Best setup for a non-Mac file server?

I have a dual xeon server, with a SATA RAID5 I want to use as a file server in a cross-platform environment.
*What I've tried and the issues...*
At first I considered using Windows 2003 (Win2k3) but Services for Macintosh (SFM) is an older version of AFP and thus only supports 31 character filenames. With all our Macs supporting SMB/Samba/CIFS and Apple touting that "Macs and PCs can co-exist harmoniously on the same network" I figured I would give that a try.
SMB doesn't work.
Sure I can create a connection, but transferring files is a completely different story. I'm trying to backup application and system data, but companies such as Adobe and Apple have named some of their files with special characters that can't be transferred over SMB. I know NTFS doesn't support these characters, but I though a Linux box using SMB would work fine. It doesn't. It's the protocol which keeps me from transferring the data. I end up with the lovely error message of "You cannot copy some of these items to the destination because their names are too long or contain invalid characters for the destination..." (what's sad is, if you google for " because their names are too long or contain invalid characters for the destination" you only get 6 results.)
So I thought I would give NFS a try. Apple says "Viewed from Mac OS X, [connecting via NFS] is just like connecting to an Apple or Windows server." No. It's not. NFS shares don't even show up in the Finder's Network listing. There are also a pile of other hurdles which are only tackled by savvy, command-line using users.
So that leaves me with AFP. Win2k3 doesn't support filenames longer than 31 characters, and Win2k8 is dropping SFM altogether. Off to choose a *nix flavor, but that requires Netatalk. It hasn't been updated in years, it has many bad performance reviews... and most distros have removed it. I can download and install it. Oh, but that requires I get the kernel source files. Then I have to create an RPM an that's not working... now I'm several levels deep in trying to figure out how to get Netatalk working and I'm not even sure it will work.
*What's the best setup for a non-Mac file server?*
FreeNAS seems promising, but it's in alpha/beta and they have all sorts of warnings regarding potential data loss. Sure there's ExtremeZ-IP, but I really don't want to spend $675 do something Apple claims OS X can already do. I can put just about any non-Mac OS on this thing... what's the best way to set it up so it works?
Thanks much.

Rick may be right because although i didnt think of it before i tend to have notoriuosly long classnames for my php classes and i have used samba on occasion (when rsync is out of the question for one reason or another) and never had a problem. I use kubuntu (feisty at the moment )with an ext3 filesystem. if i have a chance this evening ill give it a try and see what happens.
You could also possibly use FUSE to use an ssh filesystem for the shares... i don tknow how that would figure in your back up though.
Also if worse comes to worse you could tar or dmg the the necessary files... just some thoughts.
Ill be interested to know what you end up implementing....
OH one last thought... Compile Darwin from source and use that as your server

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Hi guys,
I'm setting up an office at my house with multiple computers on a network, and we'll be sharing files over the network frequently. My question is, what is the best setup for this?.. Fastest transfer of files, stable wireless connection, etc.
All of the computers will be Macs (iMacs and Macbooks).
We'll be editing videos/photos on the computers. (Potentially large files)
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NAS is the right tool for this job.
It is expensive but the market leaders.. synology and QNAP have really been doing it for long time and the ability to do file store/sharing and most importantly backup in these is excellent. Pick the best you can afford.. and buy disks that are in the recommended list. ie the cheapest are not always the best.. indeed they seldom are.
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Alternatives are using a Mac Mini as a server.. with a large stack of disks on it.. generally should be thinking thunderbolt if you want speed. Hideously expensive though for now.
You can buy an Extreme or TC.. either would work well. TC allows you easy TM backups without using your NAS..
Edit very large files on the computer. ie copy to computer.. edit.. copy back to the NAS.
Editing very large files over wireless.. not good. Multiply that by mutliple computers.. not even fair.
Copy a large project to the computer.. work on it.. copy back to the NAS.. in the meantime Time Machine should be able to take care of incremental backups.
There are heaps and heaps of solutions.. as long as it is logical and easy to you.. and covers what you need.
Don't skimp.. spending a $1000 for a NAS with disks.. plus extra for the backup disks.. that represents how many day's work for you plus anyone you have helping.. $$$$ ????
A mini as a server is a good alternative.. You don't need to run server OS.. but share files to the network. Very hard to build the capacity of the NAS though.
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We have an Airport Extreme 802.11n using WPA2 Personal, 2.4Ghz (n only connection) which I've found to give us the best range/connection speeds for the following devices (all computers running 10.5.5, Apple TV's using most current update):
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The best way to use it is the option you chose "Extend a wireless network".
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Just bought a 3TB Time Capsule for a small office. Will have 4 users with MacBooks. What would ne the best setup for time machine individual backups and internet sharing in a secure way?

Just bought a 3TB Time Capsule for a small office. Will have 4 users with MacBooks. What would ne the best setup for time machine individual backups and internet sharing in a secure way?

