Samba as member server in Win2k domain

[Martin Radford]

> for their authentication.  Unfortunately, the Win2000 domain
> is running Active Directory, not "legacy" WinNT mode.

All Windows 2000 domains run Active Directory.  I assume you mean it's
in "natie" mode, as opposed to "mixed" mode. 

> My question is, can Samba participate in a Win2000 domain as
> a member server?  This is the deal, the 2 Win2000 servers

Yes.

> each have 10 client access licenses (which is all we need
> for our accounting system).  Our entire network has about 70
> clients.  I don't want to go through the expense for another
> copy of Win2000 server, and the extra client access licenses
> that would be necessary to host the fileserving on Win2000.
> So if Samba can be a member server, and if our clients log
> in to the domain (authenticate via the Win2000 Domain
> Controller) and only access shares on the Samba server, can
> we get around having to get the extra client licenses?  I

Microsoft's position on Win2k licencing is that: 

"You need ... a Windows 2000 Server Client Access License (CAL) for
each client computer that is used by an authenticated user or that
uses Windows 2000 Server Services."

... and ...

"An authenticated user is one who directly or indirectly uses the
Windows 2000 Server Integrated Sign-on Service or receives credentials
from the Windows 2000 Active Directory(TM) service."

[Source:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/guide/server/pricing/model.asp ]

So my reading is that if you're using a Samba server in a Windows 2000
domain, you need a CAL for each PC accessing that server.

> would rather not do it this way, but if we're going to use
> Linux/Samba as the PDC for our file serving, we would
> probably need to use a different domain than the Win2000
> machines, causing more complexity - the issue we're trying
> to avoid.  We Could reinstall the 2 Win2000 servers, and run
> the domain in legacy mode, but that's not the most wonderful
> option, either.  Especially since that's someone else's
> jurisdiction, and they wouldn't go for that too easily.

Martin
-- 
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