[Samba] Samba 3 LDAP account db concepts

[John Goubeaux]

Folks,

I some very basic questions with regard to Samba and LDAP backend 
account database use. I am familiar with LDAP and have been
using ldap for a while now to store info for a variety of services. I 
have been using Samba as a stand alone file server with user
account info in /etc/passwd for a while as well. I am now trying to 
build samba 3.3.0 as a standalone, non PDC, on solaris 10
using a SUN DS 5.2 as my back end account db.

I have read through much of the available documentation and it seems 
clear that one can achieve a setup where ALL of the user
account info can be stored in a DS however i am confused by some of what 
I am reading, for example the
"The Official Samba 3.2.x HOWTO and Reference Guide" in chp 11 says:


"There are a few points to stress that the ldapsam does not provide. The 
LDAP support referred to in this documentation
does not include: A means of replacing /etc/passwd."

Do I  still need to employ LDAP NSS and PAM modules ?

Ver 3.3.0 does not seem to support a configure --with-ldapsam  option, 
does this mean that the defualt --with-ldap
installs what used to be done with ldapsam ?

The referenced "Samba (v.3) PDC LDAP howto" by Ignacio Coupeau  (2004) 
is achieved with configure --with-ldapsam
and no mention of pam modules is made.

So, my basic question is:  What are my options, given what i want to 
achieve? And can someone shed some more light
on the concepts involved ?

Thanks in advance and sorry if I have missed something obvious in the docs.

-john

-- 

John Goubeaux
Systems Administrator
Gevirtz Graduate School of Education
UC Santa Barbara
Phelps Hall 3534
805 893-8190