[Samba] to AD or not to AD

[Aaron Kincer]

I am not sure if you are using Samba for DC duties as you don't 
explicitly say, but I can give you some general things to be aware of:

-Windows NT < SP3 and Windows 95 clients have issues in native 2003 
domains due to SMB packet signing (if that's what you are moving to). 
You can address that with some updates and/or configuration:

http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/8f492d26-379b-4743-a20a-5c5467108e491033.mspx?mfr=true

-I'm sure you know, but your NT servers can no longer be DCs. So if you 
have DCs at remote locations that are NT, they will have to be upgraded 
or replaced.

-Corruption of your forest/domain IS possible during the upgrade. Backup 
prior to conversion is critical unless you feel like chancing having to 
rebuild your domain and rejoin every PC on your network.

I'm sure others can think of more things to be aware of, but that's my 
short list. If you are using Samba as a DC, I'm pretty sure there are 
more things to take into account.

Franz Strebel wrote:
> Greetings folks,
>
> I'm currently using the latest samba 3.x versions but my servers
> are in an NT4 domain which has a trust relationship with an AD
> in mixed mode.  This has worked flawlessly for the past few years
> (I started with samba 2.x series).
>
> I am heavily considering getting rid of the domain and just moving
> my servers into the AD itself.  Are there any pitfalls I should be
> wary of in doing the transition?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Regards,
> Franz