LDAP & Samba

[Sean Elble]

Hello,

I am seriously considering switching over my authentication system from the
standard passwd/smbpasswd, to a LDAP-based system, that can authenticate
*BOTH* UNIX and Windows systems and users. Here's a couple questions that I
have, and I would greatly appreciate some answers. ;-)

Will the schema file used by Samba also support UNIX users attempting to
authenticate? In other words, can I use the same LDAP server to authenticate
both Windows and UNIX users? I know I can setup Linux to authenticate
against a LDAP database, but is there any required schema for Linux to do
so, or will the schema provided with Samba work for this purpose? Also, if
this will work, what about Solaris? IRIX? I also have these systems, and I
would like to have them authenticate against my LDAP database, once setup,
as well.

Another question: will the Samba LDAP server setup also support being able
to be accessed from a program like Outlook Express, for the retrival of
e-mail addresses, etc?

Are there any major problems with the LDAP implementation in the SAMBA_2_2
branch? I plan on using it with XFS ACLs, and domain logons (obviously) . .
. also, I need to be able to continue to change passwords from Windows
clients . . . does Samba combined with LDAP support this? Are there any
problems that would prevent me from doing all of this? I would appreciate
anything you can send me . . . configuration files, additional schema files,
etc . . . I am totally inexperienced with LDAP, but I am going to sit down,
and set it up this weekend. I plan on installing OpenLDAP on my Sun
SPARCstation 5 running Linux this weekend, and I plan on using that as my
authentication source. Any and all notes regarding Samba & LDAP would be
*GREATLY* appreciated. Thanks, in advance!

-------------------------------------
 Sean P. Elble
 Systems/Network Engineer
 UNIX/Linux/Windows NT/2000
 SES Computer Systems
 elbles at sessys.com
-------------------------------------