[Samba] backup domain controller

[John H Terpstra]

On Wed, 21 May 2003, Andreas Baer wrote:

>
> hi there,
>
> my name is andreas,
> i am working on a company as an administrator for the local network
> which uses win2000-clients and unix/linux-servers in one domain.
>
> at the moment we have only one primary domain controller, which is
> the samba implementation for domain logons. samba works fine and there
> are no problems in it`s use,
> but the problem is that we have a "outpost" of our company in a
> different city. the clients from there are also connected to the
> samba-pdc which is at our location. this brings the need of a instant
> internet connection to send the request for domain logons or for the
> transfer of home directories for example.
>
> now to our problem,
>
> in one short sentence:
> we want to build up one or more backup domain controller for reducing
> traffic and costs for the company.
>
> one location of a bdc would be for example this "outpost".
> to solve this problem without microsoft-licences for use of domain
> controllers, i searched the internet for a solution.
> but it was very hard to find something about samba for use as a backup
> domain controller, because this function isn`t really implemented.
>
> my questions are for now:
>
>    - is there a chance to get samba work as a backup domain
>      controller, especially for the problem i write above?

Yes.

>
>    - if yes, where can i find some really good explainations and
>      howto`s for the solution of this problem?

http://samba.org/~jht/NT4migration/Samba-HOWTO-Collection.pdf

Chapters 4 - 8 might help you.

>
>    - if no, is there a chance that the next releases of samba will
>      have such an implementation, maybe version 3.x.x or earlier?

Can do with Samba-2.2.8a, even better with Samba-3.0.0 due out soon.

>
>    - a little help would be to explain the problem of the backup
>      domain controller in use with samba from the sight of a samba
>      developer

See document referred to.

>
> we really have to find a solution for our company`s network
> thanks for any reply and sorry, but my english is not the best. :)
>

Hope it helps. If not, please do let me know what is missing from this
document so I can improve it.


- John T.
-- 
John H Terpstra
Email: jht at samba.org