[Samba] Group Polic Software Install Packages located on SAMBA share

[Ed Plese]

On 11/29/07, Michael Melia Jr. <m.melia.jr at petrocelli.com> wrote:
> I am running debian etch and samba 3.0.24.  I have it configured to for
> krb5, winbind, and ads.  Everything is working perfect as far as
> accessing shares, authentication using AD logins.  I have one issue.  I
> have some computer group policies on my AD server to do various software
> installs. The msi and files themselves are hosted on a share on my samba
> server.  The software installs happen when windows is first loading
> before the login prompt is presented and the user logs in.  The software
> installs always fail saying it cannot access the files.  My thoughts are
> that since the user has not logged in yet, that the samba server doesn't
> not how to authenticate the machine to access to files.  Has anyone had
> experience with this issues?  Anyone installed software through group
> policy and hosting that msi's on a samba share?   Any help would be
> greatly appreciated.

The software is installed under the context of the SYSTEM account
(i.e. the computer account) on the workstations.  Make sure that the
Domain Computers domain group (or some other group containing the
computer accounts) has permission to access both the share and the
files.

The Samba log files are a good resource to check for any errors as to
why the computer accounts aren't able to access the files.  An easy
way to start up cmd.exe running as the SYSTEM account to use for
troubleshooting and testing permissions is with the AT command:

C:\>at HH:MM /interactive cmd.exe

where HH:MM is the current time plus 1 minute in 24 hour notation.


Ed Plese