*nix in the enterprise

My manager has commissioned me with a small project: evaulate setting up certain machines with Linux (ubuntu) and authenticate them against our domain. Seems simple enough. The machine will need to do the following:

-Authenticate to DCs
-Print to printers
- Access Terminal Servers
- *Run custom applications
The custom apps are .net based. Wine/Winetricks says it supports .net 2.0 (what these apps are based on). So that is going to be a bit tricky but I will attempt to make it work

The first 3 seem pretty easy. In the past, I have used likewise but it blows and has outstanding issues with ubuntu (like this jewel https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/likewise-open/+bug/302026)
That might not be too big of a deal since these machines will be for a select group of people who do not need to install anything. Anyone use Centrify Express? (Download Centrify Express - Free Active Directory Tools for UNIX, Linux and Mac OS X)

I actually saw this link and found it really helpful: Active Directory Integration: Centrify Express vs. Likewise | The VAR Guy

This had some really interesting information (including some of the info from above): http://www.centrify.com/blogs/tomkemp/centrify_competitors_product_review.asp

Any thoughts? I am probably going to build a test machine later this week.

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Comments

MentholMoose

I've used Likewise Open with no problem... I always thought it was considered stable considering VMware choose it for AD-integration on ESX/ESXi, and Citrix uses it for the same purpose on XenServer. In any case I've never used Centrify Express, but it assume it is also fine. Another option is "winbind" which only requires packages in the official repositories (no third party packages/installers necessary). There is a guide here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ActiveDirectoryWinbindHowto

undomiel

I'd recommend first seeing if the applications will run with Mono rather than running them on Wine. I can't comment beyond that as I haven't tried running anything .net with Mono yet. I can't really comment on Centrify either as before for authentication I would just configure Samba by hand. It isn't too difficult to do.

Bl8ckr0uter

undomiel wrote: »

I'd recommend first seeing if the applications will run with Mono rather than running them on Wine. I can't comment beyond that as I haven't tried running anything .net with Mono yet. I can't really comment on Centrify either as before for authentication I would just configure Samba by hand. It isn't too difficult to do.

Never heard of mono. Any reason why you would suggest it over wine?

edit:SERIOUSLY? .NET ON NIX? Awesome man.

edit2: DUDE WE COULD PORT OUR CODE OVER TO APACHE!!! OMG SWEETNESS!!!!!!

Ok enough fanboyism. That is prettying fing sweet. Project for my lab time next week FTW!

MentholMoose wrote: »

I've used Likewise Open with no problem... I always thought it was considered stable considering VMware choose it for AD-integration on ESX/ESXi, and Citrix uses it for the same purpose on XenServer. In any case I've never used Centrify Express, but it assume it is also fine. Another option is "winbind" which only requires packages in the official repositories (no third party packages/installers necessary). There is a guide here:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ActiveDirectoryWinbindHowto

I mean Likewise worked don't get me wrong. It was just I couldn't change my root password after use which was a huge deal for MY laptop. For these machines it wouldn't be an issue.

Likewise is winbind based I believe. I thought about just using winbind but I really just haven't got around to testing it.

qwertyiop

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

Never heard of mono. Any reason why you would suggest it over wine?

edit:SERIOUSLY? .NET ON NIX? Awesome man.

edit2: DUDE WE COULD PORT OUR CODE OVER TO APACHE!!! OMG SWEETNESS!!!!!!

Ok enough fanboyism. That is prettying fing sweet. Project for my lab time next week FTW!

I mean Likewise worked don't get me wrong. It was just I couldn't change my root password after use which was a huge deal for MY laptop. For these machines it wouldn't be an issue.

Likewise is winbind based I believe. I thought about just using winbind but I really just haven't got around to testing it.

Personally I wouldn't use likewise, ive used it before and it just sucks. I prefer manually join a domain, infact i wrote up a bash script that automates the whole process.

Regarding Mono I suggest that you talk to your software developers or even the source code if you have access to it. I suggested that my company role out their service applications and run then a ubuntu box and we decided not to because our applications use (I believe its a API call that Mono doesn't support) If I remember correctly they state that they have no plans on supporting it.

Bl8ckr0uter

qwertyiop wrote: »

Regarding Mono I suggest that you talk to your software developers or even the source code if you have access to it. I suggested that my company role out their service applications and run then a ubuntu box and we decided not to because our applications use (I believe its a API call that Mono doesn't support) If I remember correctly they state that they have no plans on supporting it.

SOME of our previously written code wouldn't be able to be ported over (don't want to go over it) BUT our new stuff might be able to work. This would be a cool little thing to test.