[Samba] Samba PDC + OpenLDAP + Samba BDC

[David Trask]

jht at samba.org on Friday, February 18, 2005 at 9:58 AM +0000 wrote:
>I wrote that advice and it believe it has been updated in the on-line
>version 
>available from:
>http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/Samba-HOWTO-Collection.pdf
>
>Do not take that guideline as cast in stone. Most sites can get away with
>much 
>more than that. I know of sites with around 500 windows clients and just
>a 
>PDC.
>
>The key determinants of how many xDCs are needed are:
>	a. Network band-width
>	b. Load level on the DCs
>
>If the network bandwidth usage is low and the load on the PDC is
>relatively 
>low you may get away with 500 or more windows clients without any BDCs.

I'm one of them....I have 100+ clients on a network with no BDC...one
thing I can recommend though is putting the PDC on a gigabit backbone if
possible.  Any time you are using gigabit on the server and serving it
full speed by connecting to a gigabit port on a switch...it makes a
tremendous difference in the server's ability to work.  My PDC is a
Samba/LDAP server and it works fantastic with many LTSP clients....100+
WinXp clients with romaing profiles....and 200 Mac OS X laptops (this is
Maine, remember)....and the server is connected via gigabit.  That's my
$.02.  

David N. Trask
Technology Teacher/Coordinator
Vassalboro Community School
dtrask at vcs.u52.k12.me.us
(207)923-3100