I’ve been running SME Server for a number of years (installed the first one version 7 one in 2008 if I remember correctly). Currently I run admin on 12 SME boxes. Most of them are mail/internet gateways in local small businesses.
Nethserver is appealing due to its more modular design and due to its use of dnsmasq as opposed to the tinydns setup that SME uses.
I’ve hit a few problems in my first, trial migration. First, after reading the migration guide, I didn’t realise that the migration did not import data from the SME backup, only settings. It also seems to have been quite selective in some areas - it imported things like /root/.ssh, but failed to pick up /root/.synbak/tar. Not a major problem, just not what I was expecting.
I performed the Nethserver install to an HP 8000 small form factor machine. I used the unattended install so that the new server would come up with DHCP enabled so that it would get an IP in my local network and I can then drop it into the target network before setting a static IP for it. Worked fine.
I opened a current complete backup from the SME server, expanded the archive to /var/lib/migration, then ran the migration. I’ve not yet copied the data to the test server - I’ll have to get a current copy of the data when I put the server into the target network.
Questions. Is there an equivalent to the “signal-event post-upgrade; signal-event reboot” that SME uses to expand all templates?
On SME, I do a lot of remote admin, and find it very useful to be able to use elinks to access the server manager during an SSH session. Is it possible to use a text-mode browser with the Nethserver server manger? If so, what url do I need to use to access it?
One of the feature in SME that I’ve found useful in the past is the ability to limit server manager access to specific IPs. Is it possible to do something like that with Nethserver?
I’m also wondering if there is a guide to setting firewall rules? I need NFS support on the target server, and so far, I’ve not managed to get the firewall set up to allow NFS access from machines in the local net.
I’m sure I’ll have more questions once I get a bit further with the migration…