machine accounts question

[Greg J. Zartman]

Machine accounts are very similar to user accounts in that user accounts
relate to a person and machine account to a computer.  In order for a
machine to logon to a domain, it must have an account with the computer that
controls that domain, the PDC (very similar to you having to have a user
account on a computer in order to log onto that computer).

Once the machine logs onto the PDC, then the PDC trusts what that computer
does.  This trust allows you to access resources in the domain without
having to input a user password every time you want to do something with a
domain resource.  Really the domain is like a linux user group in that all
computer are members of the <your domain name> group.

It can be a little difficult to distinguish between a workgroup and a
domain.  They are in fact very simular from Samba's view point.  The primary
advantage to the domain is that authentication is centralized at the PDC
(i.e., you don't have to setup user accounts on every machine in order for a
person to log on resources on a given machine.  The PDC keeps a central user
database for you and control authentication)

Hope this helps a little.

Greg



> -----Original Message-----
> From: samba-ntdom-admin at lists.samba.org
> [mailto:samba-ntdom-admin at lists.samba.org]On Behalf Of Tony Ricker
> Sent: Tuesday, 2 October 2001 2:51 PM
> To: Samba; Samba NT-Dom
> Subject: machine accounts question
>
>
> Hello all,
>     My question is what functionality do machine accounts have in a
> samba PDC set up? I can authenticate a user and use samba shares sans
> any issues, without a machine account. I have done some research but
> have not found any concrete info pertaining to this. I appreciate
> everyone's time.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Tony
> -------------------------------
> Tony Ricker
> Technology Coordinator
> SLUCare - P.M.O.
> St. Louis University
> Phone:  314.977.6844
> E-mail: rickera2 at slu.edu
> -------------------------------
> "In the beginners mind, there
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> experts mind, there are few"
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