Samba

[James Marcinek]

Thanks Tom,

I want to set my Samba server up to emulate a domain controller and also
have roaming profiles. I have the Samba 2 book by O'Reilly, which explains
how to do this with NT, but it really doesn't cover the new AD stuff.

I'm going to get the new Samba 3 book now!

Thanks,

James

> Tom,
>
> Great information to have. Where do set the 'OS level' in samba. I don't
> have my Samba book on hand. Do I just put it in the global settings in
> the
> smb.conf?
>
> I want the Samba server to be my master browser. One of my next todo's
> is
> having the Samba server emulate a domain controller. I'm going to have
> to
> get the new Samba 3.0 material too!
>
> Thanks,
>
> James
>
>> Okay, please don't rip my head off here for asking a MS question, but
> I
>> figured I would get a slightly less biased answer here. That being
>> said....
>> We are upgrading our Exchange 5.5 server to Exchange 2003. We are a
>> mixed shop with Linux and Windows. (There are numerous other systems,
>> mostly of the *nix variety) While I tried to edge them to use
>> Communitgate Pro, Contact, or OpenExchange, they decided there would
> be
>> less impact on users if we stayed with Exchange.
>> Now comes my issues, I feel like Alice falling down the rabbit hole
>> here. In reading the docs for Exchange 2003, it says it needs Active
>> Directory. Great, so now I have to learn Active Directory and futz
> with
>> that. Now I am setting up Active Directory, flying by the seat of my
>> pants, and it says that it wants its own DNS server in order to work
>> properly. All my DNS servers are Linux based.
>> Can Active Directory work with Linux based DNS? I thought I recalled a
>> few of you saying you had Exchange 2000/2003 running, just wanted to
>> know how you did it.
>> Any help would be appreciated.
>>
>> --
>> Edward M. Croft
>> Sr. Systems Engineer
>> Open Ratings, Inc.
>> 200 West Street
>> Waltham, MA 02451-1121
>>
>> Hi Edward,
>>
>> Actually the answer is both yes and no. Yes, you can make Bind 9 work
>> with Active Directory, but it will not resolve NetBIOS names, which
>> Active Directory requires for file/print sharing. When you set up an
>> Active Directory domain controller, it requires an Active Directory
>> enabled DNS server, something Bind cannot do. Active Directory has
>> hidden objects in the DNS records that don't appear in the zone files
>> because they are embedded in the registry. Also, to find a domain
>> controller to authenticate Windows clients, you must have SRV resource
>> records in the zone, something Bind 9 supports but I've never tried it
>> so I can't say how well it works.
>>
>> Another issue you will face is the matter of broadcast storms from
>> browse master elections. Domain controllers win those elections when
>> they exist, but every new client starting up forces a new browse
> master
>> election. You can limit this by using Samba and set the "OS level"
> value
>> to 65 or greater and the Samba server will win all the elections, and
>> then you can use Samba's WINS server to handle your workstation browse
>> requests.
>>
>> I would try to make the Exchange Server a domain controller and a DNS
>> server. This would reduce the amount of traffic created by the
> Exchange
>> server and its clients since they use DNS and not WINS. For file and
>> Print sharing I would use Samba, and make the Samba server use the
>> Active Directory server to authenticate the Windows clients. You
> didn't
>> say whether you have Win9x or NT4 or < clients, but these require
> mixed
>> mode for Active Directory to work with them as they don't support
> Active
>> Directory in native mode.
>>
>> Microsoft's approach to open standards is called "embrace and extend,"
>> which is another way to make an open standard a Microsoft proprietary
>> architecture. This makes cross platform networking a series of
> stubborn
>> obstacles and causes network engineers to loose their hair. I've been
>> doing this stuff for 13 years, so if you have any other questions,
>> please feel free to email me directly and we can continue this without
>> filling the group with Microsoft protocol issues.
>>
>> Tom
>
> The OS Level statement goes in the global section of smb.conf.
>
> BTW, I'm still running Samba 2.2 that came with Red Hat 9 and this
> machine is a Windows PDC, a DNS, WINS and DHCP server, and my Windows
> clients have no idea it is running Linux. I seem to remember that Samba
> 3.0 allows you to provide full Active Directory emulation for Win2K and
> later clients, something that 2.2 can't do. The point I am making is
> that if you want to use the Samba installation that comes with Red Hat
> 9, Windows is OK with that. Since Windows isn't secure anyway, the
> version of Samba you use is not of great consequence unless you already
> have an Active Directory environment.
>
> Tom
>
> Thomas S. Fortner
> Burleson, Texas
> thomas.fortner at sbcglobal.net
> "but we preach Christ crucified..."  1 Corinthians 1:23
>
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