Windows to Linux Migration – Clients and Server
We have a customer who is interested in migrated from Windows to the Linux (Open sources). They want to migrate all server and clients. Which invloves migration of
1. Email servers migration to Linux version
2. Conversion from windows Active Directory to Linux with DNS, DHCP services
3. Conversion from Windows File Server to Linux File server
4. Conversion from ISA Server 2004 to Linux Squid (or Endian Firewall) with bandwidth shaping & filtering.
5. Alternate of ISA Server VPN Client on Linux
6. Backup Solution (currently we are using Symantec VERITAS for backups)
7. 120 Clients Machines
If any one has done any migration proposal or Methodology/Approach or Plan for any customer, I'd be grateful if you can share.
Thank you in advance.
Software/Hardware used:
Windows File Server, Symantec VERITAS
Software/Hardware used:
Windows File Server, Symantec VERITAS
ASKED:
May 19, 2010 6:35 PM
UPDATED:
May 25, 2010 6:49 AM
Answer Wiki:
Hi,
Here are some possible options.
AD
1. Fedora Directory Server.
There are many tools out their to help you migrate data.
* export AD to ldif
* configure Domain / Ou structure in FDS
* modify ldif as needed
* import ldif
- Passwords can be a bit of a nightmare, but again there are many ways to kill this cat. Using AD NIS+ services could help with this. Its been a while for me it may be possible to just do some kind of kerberos sync.
DNS
* Split DNS into caching servers and Zone Masters
* caching servers only handle dns resolution. They are static servers that only need to be configured once. These would be your DNS resolvers. I use djbdns/dnscache for this part, it is an extremely simple to using caching resolver and it can handle a tremendous amount of load.
* auth DNS servers will be your zone masters. Use this to configure your domain names. Bind is usually used here (Webmin module for BIND is really easy to use)
Fileserver
* Simple
If you want a really scalable high performance active distributed cluster fileserver on the cheap, you can't beat GFS2/Samba3.3/CTDB/RR-DNS/FedoraDirectoryServer
ISA
* I find using something like ClearOS or Shorewall best for this, especially because of the admin interface. They are like purpose built security appliance distros.
Backups
* bacula (extremely powerful network backup) (my favorite)
* zmanda (commercial arm on amanda) - has agents for pretty much anything
Email.
* Check out http://www.zarafa.com/content/community
its a great replacement for exchange (for the most part), it sits directly on top of your existing servers (postfix, sendmail, courier, mailDB)
* Alternatively try Zimbra.
Sharepoint
* Try alfresco (if you need all the features) or Knowledge tree if you just want a really good document management system.
As far as a plan goes.
- start with the dns and directories first. Get the windows and linux ones in sync, so that data migration will be eased. This part will probably take the longest.
- You could replace ISA quite quickly. If your using Shorewall or ClearOS for this task you should be able to replicate the configuration quite quickly.
- As for the rest, you decide.
Cheers
Greg
SysAdmin/Linux Biggot
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This question was asked on LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/95nyvn
Sorry.. Forgot about email.
Check out http://www.zarafa.com/content/community
its a great replacement for exchange (for the most part), it sits directly on top of your existing servers (postfix, sendmail, courier, mailDB)
Alternatively try Zimbra.
If you want something for Sharepoint, try alfresco (if you need all the features) or Knowledge tree if you just want a really good document management system.
Dear User,
We will take your migration process step by step as this will involve lot of efforts and you have to carefully plan your activities so that there is minimal down time when you are doing this activity.
1. Email Servers to Linux version. || This is a pretty tedious activity and I assume you are using Microsoft Exchange in your Organization. You will be having Microsoft Outlook Clients and hence must have configured all your clients using Exchange Directory Services where your messages are stored on the Server and not using POP configuration. I would suggest going for Zimbra Email Server as it has all similar options which Exchange has. I have not thoroughly used Zimbra because I have collaborated and built up an Email Server using POSTFIX, Squirrel Mail, Amavis and others, but if you go through the features of Zimbra documentation you will come to know its features.
2. Conversion from Windows Active Directory to Linux with DNS, DHCP Services || First and foremost plan if you want to use Authentication ( ADS ) service of Windows as DNS and DHCP is a very easy task to configure in Linux. Also if you have any application hosted on your server which is a windows application i.e. ( .NET ) then please convert your application either into JAVA which is platform independent or PHP or any other programming language. You will also have to convert your Database if at all you have the same in Microsoft SQL. If you are using Oracle then it will not be a problem as you can install Oracle on Linux. If at all you want to convert from Microsoft SQL then would advise to convert it to MySQL as this is free on linux and you will have to pay for support to Oracle. Let us come to the Active Directory or you can say Authentication process in Linux would advise you to go for a SAMBA Server which has got multiple authentication process and easy to use and configure.
3. Conversion from Windows File Server to Linux File Server || I would suggest the best option would be SAMBA Server as this is the best option you can adopt.
4. Conversion from ISA Server 2004 to Linux Squid ( or Endian Firewall ) with Bandwidth filtering and shaping || Would suggest you go for ClearOS as this will take care of all your requirements in replacing your ISA Server 2004 Endian Firewall has got its own restrictions and hence would not advise you to use it.
5. Alternate of ISA Server VPN Client on Linux || ClearOS is the best option I can suggest.
6. Backup Solution || Amanda Backup is the best alternative for your Symentec / VERATIS .
7. 120 Client Machines || This is a very tedious procedure from converting client machines to linux as there are lot of things to be taken care of. The most crucial and important thing is User Acceptance as any user who is using Microsoft Windows XP / Vista will readily not start using Linux OS. But any way I would recommend you on using Ubuntu 9.10 which is the latest version. I have been a consultant to a huge company in Mumbai / India where they successfully migrated from Windows to Linux for almost 2,500 desktops because of Microsoft Licensing issue and there are lot of challenges involved in client migration would like to share some of them with your. Major points include Wireless Network Cards, Data Cards, Network Printers, Applications like Open Office as problems faced in these departments have to be taken care of. Would suggest you do this migration in phases and start with the IT Department itself.