[K12OSN] Managing a Samba PDC

[Brian Chivers]

Mark Cockrell wrote:
> Hello all,
>     All the discussion of the new smbldap script flying around lately
> has triggered a few questions in my disheveled mind.  I run a 700+
> user NT domain, with one PDC and 3 BDCs helping to distribute the
> authentication load.  If I built a Samba PDC would the BDCs still sync
> up with it, or would I have to turn them into just plain servers?
> Could I still use the NT User Manager for Domains application for user
> creation and maintenance, or would I need to retrain my staff on
> something else?  If I ran this script on my K12LTSP server, would it
> automatically start accepting the existing Domain logons and passwords
> transparently, or is there more to it than that? I've got my users
> "Home" folders spread out across three servers, one for HS, one for
> MS, and one for ES for fault tolerance.  Initially these were three
> separate LANs and when we connected them I just left the existing
> scheme in place.  Can the Samba PDC implementation handle that, or do
> I have to change the way I do things? Forgive me if these are silly
> questions, but I'm an NT guy trying to find his way in the Linux
> world.

I'd say have a read of the "Samba by Example" book, it's available on line
from the Samba website or if like me you like to read paper get the book
from Amazon or somewhere. It has a really good chapter about migrating to
Samba 3 PDC from NT4. I seem to remember that they say you should use a LDAP
backend which is quite easy to setup via the smbldap-installer script.

You should be able to use the existing tools to admin the server or have a
look at the thread about LDAP management tools.

Brian


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    The views expressed here are my own and not necessarily 
                the views of Portsmouth College