[Samba] Samba newbie question...

[Robert Adkins]

Dave,

	Pick up "Using Samba" from O'Reilly. It will definitely give you a great   
base about how Samba, SMB, NMB and a brief intro into a Samba PDC. Of   
course, the information is mildly dated, such is the curse of virtually   
ALL software reference material, but the information can prove to be   
immeasurable in building a Samba server and Samba PDC.

	That book will fill you in on all of the required information for   
getting a basic Samba setup running. You would also want to take a look   
at the available online documentation that comes included with the   
release of Samba that you eventually choose.

	The best thing to do, to become familiar with the whole thing, would be   
to create a test machine and just start playing around. In order to get   
Samba and a number of other services that I use up and running, I utilize   
a number of tools. I typically start off with a GUI configuration tool,   
as that will get me a working configuration file, then I dive into the   
file and see how the structure is, which greatly assists in trouble   
shooting down the road and quick CLI edits at a later time.

	To do that, I use a combination of Webmin, which has proven very   
invaluable to me, SWAT and also the CLI. SWAT, which is accessible   
through Webmin, has a number of useful HOWTOs included within it, there   
is one on making a Samba PDC and a Samba BDC which ONLY works for a Samba   
PDC. I wouldn't recommend using SWAT to edit your smb.conf file as it   
will over write all of the options you may have put down in a working   
file and it will alter the structure of the file that you have become   
familiar with. (It happened to me and I was very unhappy with the   
result.)

	Much of the other issues, like who and what group gets to write to where   
is covered by the file permissions in Linux. To learn how to properly   
implement those, I would recommend picking up the following book, "Linux   
Administration; A Beginner's Guide", unless you are already familiar with   
 Linux and UNIX Administration. It is available at the following Link.   
 http://shop.osborne.com/cgi-bin/osborne/0072131365.html

	I picked up the Solaris version of this book and it greatly expanded my   
knowledge of UNIX in general as it is geared towards assisting Windows   
Admins hone their skills on a UNIX system. It makes some great   
comparisons that will be immeasurably helpful. (As you can tell, I can't   
recommend this reference enough.)

	Of course, if you are already quite familiar with how UNIX and Linux   
operates, then I must apologize for recommending a beginning guide. Good   
luck!

Regards,
Robert Adkins II
IT Manager/Buyer
Impel Industries, Inc.
Ph. 586-254-5800
Fx. 586-254-5804


 -----Original Message-----
From: daveman at bellatlantic.net [mailto:daveman at bellatlantic.net]
Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2002 12:53 PM
To: samba at lists.samba.org; Robert Adkins
Cc: samba at lists.samba.org
Subject: Re: [Samba] Samba newbie question...

   

On Sun, Nov 24, 2002 at 12:11:00PM -0500, Robert Adkins wrote:
> Dave,
>
> 	I believe that you should first ask what Windows 2000 Active Directory   
    

> features you must have before seeing what Samba can do for you. You may   
    

> find that you have little or no need for most of the features of AD.
>
> 	If all you are looking for is a server to provide you with file   
shares,
> domain authentication and printer sharing. Then Samba is perfect the   
way
> that it is. You can create and manage a number of user accounts and
> groups, control their access create quotas for users via the built-in   
    

> Linux/UNIX tools on whatever OS you choose.
>
> 	If you say what features you are looking to emulate, I am certain that   
    

> more then a few of us can give you the right answers or point you in   
the
> correct direction.
>
> Regards,
> Robert Adkins II
> IT Manager/Buyer
> Impel Industries, Inc.
> Ph. 586-254-5800
> Fx. 586-254-5804
>
I definitely want to do all of what you have mentioned. I don't   
specifically need too many directory features but I do want to be able to   
have a single, replicable database of user and machine accounts. The   
things I am particularly worried about are things like the NTLOGIN folder   
on the PDC, how to tell user accounts where to find their shared   
directories and mapped drives, how to actually make these changes when   
creating a new account with samba, how to deal with MS kerberos and SAMs,   
etc... Basically, I am a being cautious about actually replacing a very   
important machine in my infrastructure without first knowing EXACTLY what   
I am doing and what any shortcomings I will run into might be. A document   
that addresses issues such as these, from my perspective, would be   
INVALUABLE to someone looking to move a domain to samba control.

Perhaps what I am really looking for this time around is a book that   
actually addresses these issues since I do have so many questions. Alas,   
that is why I joined this list. ;-)

Thanks,
David Shepard
>
>  -----Original Message-----
> From: daveman at bellatlantic.net [mailto:daveman at bellatlantic.net]
> Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2002 2:27 PM
> To: samba at lists.samba.org; Robert Adkins
> Subject: Re: [Samba] Samba newbie question...
>
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 22, 2002 at 04:40:20PM -0500, daveman at bellatlantic.net   
wrote:
> > Can Samba be used as a complete replacement for a Windows 2000 Active   
    

> Directory server? I have some vague notion that this can be   
accomplished
> by using a combination of OpenLDAP, Samba, MIT Kerberos, and the   
OpenAFS
> file system. To say the least, the descriptions I have found have been   
    

> vague as to whether or not I will be able to completely replace the
> functionality of an Active Directory server with a similar setup.
> >
> > If this is possible, could someone point me to reasonably good
> documentation on the subject?
> >
> > Thanks so much.
> > --David
>
> >From the number of replies I received on this,(none) it seems fair to   
    

> assume that this is not entirely possible. Anyone able to tell me what   
    

> the current limitations are? I would really like to set up a system   
using
> samba as much as possible for domain and file serving operations. I
> suppose I can supplement samba with a win2k server if I have to... ;-)
>
> Thanks,
> David
>
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