my school is starting a project, and im helping the tech dudes. we have a big budget, and if we need things, stuff. recommend.

the project will mainly start in summer vication, since all computers in school are running novell 5, the techs want out, its a big mess. they're throwing the novell server, and reformatting 500 computers, sucks for them eh?.

the novell server was responsible on a file storage, which was tunneled through a modem, to a firewall, to a bunch of hoops and switches to a network in school responsible of most computers, which have novell client on them, the students can log in, and have folders of their own.

the system in last 3 years, became an hell for everyone, they're getting rid of it.

now i need some VERY STABLE this is extremely important, i cant stress this part out enough, if this becomes unavailble, this means many teachers woulden't be able to do anything.

easy to learn and handle and simple.

it will need to jump through a bunch of hoops and serve files to computers that 95% of them are running XP.

The problem is, we need some kind of premission system's, and something simple, so teachers could do some login or something and have a new drive mounted, or something, for storage, up until now novell served everyone, students would get users and everything, they're getting rid of it, and we need space just for teachers and stuff.

ill try to draw this for you

ok, over heres the internet, internet goes into a modem, which makes everything inside the school have an internal ip of 192.168.* (inside the network)

this goes to a firewall, which splits into a network called DMZ, and Users.

DMZ is where most computers sit, its the server's area, they have port 80,22, and more open.

i need a server, from DMZ, to reach the users through the firewall, and be able to serve files, with a basic use.

like them having to open a file, and a drive would be mounted.

i want to keep FTP off the table now, many teachers barely know how to use computers, but heavily depend on them, FTP would make this mess a hell.

and make it simple for the techs to manage. to delete, expand and more features to adjust the "users" in this software/whatever enviorment.

so, im in need for a OS, and a Software mainly.

i know this is something which requires heavy jobs, theres over 5 months to plan this, but we need a starting point, help me here. if i manage to help the school lead this project, you have no IDEA what this means for me in the school, i would get a godlike position among everyone :p

Hi Matan,

My name is Steve and I work IBM. We do a lot of projects such as yours and I can help with some advice and technical information on the hardware and software you may be using. It looks to me you are just in the planning stages of this project at this time. I can provide some basic information for you right now about some of our product lines you may be interested in. We offer NAS products and also for monitoring and permissions we have software that can do that for you.

Here is some information on our NAS units:

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/storage/netw...3000/appliance/

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/common/ssi/pm/...SD03028USEN.PDF

Here is some info on our monitoring software named Tivoli:

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/tivoli/solutions/security/

We do not have our own OS unless you go into our power systems and mainframes. But anything anyone has recommended would be able to work with what I have suggested for the storage and security in regards to permissions and user management.

I hope this info helps and if you have any questions feel free to private message me or send me an email and I will do what I can to answer you're questions.

Cheers,

Steven

[Reb0ot]

Openfiler is a good alternative to FreeNAS just in case you are scared of using FreeNAS

Otherwise they can use Windows Unified Storage Server 2003

[offroadaaron]

Do you have a framed route for your net connection?

if you do, then:

I would have a one-to-one NAT to the server, that means that you'll have a local IP address but anything coming from the external IP address will go to that local IP address.

Think of it like an extra IP address on your router but forwarded to a local IP address.

Sorry as for the NAS I have no idea, Sorry!

[reap3r]

Be very careful what advice you take from this thread. Do as much research as possible. This is a dangerous thread.

Regards,

reap3r