samba - Jan 2011 - Samba migration to a new server

Hi all, ?

Is it possible to migrate Samba to a new server without breaking Domain
membership of all the clients ?

I didn?t get any info on that issue, is there someone that has previous
experience of doing that ? Or maybe a link to some relevant info ? 

I have currently a Samba 3.5.6 server that acts as a PDC and print Server,
with tdbsam backend, no LDAP at all, no roaming profile. I have to migrate
samba to a new server. Everything (Samba release, Domain Name, shares, ...)
will remain the same except for the DNS name and IP address of the server,
and the samba server netbios name.

What is the best way to proceed to make this migration as seamless as
possible for all users (more than 200 user accounts with more than 200 PC in
the domain) ? I guess that just moving all the samba configuration files
from the old machine to the new one will not be enough. 

Thanks in advance. I really need your help.

Henri

It may actually be easier to move everything including hostname and IP to
the new server and just shutdown the old (this would have to be off hours.)

You should be able to do the following-
 - Configure the new server as a BDC.   I don't know for use if you can
configure a BDC with a TDB backend- if not you may have to make the new
server a PDC.
 -  Copy the samba private directory (with the tdb files) from the 1st
server to the 2nd server.   In effect, this temporarily syncs the two
servers.
 -  promote the new server to PDC and the old server to BDC.  
 -  after hours-  move the shared directories to the BDC, update login
script if necessary.


Clients will connect to either a PDC or a BDC for authentication.-  it
doesn't really matter that much except that clients will prefer a BDC if
available.

Once you take the OLD server offline you may need to have clients reboot to
have them use the new server for authentication.  But at least domain
membership will not be broken?

Are you using a WINS server?  

-----Original Message-----
From: samba-bounces at lists.samba.org [mailto:samba-bounces at lists.samba.org]
On Behalf Of henri
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 7:26 AM
To: samba at lists.samba.org
Subject: [Samba] Samba migration to a new server

Hi all, ?

Is it possible to migrate Samba to a new server without breaking Domain
membership of all the clients ?

I didn?t get any info on that issue, is there someone that has previous
experience of doing that ? Or maybe a link to some relevant info ? 

I have currently a Samba 3.5.6 server that acts as a PDC and print Server,
with tdbsam backend, no LDAP at all, no roaming profile. I have to migrate
samba to a new server. Everything (Samba release, Domain Name, shares, ...)
will remain the same except for the DNS name and IP address of the server,
and the samba server netbios name.

What is the best way to proceed to make this migration as seamless as
possible for all users (more than 200 user accounts with more than 200 PC in
the domain) ? I guess that just moving all the samba configuration files
from the old machine to the new one will not be enough. 

Thanks in advance. I really need your help.

Henri 

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Hallo, henri,

Du meintest am 12.01.11:
> Is it possible to migrate Samba to a new server without breaking
> Domain membership of all the clients ?
> I didn?t get any info on that issue, is there someone that has
> previous experience of doing that ? Or maybe a link to some relevant
> info ?
> I have currently a Samba 3.5.6 server that acts as a PDC and print
> Server, with tdbsam backend, no LDAP at all, no roaming profile. I
> have to migrate samba to a new server. Everything (Samba release,
> Domain Name, shares, ...) will remain the same except for the DNS
> name and IP address of the server, and the samba server netbios name.
> What is the best way to proceed to make this migration as seamless as
> possible for all users (more than 200 user accounts with more than
> 200 PC in the domain) ?
My usual way:

- copy/overwrite "/etc/samba" to the new machine
- copy/overwrite all user account and all machine account informations  
(especially in "/etc/passwd" and "/etc/shadow") to the new
machine

- Stop samba on both machines
- Shut off all Clients (that may be a bit neurotic ...)
- start samba on the new machine

- Start one client for testing

- if ok: start the other clients

Last friday a colleague and I have done these steps once more,  
successfully.

Viele Gruesse!
Helmut

Helmut,

Thank you too, for your kind response.
I asked the same question on the list a week ago, but no response then.
The guidance is much appreciated and I hope to perform a test at the
end of the week.

Mike