[Samba] multiple ldap servers in bdc/pdc environment

[Thomas Hannan]

Hi all,

I'm setting up a number of samba DC's across several branch offices
using the Samba 3.0.0 release's native LDAP support. I'd like to build
some redundancy into my setup, such as having slave LDAP servers in case
the master is down/unavailable. However, when I have multiple ldapsam
entries in my smb.conf I get duplicate or triplicate users listed when
performing a /usr/local/samba/bin/pdbedit -L, and all 2 or 3 LDAP
servers get queried no matter what. Is there anyway to list multiple
backup LDAP servers instead of just having overlapping SAMs?

Also, there will be some remote offices connected via relatively
high-latency WAN links to the master LDAP server. Will this be a problem
in terms of adding machine accounts or changing passwords (and that data
being replicated to the local slave LDAP server at the branch offices in
a timely manner)? I'd like to only have the remote offices send traffic
over the WAN links when absolutely necessary (such as changing passwords
or receiving replica updates pushed out from the master LDAP server).

Regards,
Thomas

[global]                                                                        passdb backend = ldapsam:ldap://192.168.1.60   
    ldapsam:ldap://192.168.1.215 
    ldapsam:ldap://192.168.1.98                                   
ldap suffix = ou=accounts,ou=people,dc=pharm-olam,dc=com         
ldap group suffix = ou=groups                                          
ldap machine suffix = ou=machines                                      
ldap user suffix = ou=users                                             
ldap admin dn = 
  uid=smbldap,ou=accounts,ou=people,dc=pharm-olam,dc=com
ldap ssl = off