samba - Jun 2004 - Is this possible? (syncing users between a system with samba 3 on and a win2k3 server)

Okay, first a bit of background...

It looks as though I'm going to be getting a consulting job soon to replace
a guy at a company, turns out he has done something of a poor job (for
example the router login is accessible from the outside, any ip etc).

Now, the main server at this company is running Windows 2003 Server (SBS
possibly) it also acts as the email server etc
I plan to separate things a bit at the company and dedicate such tasks to
separate servers, one for email, one for webserver etc. (they had a hard
disk failure recently, the current guy didn't do the tape backups correctly
and so they lost email, webserver and pdc).
At the moment I plan to setup a linux system (either debian or gentoo.. Love
those compile times) for the email server (postfix or qmail.. Probably
postfix I have more experience with that) and have the users use imap to
access their email internally and setup squirrelmail so they can access
their work email at home. (some users often do work at home)


Here is what I want to do:

Whenever a new user (or any other currently existing users) are created on
the win 2k3 server they are replicated on the email server (same username &
password) automatically.

Is it possible to do this with Samba?

It's mostly because they'll be a good number of currently existing users
on
the win 2k3 server and so when I setup the email server I don't want to be
creating a very large number of users, I'd much rather it was totally
automated.

Sorry about this being a bit long, I tried to shorten it.


Thanks

Mark

Mark Casey wrote:
>Okay, first a bit of background...
>
>It looks as though I'm going to be getting a consulting job soon to
replace
>a guy at a company, turns out he has done something of a poor job (for
>example the router login is accessible from the outside, any ip etc).
>
>Now, the main server at this company is running Windows 2003 Server (SBS
>possibly) it also acts as the email server etc
>  
>
If this is SBS, you may want to rethink your strategy.  SBS is designed 
to be AD controller and exchange for a company.  I don't believe it will 
either join an existing domain or allow any other DCs in a AD tree 
either, so beware.
>At the moment I plan to setup a linux system (either debian or gentoo.. Love
>those compile times) 
>  
>
A word about being a hired gun (that is, a consultant), if you're not 
going to be hand holding these systems, maybe you should do the company 
a favor and not use a custom built distro... Gentoo is fine if it's your 
personal box, but in a situation where somebody else may have to install 
a program, etc,  try to go more mainstream.  If there's somebody with 
any knowlege at the place and they want to update the systems, it's a 
lot better if you can hand them a book on <insert favorite off the shelf 
distro> and say go to town rather than say 'read the entire gentoo 
installation howto and jump right in.  You may even get asked to come 
back for the serious upgrade/maintenance rather than getting cursed off 
the property (or sued for shoddy work) if they have to ask you to come 
back for every little thing.  Try to leave the place in better shape, 
and more maintainable than you came in or you're doing all of us 
consultants a disservice.  But I digress...
>Here is what I want to do:
>
>Whenever a new user (or any other currently existing users) are created on
>the win 2k3 server they are replicated on the email server (same username
&
>password) automatically.
>
>Is it possible to do this with Samba?
>  
>
Maybe what you really want to do is have your samba server be the DC and 
the w2k3 server simply be a member of its domain.  Then you have your 
unix uids for email and logins.  You'll have to run winbind if you're 
leaving windows as the DC, and that 'can' be a PITA in some cases.  You 
can use various methods to transfer login information to the samba 
passdb, but there will be some manual labor involved.
>It's mostly because they'll be a good number of currently existing
users on
>the win 2k3 server and so when I setup the email server I don't want to
be
>creating a very large number of users, I'd much rather it was totally
>automated.
>
>Sorry about this being a bit long, I tried to shorten it.
>
>
>Thanks
>
>Mark
>
>  
>
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