[Samba] Freebsd pdc

[Eric Shubert]

On 02/05/2011 01:57 PM, Terry Danter wrote:
> I was just wondering how many people out there are using FreeBSD as a
> pdc. I see a few guides on the net mostly followed by a load of posts
> of problems people encounter. Is it like most things that once you
> have done it once you can soon set up a machine at the drop of hat as
> you encounter and remedy any problems. I have a few customers at the
> moment one of who requires a pdc with roaming profiles. I use bsd and
> samba all the time for normal file sharing and never have problems. I
> try and avoid windows servers due to costs and licensing but a pdc
> would be new for me.
> Any opinions welcome
>
> Thanks
> Terry

I haven't used FreeBSD, but I have set up several PDCs. They work ok 
with default settings, however if users have a large amount of data 
associated with their account (in Application Data, My Documents, and/or 
Desktop folders for example), logging off/on can become terribly 
inefficient. This is because Windoze saves all of this local data to the 
server when the user logs off, taking a good bit of time (I've seen 20 
minutes or so), while putting a strain on both the network and server.

The solution to this problem is to change the default location for 
various folders to be on the server, so that the data doesn't need to be 
copied to the server during the logoff process. This is accomplished by 
creating a custom NTConfig.POL file in the netlogon directory which 
changes the location of these folders to reside on the server instead of 
the local HDD.

There a few wiki pages that explain this:
http://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba_%26_Windows_Profiles
http://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Implementing_System_Policies_with_Samba
See also:
http://www.pcc-services.com/custom_poledit.html

-- 
-Eric 'shubes'