Linuxmce and windows

[klovell]

Hello all,

I've been following LinuxMCE for a while now and I just recently started my change over from winblows by installing linuxmce on what will be my core.  With the exception of a couple issues, which i will put in a different topic, My core is running but it's in need of configurations.  I want to get the most out of Linuxmce but i do want to incorporate it into what would be left of the windows network (I'm only scaping 2 windowsXP media centers and a Windows 7 Media center).  We are currently very happy with the single sign-on and redirected folders that the windows domain allows us.  Is there a way to join linuxMCE to a Windows 2008 domain?  It would be great to be able to manage accounts from one location (Active Directory).  My nas/san... what ever you want to call it is Openfiler.  It is also joined to the domain, are there any known issues with lmce connecting to a file share on a windows domain?  Worst case I have a work around to access the share but i hate workarounds, especially on my own network!!  As i see it things should just work... that's why I'm dumping Winblows. 

Also, I have critical services that i need available as much as possible.  Since I'm not an expert in Linux, if my core goes down for some weird reason it could be down for a while, I can't have these services affected by my inexperience of Linux.  I've attached a diagram of my network the way it stands now and what i would like it to look like after linuxMCE is online, I would love feedback regarding my plans.  Would it work, suggestions, you're crazy, etc... 

Thanks in advance, I can't wait to get this thing fully up and running!!

Current


Complete

[totallymaxed]

Hello all,

I've been following LinuxMCE for a while now and I just recently started my change over from winblows by installing linuxmce on what will be my core.  With the exception of a couple issues, which i will put in a different topic, My core is running but it's in need of configurations.  I want to get the most out of Linuxmce but i do want to incorporate it into what would be left of the windows network (I'm only scaping 2 windowsXP media centers and a Windows 7 Media center).  We are currently very happy with the single sign-on and redirected folders that the windows domain allows us.  Is there a way to join linuxMCE to a Windows 2008 domain?  It would be great to be able to manage accounts from one location (Active Directory).  My nas/san... what ever you want to call it is Openfiler.  It is also joined to the domain, are there any known issues with lmce connecting to a file share on a windows domain?  Worst case I have a work around to access the share but i hate workarounds, especially on my own network!!  As i see it things should just work... that's why I'm dumping Winblows. 

Also, I have critical services that i need available as much as possible.  Since I'm not an expert in Linux, if my core goes down for some weird reason it could be down for a while, I can't have these services affected by my inexperience of Linux.  I've attached a diagram of my network the way it stands now and what i would like it to look like after linuxMCE is online, I would love feedback regarding my plans.  Would it work, suggestions, you're crazy, etc... 

Thanks in advance, I can't wait to get this thing fully up and running!!

Current


Complete

The two png's are not displaying...


Andrew

[klovell]

The two png's are not displaying...


Andrew

That's because I'm an idiot and I forgot to reconfigure my port forwarding rules after bringing the core online last night.  Those png's are on the web server at my house.  Today is going to suck at work, with out my terminal server I actually have to work today.  Two of my cousins already called me with the same complaint.  I decided to go with the supported lmce network configuration.  I left the routes and rules intact but disabled in smoothwall so if the core goes down all i have to do is move a cat6, enable a few rules and change one ip address.  yea it's far from a fail over but let's be honest what i had brewing wasn't much closer.  I'll try this out for a while to gauge lmce reliability as a router. 

As a router; what kind of latency should i expect once the core is operating at full swing?  I'm not overly concerned with standard http requests, I'm more concerned about file downloads, VPN tunnels, rdp tunnels, and streaming content.  I'd hate to lose my VPN tunnel because my wife is at home watching TV.

I think I have the windows thing figured out if i can't join lmce to the domain however I'd really like to join it to the domain.  I was more concerned with the networking side of lmce last night, I was trying to get the core plus a test md in place and bring the Internet back up.  While doing this lmce detected a few servers and laptops but it could only connect to my nas... on that note I'm not even convinced it successfully connected because i didn't see any media.  Any thoughts on this?

[golgoj4]

As a router; what kind of latency should i expect once the core is operating at full swing?  I'm not overly concerned with standard http requests, I'm more concerned about file downloads, VPN tunnels, rdp tunnels, and streaming content.  I'd hate to lose my VPN tunnel because my wife is at home watching TV.

All the traffic in my home goes through linuxMCE and I never notice any latency issues beyond when they actual external bandwidth pipe is being used. I play a lot of fps games and work online while others are watching streaming video, etc. Never notice any problems.

My setup goes dsl->linuxMCE - gigabit switch with machine ->another switch with more machine + wireless ap's

more of my setup is in my sig

[klovell]

Golgoj4, Thanks for the info!  If you're gaming online with out problems i shouldn't have a problem... in theory anyways.  There's two sides to this coin though.  If the Core stalls once for a half a second before sending your packet, your game may not even flicker or you wont notice if it does.  If the core does this while sustaining a tunnel it will more than likely, almost always, result in the tunnel collapsing.  Meaning I'll have to reestablish my tunnel.  Then again, FPS games do require a pretty good stream of data to run smoothly.  Thanks, you've given me hope that this will work for me.

I just had a thought, I have 3 decent 100mb nics laying around, I could put one in each external facing server and connect them in parallel with lmce's external nic.  Just for these servers that will completely bypass the core for inbound traffic and i can setup routes so all out bound from these servers goes to the lmce's internal network.  Are there any network guys out there with thoughts on this? 

How many nics are installed in your core?  Maybe i didn't follow your network diagram properly but i counted at least 4.  Is that the case? was setup the same as 2 nics?  I have a diagram of my "dream system", which i can't upload because i can't connect to my house, but the core in this network has one fiber link to my nas, a 100mb to the outside world, 1gb to connect my APs and PCs and MD, 1gb for security cameras and everything security, and 100mb for phones (we're a cell phone shop here, but I'd probably go with 1gb anyway... just because).  Each Nic will connect to it's own 1gb switch.  I didn't see documentation indicating this type of setup is possible but if this is what you're doing I'll redo my system today!! with the exception of the fiber... I'll order the fiber cards today  .

[golgoj4]

Golgoj4, Thanks for the info!  If you're gaming online with out problems i shouldn't have a problem... in theory anyways.  There's two sides to this coin though.  If the Core stalls once for a half a second before sending your packet, your game may not even flicker or you wont notice if it does.  If the core does this while sustaining a tunnel it will more than likely, almost always, result in the tunnel collapsing.  Meaning I'll have to reestablish my tunnel.  Then again, FPS games do require a pretty good stream of data to run smoothly.  Thanks, you've given me hope that this will work for me.

I just had a thought, I have 3 decent 100mb nics laying around, I could put one in each external facing server and connect them in parallel with lmce's external nic.  Just for these servers that will completely bypass the core for inbound traffic and i can setup routes so all out bound from these servers goes to the lmce's internal network.  Are there any network guys out there with thoughts on this? 

How many nics are installed in your core?  Maybe i didn't follow your network diagram properly but i counted at least 4.  Is that the case? was setup the same as 2 nics?  I have a diagram of my "dream system", which i can't upload because i can't connect to my house, but the core in this network has one fiber link to my nas, a 100mb to the outside world, 1gb to connect my APs and PCs and MD, 1gb for security cameras and everything security, and 100mb for phones (we're a cell phone shop here, but I'd probably go with 1gb anyway... just because).  Each Nic will connect to it's own 1gb switch.  I didn't see documentation indicating this type of setup is possible but if this is what you're doing I'll redo my system today!! with the exception of the fiber... I'll order the fiber cards today  .

Maybe I should clear my diagram up a bit, its a bit tight. I have just two nic's in the core. And external one that is connected to the dsl, and 1 internal one that connects to a switch for the rest of the house. I wired my place so the switch is in a cabinet and all the other ports in the house connect to the router. For me it was a bit easier to centralize the network as i had access to do it that way.

My recommendation is to keep the traffic map as simple as possible. That could be because im not a networking expert, but also because I know users have had issues with non-standard network setups. That being said, as long as you understand it isn't supported and you back up configs, i say try playing around to see what you can come up with.

