# free BSD to replace windows Xp server



## dd1313 (Jan 8, 2010)

Hi Guys..

We have 9 windows stations on XP and also Xp on the server to do file sharing.Now the boss wants a domain environment and 
has asked me to look at FreeBsd.

So what we want is filesharing, like word .xls ,pdf docs etc
Also we want to restrict what the user workstations can do.We want
to their profiles on the server, so when they login in 
all profile information like the desktop, my documents
loads.If one PC for some reason gives in ,they can login on another and continue working.

I think this is called thin client.

So I am asking can I use FreeBsd on the server for this

Thanks
Dev


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## SirDice (Jan 8, 2010)

dd1313 said:
			
		

> I think this is called thin client.


Not really. A thin client is a machine that has little to no functionality of it's own. Applications, data and sometimes even the OS get loaded off a server. What you want, in the Windows world, is called roaming profiles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roaming_user_profile

Anyway, as for your question, yes, freebsd can be used for that. You wouldn't need much more then the base OS and net/samba33.


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## roddierod (Jan 8, 2010)

One thing to watch out for with roaming profiles in windows is that some people like to save everything to their desktops and have tons of shortcuts and such, which all raises the size of their profile. 

When a user logs into another machine their profile is downloaded to that machine. So you have the problems of 1) it can take the user 5 or 10 minutes to log into a new machine and 2) Which problably is much of an issues these days but drives running out of free space.

In the past, we has users with 100M or more profiles.


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## dd1313 (Jan 8, 2010)

Thanks guys

Are there any docs that will help me with roaming profiles on FreeBsd.Also will most of the configuration be on the server (freeBsd) or on  the client Xp machine.

Thanks
Dev


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## SirDice (Jan 8, 2010)

roddierod said:
			
		

> One thing to watch out for with roaming profiles in windows is that some people like to save everything to their desktops and have tons of shortcuts and such, which all raises the size of their profile.
> 
> When a user logs into another machine their profile is downloaded to that machine. So you have the problems of 1) it can take the user 5 or 10 minutes to log into a new machine and 2) Which problably is much of an issues these days but drives running out of free space.
> 
> In the past, we has users with 100M or more profiles.



This is really easy to prevent to a certain degree. Windows uses 2 seperate directories (or at least it can be setup as such). One is the user's home directory (usually connected to H: ), the other is the user's profile directory. The desktop is stored in the profile dir. You set quotas on both to prevent user's from taking everything they can get their hands on


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## SirDice (Jan 8, 2010)

dd1313 said:
			
		

> Are there any docs that will help me with roaming profiles on FreeBsd.


Just enable the Home and Profile config parts of smb.conf. Everything else is done on Windows.

http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/samba-pdc.html



> Also will most of the configuration be on the server (freeBsd) or on  the client Xp machine.


A bit of both.


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## kpedersen (Jan 8, 2010)

SirDice said:
			
		

> ... taking everything they can get their hands on...



Hahaha, ain't it the truth


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## roddierod (Jan 8, 2010)

SirDice said:
			
		

> This is really easy to prevent to a certain degree. Windows uses 2 seperate directories (or at least it can be setup as such). One is the user's home directory (usually connected to H: ), the other is the user's profile directory. The desktop is stored in the profile dir. You set quotas on both to prevent user's from taking everything they can get their hands on



I'm aware of this, but the politics of where I work don't allow for such logical steps. Heck, my CIO believes blocking internet site such as myspace and facebook might cause a drop in production. I know you say WTF?? Well my CIO was a social worker before becoming CIO....


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## thuglife (Jan 8, 2010)

Roaming profiles get bloated really quick, i think folder redirection might be a better solution.
You can set it up quite easily with a simple login script like this. The equivalent of having your home on nfs.


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## SirDice (Jan 8, 2010)

It's starting to get more like a windows thread :e

Most admins seems to forget %APPDATA% and %TEMP%/%TMP%
These can get bloated indeed but you can configure that too. 

I've administered a windows domain with about 200 servers and 6000 clients


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## phospher (Jan 11, 2010)

> Heck, my CIO believes blocking internet site such as myspace and facebook might cause a drop in production.



A happy employee is usually a productive employee.


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