File and Print Servers
| The material on this page was prepared using Sarge or Etch configured using our Installation and Packages pages. If you did not use our pages to set up your system, what you encounter on your system may be different than what is given here. |
Linux servers can be used in many different roles on a LAN. File and print servers are the most common. And as you'll see below, the file and print server rolls can be customized depending on the types of client workstations the servers must support. You'll also see how you can automate things so that someone gets paged or e-mailed in the event some network device or server starts having problems.
Your Debian system can act as a Linux LAN server in one of two possible file and print server configurations. The first is as a Linux/UNIX server which can offer file serving via NFS (Network File System) and printer serving via the lpd (Line Printer Daemon) service. While this configuration is primarily used when you have Linux/UNIX systems as workstations, most other operating systems can support NFS with 3rd-party tools as well.
The other configuration uses Samba which is a Linux/UNIX server application that makes a Linux or UNIX server appear as a Windows NT server to Windows clients. It can even serve as a domain controller. Samba is so comprehensive you can have what, for all intents and purposes, appears to be a totally-Windows network without having a single Windows server. Given the cost of Windows server software and the per-seat licensing costs associated with having Windows servers, Samba can save you a lot of money.
Note: Samba 3.0 incorporates many new features for interoperability with Windows 2000/2003 servers and Active Directory. You'll even be able to join your Linux database, mail, etc. servers to Active Directory for seamless authentication. The good news is that Sarge (3.1) includes Samba 3.07.
To put it plainly, NFS and Samba are a lot alike from a functionality point of view. Which one you use just depends on which OS will be running on the workstations that will be accessing the server. In addition, there's no reason you can't set up both on the same server to support both types of clients if you have that type of networking environment. We'll cover setting up both on this page, starting with straight Linux/UNIX server.
Back on the Networking page we showed you how to set up a hosts file on each system so the other systems on your LAN could be accessed by name. Back on the DNS page we showed you how to set up a DNS server for a LAN (that also resolved Internet host/domain names) so you wouldn't have to manually maintain a hosts file on each system. As you will see, the ability to reference systems by name is required when setting up LAN servers.
| Setting Up A Linux File Server |
http://www.aboutdebian.com/lan.htm
Don
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