Wanted - Linux Guru for Hire, 1-time job, possible future work based on outcome

[John Krische]

Hello, KCLUG members from a new mailing list member in Topeka.  My name is John.

The company for which I work is now taking bids on an urgent Linux-based project 
that should be solvable quite easily to someone with the right skills.  As a 
Linux noob, I got close to doing this on my own, but am missing something I 
don't know how to deal with.

The situation:
Our company, a small web hosting outfit, is currently located in Topeka, but is 
about to split into two offices.  The server farm and a few key developer staff, 
including myself, shall remain here in Topeka.  However, the sales, management 
and customer support groups will be moving to some city in south Florida (don't 
know its name).  The Topeka office has a Class-C net'ed T1.  The Florida office 
shall have a DSL connection of unknown capabilities at this point, ie, I do not 
yet know if it will have static IPs, what level of bandwidth will be had (if the 
ISP provides different levels of service), not even what IP range I'll be 
dealing with nor even what ISP is providing it (argh).

Our company is just beginning to convert to Linux from WinNt and Win2K.  We have 
  only a few, relatively easy services running on linux, such as MySQL + PHP, 
BIND, SSH, and other low-level things.  The network is currently controlled by 
an NT4 PDC, but as you'll see, this will change.  All client workstations are 
and shall remain, with perhaps 1 exception, Win32-based (NT family), by rule of 
  management.  Most are running XP Pro SP1.

The job is:
We need to be able to provide logon services to all Win32 clients in both 
offices, preferrably through Samba-3 PDC/BDCs so that user admin can be 
centralized and Win32-compatible.  We also need to be able to provide remote 
network browsing for the few developers who will be in Florida, ie they not be 
with the servers here in Topeka.

Installing Samba 3 with this kind of PDC/BDC relationship is not the part I 
can't deal with, though advice & counsel would be appreciated.  I have installed 
Samba 3 successfully before on my home LAN with no problems and am confident I 
can do it again, if needed.  Being an MCSE, it's one of the few things in Linux 
that makes a lot of sense to me, and the docs for Samba are top-notch.

The problem is getting the Samba BDC in Florida talking to the Samba PDC in 
Topeka.  Since a Pt->Pt T1 is not available and this must be done over DSL and 
thus the open Internet, I'm thinking PPTP (poptop) VPN - yes/no? - not only for 
the Samba servers' SAM & WINS traffic but for Forida clients who need to browse 
& work on Topeka servers.  However, all attempts to install pptpd + mppe have 
failed, and I'm not yet linux-savvy enough to understand what went wrong nor how 
to deal with it.  We don't have a spare Win32 server with its built-in pptp 
service available to send to Florida, nor the interest in purchasing any new 
servers with a Win32 OS on them.  We want a linux-based solution.  We're not 
tied to Poptop, either - any solution which is secure and reliable is acceptable 
(IPSec if we have to, but it's less flexible for our mobile users - pptp is 
definitely preferred over IPSec).

I have 2 non-production linux machines which can be set up any way you, the 
guru, would like in order to make things work; one would stay here as the PDC + 
PPTP server, and one would go to Florida as the local BDC.  You can reformat 
them and rebuild from the ground up if you like, even.  One is running Debian 3 
Woody stock (no updates, 2.2.2 kernel).  The other is running RedHat 8 stock 
(again, no updates, straight-off-the-CD install).  Your job would be to take 
these two machines & do whatever is needed to solve our inter-office networking 
problem, up to and including putting a different distro on either/both 
machine(s), reinstalling the current distro or a different version # of the same 
distro, etc... whatever you need to do in order to make it work.

We would prefer that any bidders on this job be willing to travel to Topeka for 
a day (or less) to do the setup, though remote SSH is available if we must; 
weekend hours for this job are available if needed.  Since PPTP can involve 
rebuilding the kernel, I personally think it would be best to do this sort of 
job first-hand in case problems arise which SSH is not well-suited to tackle, 
like a bad routing table, busted kernel or the like that breaks the SSH connection.

In your bid, please include a BRIEF description of your plan and a short 
description of your qualifications.  Do NOT include any crucial solution 
details, of course - wouldn't want to cheat you bidders out of the job!  You can 
also submit clarification questions before making a final bid to the address 
listed below.

Please submit your bids to (john at sysop.com) by no later than Dec. 20.  Short 
deadline, I know, but it can't be avoided.  The office officially splits on Jan 
1, so we'd need to have a solution installed and tested (somehow) before then, 
probably in the week between Christmas and New Year's.

Thank you for your consideration.  We look forward to hearing from you!

John Krische
DB Admin, Netwk. Engr.
BBS Press Service, Inc.
A Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer