Fw: Samba as Domain Controller

[Greg J. Zartman]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg J. Zartman" <greg at kwikfind.com>
To: "Eric Pilger" <pilger at higp.hawaii.edu>
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2001 11:05 AM
Subject: Re: Samba as Domain Controller


Eric,

 Good point!!!  Especially if you are going to use all of the functionality
 associated with a PDC.

 But, if all you want to do is centralize the password database for access
to
 shares, then Samba, acting as a PDC, is really oblivious to the client OS.
 Win9x doesn't have jack for security at the OS level, but it still must
 adhere to network security protocol when accessing shares on the network.
 To avoid having to input usernames and passwords on every machine in my
 office, I'd opt to use domain over a workgroup any day, even if all of my
 clients were Win9x.

 I'm not familiar with Win NT 4.0 vs Win 2k domains at the coding level.  I
 do know that Win 2k will participate in a domain with a Win NT 4.0 PDC just
 as easily as on with a Win 2k PDC.  The only difference being that it won't
 utilize the active directory service (which I don't like anyway as it
 confuses most of my users.)  Samba in essence emulates a Win NT 4.0 PDC.
 One thing that I've seen quoted in the mailing list quite a bit is the
 necessity to set the Win 2k client in "legacy" mode to connect to Samba.  I
 don't think this statement is entirely accurate.  Win 2k, as a client,
 doesn't have a legacy mode.  It is simply backward compatible to the Win NT
 4.0 style domain.  It will recognize the an active directory based server
 doesn't exist and it will simply join the domain without support for the
 active directory service.

 Regards,

 Greg J. Zartman, P.E.


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Eric Pilger" <pilger at higp.hawaii.edu>
> To: "Greg J. Zartman" <greg at kwikfind.com>
> Sent: Friday, March 02, 2001 10:36 AM
> Subject: Re: Samba as Domain Controller
>
>
> >
> >
> > "Greg J. Zartman" wrote:
> >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Richard Sharpe" <sharpe at ns.aus.com>
> > > To: "Adam Lang" <aalang at rutgersinsurance.com>;
> <samba-ntdom at us5.samba.org>
> > > Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2001 9:08 AM
> > > Subject: Re: Samba as Domain Controller
> > >
> > > > At 04:23 PM 2/28/01 -0500, Adam Lang wrote:
> > > > >I'm looking into using Samba as the domain controller for my
network
> > > (about
> > > > >75 users on windows 9x).
> > > >
> > > > For Win9X machines you do not need a PDC. Samba 2.0.7 will do fine
for
> > > > these machines.
> > >
> > > This doesn't make any sense.  What does the client OS have to do with
> the
> > > weather or no you need a PDC???  A PDC basically centralizes netword
> admin
> > > on one machine.  The client OS makes no difference.
> > >
> >
> > Win9X, while it will pretend to use a PDC, does not really recognize the
> > concept (it's really just acting like a glorified Workgroup). Samba
2.0.7
> > works fine because it isn't really being asked to provide a PDC.
> >
> > WinNT can ask for a PDC, and Samba 2.0.7 is still up to the task. Once
> again,
> > Samba 2.0.7 is sufficient.
> >
> > Win2000 asks for a DIFFERENT kind of PDC (God knows what Microsoft has
> done
> > now). Samba 2.0.7 can't provide it and you will need to use 2.2.0.
> >
> > In the final analysis, the client OS is the sole determinant in  the
need
> for
> > a PDC.
> >
> > --
> > Eric J. Pilger
> > Systems Administrator
> > Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology/SOEST
> > pilger at pgd.hawaii.edu
> > (808)956-6321 (Voice/FAX)
> >
> >
> >
> >
>