Quick Start Guide required: Connect Windows Workstations to New Linux Server
can someone please provide an idiot guide on how to connect to a freshly baked Linux server from windows workstations?
A while back I spent months trying to find Novell (my preferred Networking OS) drivers for the recent versions of the Proliant servers but that came to naught. Now the server we knew we'd have to replace has died and I'm desperate to avoid replacing it with a Windows server. So I've bought a refurbed Proliant and installed OpenSuse (Leap) on it.
Installing the server, from an Linux OpenSuse Enterprise Server download was delightful. A clear and reasonablle informative GUI led us through the entire process in about 20 mins.
Then we were left facing a command prompt.
That wasn't a surprise. I knew it came without a GUI. A few searches taught me how to set up the users and their passwords. But then I hit a brick wall.
I didn't anticipate that simple connectivity issues would be so awkward.
I've set it up with a static ip (192.168.1.250) and verified that it holds that address.
It is connected to my network and has internet connectivity (I've been able to download a couple of repositories that looked like they might be useful - xrdp and suse-prime)
Despite which the machine isn't visible to any of the network scanning tools I have available. Not even the router it is using to access the web can report its presence. I can't even ping the server from elsewhere.
All of which suggests a pretty useful firewall but I can't find any instructions on how to get into that or how else to make the server visible to my network.
After that, I'll presumably need either a GUI or an idiot guide to the relevant command line code to get it co-operating
All suggestions welcome
You mention 'connect' in the first part of your question. How is it you want to connect from Windows to Linux? Do you want the Linux server to act as a File Server? Then you would need to install Samba on the Linux server. Or do you want to connect from Windows to Linux and get a command prompt (terminal) session?
Or are you looking to do RDP (Remote Desk Top) Windows->LInux / Linux->Windows
ASKER
@kenfcamp: First off, you mention Gnome (with Leap 15.5, which it is)
as a complete Linux newbie, I managed to hack out a few commands, like how to add users and add/modify passwords (including locking myself out, forcing a rebuild!) and even to add/install a couple of packages. But I haven't yet figured out how to run an installed package, like Gnome. So please gimme the exact command line that would overcome that hurdle.
I have a feeling that once I'm running in a GUI, things will get a whole lot easier. While I'm familiar with command line activity (ever since my first programming days with a ZX81) I'm also painfully aware that you can only use command lines if you already know exactly what the commands, syntax and options are. With a GUI, things are much more obvious and, occasionally, even intuitive and, as I'm not a newbie to networking more generally, I should be able to understand the options and make reasonable choices.
Second you ask if I'm talking about RDPing into the Linux Server and that is precisely what I am hoping for. The idea of setting up my windows' users with ssh access (or similar) brings me out in a cold sweat. Before framing this question for EE, I spent a couple of days crawling the web for the answers to my questions and the RDP option was one of the first results. This page for example, makes it look like a doddle. Fell over at at first attempt.
the command
sudo apt install xrdpfailed with the message that "apt" wasn't a recognised command. I found a workaround for that (can't remember where or even what off the top of my head) which allowed me to download and install xrdp and even managed to load it. Thought that might at least overcome the Server visibility issue on my network, but it had no effect whatsoever. (So I haven't yet repeated that step after the rebuild)
I came across references to Samba and that's part of the reason I haven't yet reinstalled xrdp. Its fairly obvious that there are rarely "one stop shop" fixes for these kind of tweaks in Linux. (Made even more obvious by this page on how to "convert" a server to desktop, which may just be a bad title - I don't want to "convert", I want to Add a GUI) so I decided to come here to see if someone can give me the full list of things I need to install, where to get them and then what commands I need to use to run them. Especially including whatever firewall commands I need to run to enable visibility on the network!
@Gerwin Jansen I am replacing a Novell Server with (hopefully) this Linux Server, so, ideally, I want it to behave as close to the familiar Novell behaviour as I can get. So yes, I just want it as a file server, but, like Novell, with a GUI through which to exercise my management of the system and its users. As @rindi says, Novell's NDS is now part of Suse, so I should be familiar with that.
But I haven't yet figured out how to run an installed package, like Gnome. So please gimme the exact command line that would overcome that hurdle.
As I've stated I have no experience with Opensuse however this documentation should help - https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=000021043
Regarding "xrdp", Per Suse - https://software.opensuse.org/package/xrdp - There is no official package available for openSUSE Leap 15.5
but that doesn't mean you can't compile it your self - https://github.com/neutrinolabs/xrdp/releases
You will need a desktop (KDE, Gnome, XFce, etc) to use and likely install it however
It must have been decades since I last tried OpenSUSE/SUSE, but they had a utility called "YaST", or "Yet another System Tool", & with it you could do practically all admin tasks, including the installation of Software. There was a CLI version as well as a GUI version. I'm also sure they have a remote desktop option, probably based on some VNC version or XRDP, & you can probably set it up via YaST.
Apt won't work as that is the package manager used on Debian based distro's, & some others too, but not on SUSE or RedHat.
If you have installed a GUI you should be able to start it from a terminal with xstart. But don't do that if you are logged on as root. You should login as a different user for that.
ASKER
Greetings Rindi
Glad you mentioned YaST.
Gnome is up and running and the first thing I dived into was YaST, where I set up a couple of user groups, users and passwords. Then tried to join the local Workgroup so I could finally achieve remote access from my main workstation.
That's my current blockage. I typed in the Workgroup name and it requested credentials. I've never set up credentials for a workgroup, or even seen an option to allow that. Tried leaving it blank, which YaST suggested was an option (and is what I've done with every other (windows) machine joining a Workgroup) but it wouldn't let me retain the new Workgroup name without credentials. I guessed it might just require my normal Windows credentials as I obviously have access to my own workgroup but it rejected those as well.
Any suggestions?
ASKER
OK, I've managed to bully it into allowing connectivity. I'm currently logged into the server from my main workstation. Not even entirely sure how I did it, but once I had Gnome up and running, I went into YaST and started making what looked like obvious choices (eg enabling RDP access, which triggered the installation of xrdp) etc.
So now I'm going to close this question and spend a day or two figuring out how to share the sundry partitions and start installing the data and then seeing if I can map the drives to Windows workstations so we can start using it like we've been using Novell.
I suspect I'll have a few dozen more questions as we go.
https://documentation.suse.com/en-us/sles/15-SP5/
Novell's Directory services (NDS) was actually introduced into SUSE, so you would have it's advantages, & you probably already know how it works as you have come from using Netware.
https://www.nds.com.pk/products/suse-linux-enterprise-server/
The advantage of using a licensed product will also help you in getting support from SUSE.