[K12OSN] smbldap-installer and Ubuntu, EdUbuntu

[Eric Harrison]

On Mon, 31 Oct 2005, David Trask wrote:

> Hi all,
> To follow up Matt's message....we talked at length on the phone today.  We
> need an AD killer.  The installation of Samba/LDAP is easy enough
> now....next we need to begin expanding so that it can be used in a WAN,
> multi-server situation.  Also...the Ubuntu version of smbldap-installer
> works great!  This is cool for folks who might want to make the switch to
> EdUbuntu next school year.  Matt's coding magic has enabled him to come up
> with an Ubuntu "answer" to authconfig.  Not real pretty, but it works
> (that's what we need it to do).  I am currently working on the docs (major
> rewrite) and hope to have them done next week.  Getting time to spend with
> my sandbox has been the issue.  DO NOT try it on a production box as there
> are MANY changes to how things are done.  Even the add user scripts are a
> tad different (bug fixes and moved one field over).  The cool thing....now
> that the Ubuntu piece is in place....it SHOULD work with other Debian
> distros so long as the packages are in place in their respective repos.  I
> don't run AD (Active Directory) at all so it's hard for me to test AD
> killer alternatives.  I'm hoping that Matt, Chuck, and I (along with
> anyone else who wants to jump in) can find some time to brainstorm the
> idea this weekend and beyond.  It'd be really nice to allow folks an easy
> way to get off the M$ AD hampster wheel.  So....read Matt's message....and
> let's get this discussion underway...Matt and I are ready to tackle this
> and it's an idea whose time has come.
>
> David N. Trask
> Technology Teacher/Coordinator
> Vassalboro Community School
> dtrask at vcsvikings.org
> (207)923-3100
>

As an "early pioneer" in this area, I'm thrilled to see work being
done. I did a bunch of work on LDAP support in Linux long before
K12LTSP.  I was one of the two original creators of the LDAP
support in Samba[1] and have been running OpenLDAP in production 
since version 1.2.

We currently have 15,000 accounts in our directory servers.


I've been playing with the Fedora Directory Server a little (not
nearly enough) and am very excited about the possibilities there.
A new version of the FDS is due to be released real-soon-now that
includes most, if not all, of the enhancements required to replace
an OpenLDAP server. FDS also is also multi-server/WAN friendly,
has dynamic ACLs, and other such "enterprise" buzz-words. Oh, and
it has a point-and-click management console.

I would *love* to help hack on directory servers as a "sub-topic"
in Montreal.  (especially convenient if David and I will be 
roommates ;-).

-Eric

[1] Well, sorta. My "claim to fame" here is two fold: 1) I did a
     test implementation that was so insanely ugly that it inspired
     Shahms King to do it right[2] and 2) at that point in time Shahms
     was an intern at MESD and it was my job was to sign off on his time
     sheet ;-)

[2] Shahms' patch was officially accepted into Samba 2.2.