Ubuntu as server for small school?

[david davidson]

Hello,

I am volunteering at a small school to help them set
up a ~10 user office/admin network, and was hoping to
get some advice from you folks before proceeding. 

(Learning as I go here....)

Here is what we have on hand:

Hardware:

- About 8 Dell Desktops P4 2.2 Ghz and faster.
- A few laptops to be used at the office and at home.
- Two laser printers with attached NetGear
mini-printservers.
- A SnapServer storage appliance.

I might be able to get funds for a cheap desktop to
run as a "server", but as I think a Windows Server
license will not happen now, I am looking at Ubuntu.

Software:

- Sufficient quantity of Windows XP volume licenses.
- Sufficient quantity of Office volume licenses.
- Sufficient quantity of Symantec Corporate AV
licenses.
- Sufficient quantity of Symantec Ghost licenses.


Right now, all machines are in one room, but they need
to expand to a 2nd location in a different building. 
Both locations have broadband Internet access, so I am
planning to link them with a couple of SOHO VPN
routers.  

The current setup has the SnapServer running in
"peer-to-peer mode" with a manually configured user
account for each machine that needs access.  Microsoft
Office is installed individually on each machine. 
Symantec AV/Ghost are not installed yet.

I would like to wipe all machines and start fresh, but
I am need of some guidance to help me create a
"maintainable" network.

Some sort of "traveling desktop" would be ideal, as
there are more office workers than machines.  (I am
unsure if this can be done without Windows Server.)

I have free reign to redesign the network from the
bottom up, and I would like to do things right.  So,
the more detailed advice I can get, the better.

Thank you in advance,
David





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