I am not a Windows guy. In fact I'm an anti-windows guy. Mac desktop and Linux laptop.
Should I join my users computers to the domain? I'm not excited to join the computers to the domain. Should I be? I'm guessing that not having a DC at each office would be an issue. Its somewhat of a cost issue, but not really. I just don't want to pay MS any money unless I have too. We can definitely afford it. I am a stickler for licensing. I have all the CALs and TSCALs I am supposed too. Truth be told my motto is "Use what works". More often then not a FOSS product meets our needs/wants.
I have 50+ users spread out all a across the US at 10 different locations (5 states). Actually 5 of those 10 locations have only 1 or 2 employees. Fair mix of Laptops and Desktops. 50/50 between XP and 7 (64bit). All of their computers are in a workgroup configuration. None are joined to the domain.
Most of the 10 sites have a Linux/Samba server. Internet connections for the offices are a mix of DSL, T1 or Cable Modem. Whatever is the fastest we can get is what we have. Each office has a VPN connection to our data center. There is no need to connect the offices to one another.
I do have an AD environment in the datacenter. 3 MS servers running in a VSpehere setup. There several Linux VMs as well. There is 1 domain controller (I know I should have two), 1 member server for admin apps (Vcenter and etc) and 1 terminal services server for user apps. Each user has an account so they can connect via Remote Desktop and run the apps we share there. Project Management, Project Estimating and Accounting software. All the MS servers run 2003. No plans to do 2008,
I monitor the crap out of our backend (servers, SAN, firewalls), but not the user PCs outside of AV. It would be nice to monitor the users hardware for potential failures. Such as a drive going bad. I'm considering Spiceworks for user stuff and keeping Nagios for the backend.
We have done well with our Linux servers and kept costs down utilizing FOSS instead of MS.
Bonus points for anyone who can guess my salary. I am a stand alone net/sys admin. Responsible for everything, Desktops, Servers, Backups, Networking, Printers/Plotters. Technically I'm on call 24/7. I generally work less than 40 hours a week. Except when there is an emergency. I have NO certs, NO college degree. I have a decent MS skill level, better than average Linux level (CLI). I am an office of 1, but telecommute frequently. I travel to the other offices and data center as needed. More often then not if I cannot correct a problem remotely the hardware is Fedex'd to me.
I have no interest of reading any comments that point out I am overly critical of MS. I'm set in my ways.
EDIT:
- This is a construction management company. Turnover is very low. New hires/terminations are minimal.
[link] [10 comments]