files server with automated remote/local backup mechanism

[sirrus_linux]

hi there,

We have ten windows machines which are operated by different people (designers, animators, data-entry guys, et al ) and the problem is but ofcourse -- VIRUSES.
After laborious hours of work, all that we find out is the file has been corrupted by some strain of viruses.

Now the question is -- we are considering of putting up a Linux File Server to act as a single central storage mechanism for all the work that is being done on the remaining 10 machines. Will the linux machine ..........

1. Provide protection from viruses for the files stored in its disk.

2. Provide a transparent mechanism of sharing and updating files.

3. Provide a mechanism to backup either locally ( secondary HDD ) or remotely to the remaining machine.


Thank You, in advance

[kosmosik]

We have ten windows machines which are operated by different people (designers, animators, data-entry guys, et al ) and the problem is but ofcourse -- VIRUSES.After laborious hours of work, all that we find out is the file has been corrupted by some strain of viruses.
I suggest that you somehow protect those users from infections - like install antivirus software or smth. and also modern virii/worm do not tend to infect document files. they more often tend to DoS the machine or network... but the proper virii/worm is one that resides on machine uncatched...

Now the question is -- we are considering of putting up a Linux File Server to act as a single central storage mechanism for all the work that is being done on the remaining 10 machines. Will the linux machine ..........
good idea - central management is always nice. ;) it does not have to be Linux. you can also go with Windows Server - it will probably do the same.

1. Provide protection from viruses for the files stored in its disk.
nope - if user file is stored on some filesystem that means that this user has full rights to access this file. right? so if on client machine a virus/worm decides to delete that file - for server it looks like it is the user that deletes the file... of course you can use a versioning FS that keeps all the data in and never really deletes anything - but it won't protect user data either - just take bigger care on client security the problems that you are facing are not caused by server software - rather by client machines. get controll over them - tighten the permissions so user cannot do anything but just work, install AV software, get proper backup/restore policy for clients etc. - you can also implement network filtering, some proxy which filters unwanted sites and so on...

2. Provide a transparent mechanism of sharing and updating files.
yes - that is what Samba does - it provides network FS via SMB/CIFS for user it looks like normal folder or drive - quite transparent.

3. Provide a mechanism to backup either locally ( secondary HDD ) or remotely to the remaining machine.
also no problem - there are loads of decent backup utilities for Linux - but to be honest they do not do much unless you have good policy about it - I mean like backups are not intended just to be - they need to work in case of failure.

[LBmtb]

Check out samba-vscan at http://www.openantivirus.org/projects.php. I tried installing but couldnt. Maybe I'll try again later. There are many backup scripts that you can run to copy samba shares to a 2nd hard drive, that'd be pretty easy. Just search around. Probably will include adding a job to cron.