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cd
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Message was edited by: sfandtheworld

Thanks for the advice and the links. yes, I would like to speed up ps as much as possible.
I wonder if putting the scratch disc on the same drive as the OS would cause them to interfere with each other? Even if they are on different partitions, they would not be able to be accessed at the same time, or could they? That's why I was wondering if I should place scratch disc on the internal HDD -- but then I don't know how much to partition for it (or to partition at all?)
ALso, I read on a few places that too much read/write on the SSD wears it down over time? Is this more of a theoretical concerns - it does not make sense to me since it has no moving parts!
thanks again for the advice ... I'm gonna go digest those links

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bsbiran wrote:
Hi,
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We now have a Mac server hosted elsewhere and we want it to be a subdomain of our myexample.com i.e. macserver.myexample.com.
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Hello!
I work with internal clients that provide me with a variety of differnet video types (could be almost ANYTHYING, WMV, MP4, FLV). I of course ask for AVIs when possible, but unfortunately, I have no control over the type of file I'm given.
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I use an older conversion program (my PrPro has a much older internal AME, unlike yours), DigitalMedia Converter 2.7. It is shareware, and has been replaced by Deskshare with newer versions, but my old one works fine. I have not tried the newer versions yet. One thing that I like about this converter is that it ONLY uses System CODEC's, and does not install its own, like a few others. This DOES mean that if I get footage with an oddball CODEC, I need to go get it, and install it on the System.
I can batch process AV files of most types/CODEC's, and convert to DV-AVI Type II w/ 48KHz 16-bit PCM/WAV Audio and at 29.97 FPS (I am in NTSC land). So far, 99% of the resultant converted files have been perfect, whether from DivX, WMV, MPEG-2, or almost any other format/CODEC. If there is any OOS, my experience has been that it will be static, so I just have to adjust the sync offset by a few frames, and that takes care of things.
In a few instances, the PAR flag has been missed (Standard 4:3 vs Widescreen 16:9), but Interpret Footage has solved those few issues.
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I'm using Aperture to organize several thousand photos. I've gotten good advice her before about how to get started on this. I'm not a professional and I'm not an experienced user of Aperture, so don't assume a lot of knowledge when you answer. I'm wondering what the best way to set up the file storage would be. I use a MacBook Pro, so obviously that's out for storage, and financially, purchasing a more powerful desktop is out for the time being. I was thinking of purchasing a mirror drive system, like this: http://www.newertech.com/products/gmax.php
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more:
Paula-
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I suggest the below workflow. Note that most important is that original images from the camera card are copied to two locations before reformatting the card and before importing into Aperture or any other images management application.
Original images never change, so I prefer to manually copy them to two locations asap after capture: one location is the computer drive and the other is an external backup HD that itself gets backed up off site regularly. That assures me that "the pic is in the can." Until two digital files exist on different media I do not consider the pic in the can.
Then reformat the card in-camera, not before.
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I do use Time Machine routinely on the MBP, but for the daily-volatile activities going of the MBP. I prefer not to have TM be my backup-of-originals protocol. Instead TM backs up the Mac internal drive on the TM schedule and I back up original images asap based on my shooting schedule. Also the TM drive is a different drive than the drives used for long-term original image files archiving.
TM does back up my Library because the Library lives on the Mac internal drive but I do not assume that TM works for Library backup. I back the Library up to Vaults (on the same drives I put archives of Masters on) independent of TM. IMO one should back up image files and back up Vaults manually after verifying that what is being backed up is not broken, because automatic backup will just back up a broken Library or whatever.
Note that Masters need only be backed up once (but to multiple backup locations) and that backup should happen immediately after copying to the hard drive from the camera card, before involving Aperture or any other images management app.
Sorry for the redundant verbosity above but some was copied from previous posts. Also, I reinforce what Léonie said about DVDs. DVDs are way too slow, unreliable, etc. Instead rotate multiple hard drives to achieve redundancy.
HTH
-Allen

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We currently have a 2003 R2 flat file server with multiple layers of nested network shares with over 2.5TB of data. We want to migrate to DFS on 2012 Server standard version with deduplication enabled. We have never worked with DFS and deduplication and
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I encounter 2 errors in the controller when running FSCT.
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- "There were errors during running WordFileClose.dll scenario"
Does anyone has any ideas for this errors?
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- FSCT Controller: Windows 2008 R2 SP1 x64
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> fsct run client /controller fsctcon /server ofscluster /password password /domain abc.local
fsct run controller /server ofscluster /password password /volumes \\ofscluster\fsroot1 /clients testing /min_users 2 /max_users 10 /step 2 /duration 360 /workload HomeFolders

Dear all,
The errors were:
<Error>1264 DeviceIoControl 1{WINERR}</Error>
<Error>Error executing scenario: WordFileOpen.dll</Error>
<Error>943 DeviceIoControl 50{WINERR}</Error>
<Error>Error executing scenario: WordFileClose.dll</Error>
Do you have any idea about what the errors mean?
Thanks,
Rayson

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I'm putting together a new PC running Vista and am trying to figure out the best place for the LR catalog (lrcat) file. This PC has multiple hard drives as follows:
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D: non-photo files (docs, mp3s, etc)
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On a side note, on my last PC, I had the lrcat file in what was originally a dedicated scratch drive (for PS), but I'm doing less and less in Photoshop these days, and my new system will have 12GB of ram, so I decided to do without a dedicated scratch drive for the new system.
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Asking yourself the following questions may help determine which drive is best suited for storing the Lightroom Catalog:
1) Are you the only person using the "Lightroom computer"?
2) Do you have multiple log on accounts?
3) Do multiple log on accounts need access to the Lightroom Catalog?
If you answer yes to #1, its default location might be fine. If you answer yes to #2 or #3, you should concider a central location for the .lrcat file.
By default, the .lrcat file is located in a users document folder. This means that at least one (1) .lrcat file will be created per user account. Seeing that you usually keep photo files on the E Drive, creating a folder on the root of the E Drive might not be a bad idea. Using the root of E schema will then allow mutiple users to access the .lrcat file when they log on. Using the E Drive keeps "photo related" files together, thought Drive D or Drive F would also work. It appears from your description that you keep O/S and Applications only on the C Drive, which I do myself.
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Best setup for a non-Mac file server?

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