[Samba] Samba and Active Directory Implications

[Rob Burtelow]

If anyone would have any input on the following I'd appreciate it.

There are currently 9 linux servers in production where I work, about 6
of them do file sharing for over 1500 users.  Everything is running
great, not a single problem on the whole network.  I got word about two
months ago that our entire network infrastructure would be moving to
Active Directory.  I started freaking out thinking we were going to lose
all our servers, but then the beta came out with AD support.  So I
compiled the beta on a FreeBSD box and a Linux box, and by the end of
the day everything was working great in our test environment.  

So I thought I had saved all of our Linux boxes.  But it seems that
management is worried about having Linux boxes in the new structure. 
There are a few things they need to know, basically:

1.) How having linux boxes in AD affects replication
2.) If it is possible to authenticate against the Linux boxes without
actually joining the AD domain

I personally can't see any problem in the boxes actually joining the
domain, but my thoughts alone aren't going to convince them.  I need
proof that it won't adversely affect the operation of the network.  

So if anyone would have any input on the above points I would be
grateful, or else I'm out of a job next year :-(

--
Thanks,

Rob
rob at yewnicks.org