[Samba] creating user problems under samba 3

[Jonathan Johnson]

John H Terpstra wrote:

>On Friday 15 April 2005 13:15, Victor Medina wrote:
>  
>
>>Hi all!!
>>
>>I am using Samba 3 (3.0.4) and SuSE SLES 9. I am having troubles trying
>>to create new users and machines accounts on the newly created domain.
>>Could somebody answer me why i am receiving this error messages?
>>    
>>
>Also, have you followed the Samba documentation? The best document for 
>comparing your configuration with the official recommendations is the book 
>"Samba-3 by Exampe" available from Amazon.Com or by downloading from:
>
>http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/Samba-Guide.pdf
>
>This book is currently being updated. All my test work is done with SLES 9.
>  
>
>>linuxserv:~ # smbpasswd -m -a testmachine
>>Failed to initialise SAM_ACCOUNT for user testmachine$.
>>Failed to modify password entry for user testmachine$
>>linuxserv:~ # smbpasswd -a testmachine
>>New SMB password:
>>Retype new SMB password:
>>tdb_update_sam: Failing to store a SAM_ACCOUNT for [testmachine] without
>>a primary group RID
>>Failed to add entry for user testmachine.
>>Failed to modify password entry for user testmachine
>>    
>>
You might need to do:

linuxserv:~ # useradd -M testmachine$

to create the machine account in the Unix password database (usu. 
/etc/passwd) before attempting to add it to the Samba password database. 
Note that the -M option prevents the creation of a home directory and 
other default files, and the $ is required for machine accounts. Note 
also when adding machine accounts to Samba, the $ is automatically 
appended so you should NOT include it. Likewise for users, you may need 
to do:

linuxserv:~ # useradd someuser

Now that being said, it's also possible to use LDAP for all of your 
authentication, which would eliminate the need for adding machine and 
user accounts to the Unix password database. Heck, it would elminate the 
need FOR a unix password database. Don't ask me how (as I've never done 
it), but a fellow by the name of John H. Terpstra has written an 
excellent book on the subject, see above. ;-)

~Jonathan Johnson
jon at suti