[Samba] Heterogeneous mix OS smb share home redirection

[David C]

On Fri, 21 Sep 2018, 12:54 Robert Wooden via samba, <samba at lists.samba.org>
wrote:

> I have been reading every article I can find to determine how to share home
> directory redirection across multiple OS workstations.
>
> The end result I am looking for is to store user home directory on a member
> server and allow (in my case) Windows and Linux (Ubuntu in my case)
> workstations to access their home directory in a single sign (to any OS)
> situation. (On Ubuntu, leaning toward using winbind authentication. Yes,
> sssd works but sssd is more a redhat based option, not that it does not
> work with Ubuntu.)
>
> I have been doing "folder redirection" of Windows workstations for years
> with roaming profiles using GPO policies.
>
> Yes, Centrify and PBIS are viable options but, (again, in my case) I would
> prefer to use generally available linux OS solutions.
>
> Comes my question, is it a good or bad idea to share home directory in this
> heterogeneous workstation mix?
>

I've worked in many places that do this. If you have separate groups of
Linux and Windows users i.e the Windows users will never log into Linux and
vice versa then it's pretty straightforward to set up. If the users will be
switching between each OS it's still pretty straightforward but you have
some considerations around locking/cache coherence.

>
> And question two, how are others doing this?
>

At my current shop, Samba for Windows, nfs for Linux. All Linux boxes are
joined to the domain (in this case AD) with Winbind, file servers also
joined with Winbind. Winbind is using rfc2307 and uid/gid/shells/home
directory paths are all stored centrally in LDAP (AD)

Samba exports of the home dirs are mapped as a network drive in Windows and
Desktop, Downloads, Documents are redirected to the network drive

The upshot of this is a user can log into Windows, save a file on her
desktop, log into Linux and the file will be accessible on her Linux
desktop.



> Thoughts?
>
> Thank you.
>
> Bob Wooden
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