samba - Nov 1997 - Replacing an NT Domain

Hello,

We are going to be using samba in our NT network as a file server.  Thanks
to everyone who is involved with Samba -- it's really neat now that I have
it working properly.  I especially like the ability to block requests based
on IP#! :-) My question is whether you guys know of any way to get rid of our 
NT PDC but still have the ability to log in as any user in the department from 
any NT workstation.  Can samba reliably process NT login requests yet, or is 
there an alternate way of replicating account data between workstations (so that
we don't have to have a Microsoft PDC processing login requests)?  Or is
having
an NT PDC devoted to processing login requests and storing profiles currently 
the best solution?  I would much rather manage user accounts using Samba and
Linux but I don't want to have to give up the convenience of having a
domain.
BTW, we have 70+ Machines running NT Workstation in our department. 

Comments?

-- 

 Daniel Robbins          
"IKnowMen;AndITellYouThatJesusChristIsNotAMan.Superf
 System Administrator      icialMindsSeeAResemblanceBetweenChristAndTheFounders
 Department of OB/GYN      OfEmpires,AndTheGodsOfOtherReligions.ThatResemblance
 University of New Mexico  DoesNotExist...BetweenHimAndWhoeverElseInTheWorld
 drobbins@obgyn.unm.edu    ThereIsNoPossibleTermOfComparison." --Napoleon

On Wed, 19 Nov 1997, Daniel Robbins wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> We are going to be using samba in our NT network as a file server.  Thanks
> to everyone who is involved with Samba -- it's really neat now that I
have
> it working properly.  I especially like the ability to block requests based
> on IP#! :-)
> My question is whether you guys know of any way to get rid of our 
> NT PDC but still have the ability to log in as any user in the department
from
> any NT workstation.
i've been working on stand-alone PDC support for NT workstations for the 
last few weeks: longer than i can financially afford to.

answer, yes.  use the _experimental_ support in the 1.9.18alpha11 
version, which is disabled unless you compile with -DNTDOMAIN.

> Can samba reliably process NT login requests yet, or is 
i have no idea!
> there an alternate way of replicating account data between workstations (so
that
> we don't have to have a Microsoft PDC processing login requests)?
you could explore SCO's OpenServer, or AT & T's Advanced File /
Print Sharer.
these provide full NT Domain login support, being based on NT server.

>  Or is having
> an NT PDC devoted to processing login requests and storing profiles
currently
> the best solution?
you can tell the NT server to tell the client that the profile is actually on
a samba server (or on any other SMB server, for that matter).


[side-note: there are issues with file/date timestamps in samba which need to
be resolved (the timestamps aren't updated properly at the moment.  i *thin*
it's because samba doesn't do the SMB_NT_CREATE_AND_X call, so the NT
client
does SMB_CREATE_X instead: that's the only difference i've been able to
spot,
in the latest round of this particular saga...].

>  I would much rather manage user accounts using Samba and Linux
so would many other administrators.  won't be much longer, now.

> but I don't want to have to give up the convenience of having a domain.
> BTW, we have 70+ Machines running NT Workstation in our department. 
sounds like a good test environment, if a couple of those are spare...  you
want to help out at all? :-)


best regards,

luke


<a href="mailto:lkcl@switchboard.net"  > Luke Kenneth Casson
Leighton  </a>
<a href="http://mailhost.cb1.com/~lkcl"> Samba Consultancy and
Support </a>