[Samba] Samba/DLAP Howto

[listserv.traffic at sloop.net]

> On Sunday 21 May 2006 17:30, listserv.traffic at sloop.net wrote:
>> (I sent this once, but it didn't seem to appear, apologies in advance
>> if it is a duplicate.)
>>
>> Newbie here...wanting to implement and test Samba (current version, 3.0.22)
>> as a PDC on LDAP backend.
>>
>> I'm looking for a good how to.

> Write it!  That's how this sort of problem gets fixed!

I may well do so. However, I first have to figure out how to do it so
I can write about it. (I don't want to be one of those "those that
can't, teach" disasters.)

I've hated to waste time here on the list-serv solving dumb newbie
style problems that undoubtedly will come back as something I missed
in reading, or in some documentation somewhere, so I have not wanted
to ask. Perhaps in working to solve this, and perhaps write a
step-by-step how-to I'll do that more. Someone please stop me before I
make a fool of myself - if I start to do so.

>>
>> I've already looked at Ignacio Coupeau, CTI, University of Navarra and
>> the IDEALX stuff and find them wanting. (Three passes attempting to
>> make the IDEALX stuff work were a bust...but perhaps that just says more
>> about my skills than IDEALX's how to...)
>>
>> "The Official Samba-3" Howto book is even lighter.

> Sorry to hear that it is too light.

> Did you check the book "Samba-3 by Example"?  May be worth a look if you did
> not find it previously. Check chapter 5. You can download it from:
>         http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/Samba3-ByExample.pdf

I hadn't seen this, and at first glance, it looks helpful. Let me look
it over. I'm trying to make it as idiot-level as possible. In short,
what I'd write is this... An inquisitive Windows admin with only minimal experience with Linux/Unix
could come and use the ideal how-to to get a working PDC with LDAP.

Perhaps that's too idealistic, but that's what I would like to do. It
would give those without a lot of skill an immediate boost in seeing
they COULD get something working right away. Sure it won't be an ideal
production environment, but knowing they could get it working right
away will give them the courage to stick it out for the long term.

Many of us, in these circumstances, feel like we've been dropped off
at the bottom of the Khumbu Icefall on Everest, sans guide, food and tent. Faced with
such a daunting task, I think many simply give up and roll over and
die. I'd like to change that.

>> I'd prefer a pretty step-by-step how-to, that doesn't assume I know
>> much at all.

> That's what I set out to produce - is the documentation really completely
> useless?

No, not useless. I'm sorry if I offend. Just there are such gaps of
knowledge that *I* don't have, that filling in those gaps takes huge
amounts of time. I'd like to help fill in those gaps for people who
know less, even than I. Think learning your first lines of programming code - you know
"Hello world." and all that. (Though you probably wrote a optimizing C compiler for your first project, so I'm sure no sympathy there... *grin*)

>> All are confusing to me. Perhaps I'm just too lazy, but I don't think
>> that's all...
>>
>> Is there a native english speaker who has done a recent and
>> comprehensive how to? Is there one somewhere on the Samba site I'm not
>> aware of?

> Well, I don't know how well you did your homework. If you checked out the book
> "Samba-3 By Example" and decided it is not decent then maybe you really do
> need to start writing. I am sure users will thank you for creating better
> documentation. Will you also contribute the document sources to the Samba
> project?

Glad to. Point me in the right direction, and I'll try.

>> If one doesn't exist, I'd be glad to assist in doing one. I'd like a tech
>> guru to review it and make suggestions so I don't produce a piece of crap
>> that's useless to anyone else.

> Hmmm. Perhaps you should define what you mean by "guru".

Someone to make sure I'm not telling people, for example, to make the
whole LDAP directory readable by anyone. I want to provide a good
how-to, not just a how-to.

>> Again, I'd prefer a pretty step-by-step how-to, that doesn't assume I know
>> much at all.
>>
>> That's also the target output I'll use to create my how-to, should it
>> be a useful thing to others.
>>
>> ----
>> One further question. Is FC5 a decent platform to do this on, or is
>> there something better, like say CentOS?

> FC5 is fine. What makes any Linux platform better than another? Is it the same
> thing as that which makes one landscape more decent than another? Honestly -
> what sort of answers would satisfy this question? Are you seeking to discover
> what most people run Samba on? Are you asking about commercial or private
> use?

> The Samba documentation was written using SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9
> because I had that, its what my customers use, and I did not have Red Hat
> Enterprise Linux Server 4 at the time of writing. You see, my preference is
> to use a commercially supported Linux distro. But Debian. Gentoo, Ubuntu, or
> any other can be used - as can FreeBSD, etc.

>> The eventual target environment is mainly small business (<100 users)
>> work-group servers.

> Your target market is spot on - but which Linux distro is mostly used in small
> to medium businesses? Who supplies and supports this Linux distro? What are
> the needs of this support channel?

> I hope you find better answers than I did.

Advice, I guess is what I'm looking for. But perhaps the range of
answers is so vast that asking for it simply wastes a huge number of
cycles writing about it, and really offering little help.

> - John T.


Thanks,
Greg