[Samba] Mounting Linux Samba Shares on Windows when Active Directory Server is down

[Andy Liebman]

Hi,

I am running Samba 3.6.19 and making my way through all the Active 
Directory documentation.  I have joined various Linux boxes to a 
Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory domain.  Windows 7 users who 
log on with their domain accounts can mount the correct shares exported 
by the Linux boxes without having to supply any additional credentials. 
 All working perfectly!

However, I have a question about whether there is anything I can do to 
allow Windows users to mount those same Linux shares if the Active 
Directory server is down/unreachable.  I am able to log onto Windows 7 
with domain accounts even when the Active Directory server is down (at 
least for some amount of time -- as long as the cached credentials are 
good). However, if I try browse the Linux box to mount shares, I get a 
popup dialog from Windows telling me, in essence, the Active Directory 
server is unreachable and there is no way to authenticate me.

Is there any way for Windows and Linux to do a "caching dance" so that 
Windows users are able to mount the Linux shares at least for some 
amount of time via cached credentials if the Active Directory server is 
down?  Setting the smb.conf option "winbind offline logon = true" 
doesn't seem to help here.

Is this possible with Samba 3.6.x?

Looking forward to some helpful replies!  Thanks in advance.

Andy Liebman