[Samba] Migration suggestions?

[Gordon Cunningham]

Hi All,

I'm running Samba 3.0.22-1 on Fedora Core 5 as a PDC for a single domain on
our network, which consists of about 50 machines at 9 sites across the state
(so far).  We're moving email to an Exchange 2003 server, which is going to
force me to move to AD in one form or another.  

Samba is currently running in tdbsam mode (it was a quick and dirty setup
issue at the time) and all users are domain users with local profiles.  This
is all working quite well today, but I now need to support Exchange 2003.  I
have been unsuccessful in migrating Samba tdbsam to LDAP to-date - not sure
of the problem just yet.  But what I'm really after is how to:

1. Migrate all users from the tdbsam to a new Windows AD on a new W2k3
server - possibly with a different domain name
2. Migrate users and workstation accounts in-place without loss of ACLs,
user settings, SIDs, and profiles.  I don't care about passwords - I can
reset those as needed after migration.

I've read how to do various migrations in many places, but as yet I have not
found my exact situation described, nor have I found a discussion or
step-by-step instructions about how to proceed.  For example, I believe I
need to have LDAP working in order to use the various domain migration tools
by both MS and open-source, correct?  

The goal is to prevent me from having to travel to migrate all users
manually at all offices, and reduce the impact to the end users.  I do have
other machines that I can temporarily use to migrate, but I do not really
know what the steps might be to get SID history and other info (if I need
that) to minimize hitting every workstation across the state.  I'd like to
get this all set up and migrate office by office, adding people to Exchange
in the process.  It would be better if I could migrate them through a logon
script or some other hands-off way as all of these sites, except where I sit
in HQ, are remote and do not have IT help.

Can anyone show me the steps/options or point me to more tutorials that fit
my scenario?  And please don't just tell me I should use Samba unless it can
reduce my administrative overhead in managing the domain and Exchange -  I'm
looking for integrated administration tools.  I'd prefer to stay with Samba,
but it's just not that simple in this case.

Thanks.
 

- Gordon Cunningham