Creating a Linux File Server for Windows CIFS/SMB, NFS, etc.
Recently I needed to build a multipurpose file server to host CIFS and NFS shares — CIFS for the Windows users, and NFS for VMWare to store ISOs. It needed to utilize back end storage (NetApp via iSCSI), provide Windows ACLs for the CIFS shares, and be able to authenticate against two different Active Directory domains. After careful consideration, I decided to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 (RHEL) instead of Windows Server 2012.
Now you might be wondering, “Why on earth would you want to build a Linux file server to do all that when you can just use Windows?” There are a few reasons: