Samba backup (BDC functionality)

[Gerald Heinig]

Gerald W. Carter wrote:

> Gerald Heinig wrote:
> >
> > does Samba support BDC functionality yet? More to the point, is it
> > possible to configure 2 machines to run identical Samba configs (ie.
> > identical smb.confs) and simply start the Samba server on the "backup"
> > machine if/when the first machine goes down?
>
> That should work fine.  The only problem might be the WINS
> registration.  The NT clients look for DOMAIN<1b> on the WINS
> server to locate the DC.

We're not using WINS here. Everything works OK, though. Should I be using
WINS?

> Also make sure that you copy
>
>         - smb.conf
>         - private/MACHINE.SID
>         - private/smbpasswd
>
> to the second machine.

Wonderful. No stress with changing hostnames/IP addresses then.

> Just to make sure, you are talking about only having one run at
> a time, simply being able to start the second up if the first DC \
> crashes, correct?

Exactly. Obviously, it would be nice to have two running, with the second
kicking straight in if the first dies. But starting by hand is absolutely
fine.

> > PS. It says on the Samba NTDOM FAQ that PDC <=> BDC *INTEGRATION* isn't
> > implemented yet. What exactly does this mean? Does it mean that a BDC
> > works, but you have to mirror data manually, or start it manually, or
> > does it mean that BDC simply isn't implemented yet?
>
> PDC<->BDC integration is really the PDC<->BDC replication process.
> The protocol which MS uses to do this is undocumented and needs
> more study to implement.

So what's the difference between a PDC and a BDC then? Are they essentially
the same, only the BDC having slightly less "privilege"  or "priority"?
Something along the lines of NIS+ master server and replica server?

Thanks for the help

Gerald