[Samba] samba domain planning questions

[Vilius Šumskas]

Hello,

We are considering to migrate from Novell eDirectory to Apple Open Directory + Windows Services from Apple as Domain Controller. I've read a lot of books and manuals and forums about Apple Directory Services, Domain Controllers and Samba, but there are lots of unanswered questions still. Mainly about naming and planning of different things on the network. I also tried to post to Apple forums without no luck. As Apple Windows Services runs on Samba 2.2 I thought this list might help me.

We are going to have two servers with Open Directory Master on one of them and Open Directory Replica on another. Also these servers will be Primary Domain Controller and Backup Domain Controller respectively. We also would like to have all (or most) services Kerberized.
 
First of all - domain name. In Windows Active Directory Domain network domain name could be everything you'd like from "domain.company.com" to just "domain". However I'm not sure about Samba. Does domain name must be FQDN? Is this compulsory? What is your recommendation?

Second - server name. Again, in Windows AD environment I would go with something like server1.domain.company.com and server2.domain.company.com. Does this apply to Samba too?

Third - DNS SRV entries. In Windows AD I must configure a lot of DNS SRV related stuff. But Samba/Apple manuals says nothing about DNS. Do I need these entries? Do I need to resolve domain name or server name? Or both?

Currently I tested three configurations with one server (listed below) and they all work. But which is better? If I choose one or another, will I run into trouble in the future (for example by adding servers)?


Tested configs:
1) domain name - "domain.company.com"
   server name - "server1.domain.company.com"

2) domain name - "company.com"
   server name - "server1.company.com"

3) domain name - "domain.company.com" (config from apple manual)
   Server name - "domain.company.com"

ANY even tiny information would be useful, because I haven't found much on the web.

-- 
  Best Regards,

  Vilius Šumskas
  LNK TV system administrator
  mob.: +370 614 75713
  http://www.lnk.lt