[Samba] Removing Samba+LDAP, replacing W2k3+AD

[Mark Johnson]

Collins, Kevin wrote:
> Four years ago, I migrated our network from Windows NT based servers to
> Linux, Samba+LDAP based setups.  This setup has worked fine.  Last year,
> we replaced our Exchange 5.5 server - the last "real" Windows  server -
> with Scalix.  This last decision has come back to bite me.
>
> Several new "thingys" that the boss wants, among other things, are
> forcing me to implement Exchange 2003.  Because I know that Exchange
> 2003 requires AD and my company has three offices separated by a WAN,
> I'm going to be forced to rip out my Samba underpinnings.  The fact is,
> I don't know the best way to accomplish this.
>
> I know the one way that this will work is to bring up an AD domain
> beside the Samba domain and move things around by hand - but that is
> going to cause a unbelievable nightmare with user profiles, and machine
> accounts, and all the other crap that goes along with being part of a
> domain.
>
> So my question is this:  Can I bring up a Windows 2k3 machine as a
> member server in the Samba domain.  Promote it to become an AD Domain
> Controller in mixed mode - retaining the domain SID, user and machine
> accounts and such so that I do not have to touch my workstations?
>
>   
I really curious what features of Exchange 2003 you have to have.  We 
started with Exchange 5.5, migrated to Oracle Collaboration Suite.  
Threw that out and now use E-Groupware for collaboration with LDAP and 
Samba for the rest.  We also use open source for our phone system so 
integrating it all together hasn't been bad.

Hate to see someone go the other direction :)

Mark