[Samba] Samba LDAP caching when LDAP server unavailable - possible?

[Tomasz Chmielewski]

I've been using Samba with OpenLDAP with great success on normal servers.

Recently however, it appeared to us that for remote locations it is more 
economically viable to replace Samba servers with Samba running on 
little routers like ASUS WL-500g with openwrt firmware/software.
It has a broadcom/mipsel CPU, and thanks to openwrt 
(http://openwrt.org), it is possible to run lots of software on it.

Pretty nice for small offices - small, no fan, no hard disk etc. other 
moving parts (you can connect a USB stick to it if you want to store 
files/profiles).

There is one glitch however - no OpenLDAP port.

So a Samba domain controller running on these tiny routers would have to 
authenticate users users against an external OpenLDAP server (probably 
in the company headquaters).

My experience shows that a company with several branches located 
throughout the city/country/world have connectivity problems from time 
to time (especiall when there is no IT staff in the branches).

With no local LDAP server this would mean users not able to work (as 
they can't authenticate).

Is it possible to set up Samba to "cache" credentials retrieved from the 
LDAP, and when LDAP is unavailable, to use these cached credentials?


-- 
Tomasz Chmielewski
http://wpkg.org