[Samba] Samba and /etc/passwd

[Michael Heydon]

John Mazza wrote:
> This sounds like a situation just crying out for Winbind authentication.
> I'd say set the boxes up for that rather than messing around with
> the /etc/passwd files.
>
> With Winbind, you don't need "local" accounts.
>
>   
I've never messed with AD so correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't 
authenticating against AD *require* winbind? I assumed that the AD 
domain users were all handled by winbind and he wanted to sync 
/etc/passwd for other users who aren't part of the domain.
>> Shain Miley wrote:
>>     
>>> I am 
>>> currently setting up a server to authenticate against AD.  I have that 
>>> configured fine.   
>>>
>>> we need a way 
>>> to sync the info in /etc/passwd between servers, these two serves will 
>>> have a different list of users,groups,etc
If it was just domain users, then the list of users, groups, etc would 
be the same for all servers.

On a slightly related note, what happens to winbind when the server it 
is authing against goes down? It doesn't replicate the data does it? 
Which would suggest you would be relying on caches, only users who have 
logged on recently enough to be in the cache will be able to log in. Or 
have I missed something?

*Michael Heydon - IT Administrator *
michaelh at jaswin.com.au <mailto:michaelh at jaswin.com.au>