[Samba] Re: Re: setting up Samba server as a PDC

[Steve A]

Eric Evans wrote:

Hi Eric, why not start by posting your smb.conf?

> OK, I hate to seem like I'm terribly dense here, but I guess I am.  What
> is a "machine account"?  I'm only familiar with accounts for users, not
> machines.

Every machine that joins a Windows domain has a machine account, because the 
machine logs itself onto the domain when it boots up.  Just like users have 
to have an account on a domain, so do machines.  A machine account is the 
name of the machine, appended with a dollar symbol ($).

>> or b) make use of the 'add machine script' in
>> smb.conf.
>
> Sorry, but what "add machine script" are you referring to?  I'm not
> familiar with any add machine script.

In smb.conf, there is an option 'add machine script' which is the script to 
call when someone tried to join a machine to a domain.  Samba uses this 
script to create a UNIX account (and Samba account) for that machine.

For example, my smb.conf in FreeBSD, is:

add machine script = pw user add -n %u -g winstations -c Windows_Machine -s 
/usr/sbin/nologin

...which adds a user %u, with primary group set to 'winstations' with 
descriptive name 'Windows_Machine' and no login shell.  %u is supplied by 
Samba so don't worry about that.

> I don't mean to be unnecessarily annoying, but I've never used domains
> before and I'm still very unclear on what exactly is required to set up a
> domain controller.  Is there some good documentation on this somewhere

This should help:

http://us1.samba.org/samba/docs/using_samba/toc.html

Go to chapter 4.

> that I could refer to?  The Samba documentation seems to be sadly
> deficient on the topic of how to set up a Samba server as a PDC.  If
> anyone has any further advice or guidance on how in the world one can get
> a Samba server to work as a PDC, I'd greatly appreciate it.

The official Howto is more a collection of FAQs, than a step-by-step guide. 
Painful though it is to read, it is actually useful if you can find the info 
you want.

I'm relatively new to Samba too, so understand how difficult it is to learn 
and I'm just glad I can be of assistance to someone else.  One good turn 
deserves another and all that!

Kind regards,
Steve :)