[tschak909]

And please, if you want this network setup supported, help make changes to the system so that it IS a supported configuration (keeping in mind, that other people need to be able to understand it, and we need to be able to present such an option in a way that makes sense and does not confuse people... something tells me that this isn't possible with your configuration.)

(honestly, I think you're being silly not letting LinuxMCE do what it's designed to do, and actually deal with all network functions, but hey, if you wanna be a control freak sysadmin geek, be my guest.)

and please, yes, before you reply at my last little quip, keep in mind, that this system is intended to be an all in one appliance, intended to take over all functions, because MOST people DO NOT HAVE a huge local area network in their house...

and before you reply about that...... PLEASE take a moment to try to realise, that you probably DID all of this, to duct tape together a setup, to get what you thought you needed, and that you've done things that much of our existing system does simpler out of the box.

-Thom

[totallymaxed]

The two png's are not displaying...


Andrew

As a router; what kind of latency should i expect once the core is operating at full swing?  I'm not overly concerned with standard http requests, I'm more concerned about file downloads, VPN tunnels, rdp tunnels, and streaming content.  I'd hate to lose my VPN tunnel because my wife is at home watching TV.

Well as golgoj4 has already stated I cant say that we have ever experienced any issues with latency at all (as far as i am aware... either from personal experience or with any customer installations). Of course it is possible that some activity that generates a lot of WAN side traffic might cause your various services to loose connectivity...but this would be the case whether your Core was routing traffic or not.

All the best

Andrew

[klovell]

As you can see by the png's i fixed the routing issue  .  I decided to go with the supported configuration.  I think the Smoothwall part of my diagram maybe the confusing part for some.  That is basically my broadband router.  The ONT is basically just a converter, it converts the fiber to Ethernet and/or coax and that's it.. I'm not even sure it gets an Ip address. 

I was running test all last night and this morning and the core seems to be doing good.  I haven't noticed anything weird other than my terminal server claiming not to have an Internet connection.  Seeing as how I'm typing this reply that can't be accurate, i can figure that part out later... That's Microsoft for ya.  The interesting part is the speed test are actually coming back faster with the core in place for downloads but slower for uploads.  I'm suppose to have 25 down/15 up, I usually see 25/20, with the core in place I'm getting 26.5/15.  I'm not complaining, I'm paying for 25/15 so i don't feel like I'm losing out but if i can get that extra 5 back it would be great.  Is there QOS or some kind of traffic shaping happening on the core?  I looked for it in web admin but i didn't see anything like this so I'm thinking maybe it's statically predefined and hidden.  I already turned QOS off in Smoothwall for testing and I ran the test under heavy and light core loads but i got the same results.  It could be a coincidence but I've been getting 25/20 for over a year now and all of a sudden it's down to 26.5/15.  Any thoughts?

[tschak909]

Most interesting on your upload/download speed discrepancy, has anyone else noticed this?

We would love for someone to come in and do a QoS module for the web admin.

-Thom

[klovell]

Keeping in mind that I'm far from a polymath, how hard is it to create a QOS module for web admin?  The most i know in php is Hello world and I'd probably have to google it... lol.  I'm pretty sure Smoothwall is open source based on Linux, idk which distro but it's Linux, can't the QOS part of smoothwall be "Cut and paste" into the router part of LMCE?  With all the different types of traffic flowing through my network QOS is VERY important to me, I'll help in anyway i can.

[totallymaxed]

Keeping in mind that I'm far from a polymath, how hard is it to create a QOS module for web admin?  The most i know in php is Hello world and I'd probably have to google it... lol.  I'm pretty sure Smoothwall is open source based on Linux, idk which distro but it's Linux, can't the QOS part of smoothwall be "Cut and paste" into the router part of LinuxMCE?  With all the different types of traffic flowing through my network QOS is VERY important to me, I'll help in anyway i can.

Hmmmm...unfortunately "cut n' paste" is not going to work at all... ;-)... and if it was that easy I expect QOS would already be there waiting for you!

Andrew

[golgoj4]

this more anecdotal than scientific but,

i seem to get better network performance when all traffic goes through the core then to the dsl router. As far as upload and download, at&t makes it hard to keep track of that.

golgoj4