samba - Jan 2005 - Migrating from NT4 to samba (do I still need a domain?)

We have a couple of NT4 boxes I'd like to replace with a single samba
box.  One is a PDC (no BDC) that now does nothing but handle
authentication for the other box which is just an NT4 member server with
a big hard drive and a whole bunch of shares.  There are also a few
printers that are littered around the place connected to various Windows
(2000 and XP) client machines and shared across the network.

I'm thinking this is possible with just one samba box and share level
security?
Will there be any issues with the printers if there isn't a Windows
domain - this is where cups comes in, right?

I'll be replacing an NT4/IIS box soon too - any hidden gotchas with an
apache web/app server and samba on the same network?

Thanks.

Paul

Paul Smith wrote:
>We have a couple of NT4 boxes I'd like to replace with a single samba
>box.  One is a PDC (no BDC) that now does nothing but handle
>authentication for the other box which is just an NT4 member server with
>a big hard drive and a whole bunch of shares.  There are also a few
>printers that are littered around the place connected to various Windows
>(2000 and XP) client machines and shared across the network.
>
>I'm thinking this is possible with just one samba box and share level
>security?
>  
>
Withouth a domain, where will your user definitions come from?  Do 
people log in with the 'this computer' entry or are they logging in with
your domain specified?  If you don't have a domain then you will have to 
run around and make users on all the workstations.
>Will there be any issues with the printers if there isn't a Windows
>domain - this is where cups comes in, right?
>  
>
Printing doesn't need a domain, but having login scripts that map those 
printers and connect drives and such does require the domain.

-- 
--
Paul Gienger                    Office: 701-281-1884
Applied Engineering Inc.
Systems Architect               Fax:    701-281-1322
URL: www.ae-solutions.com       mailto: pgienger@ae-solutions.com

> Withouth a domain, where will your user definitions come from?
> Do people log in with the 'this computer' entry or are they 
> logging in with your domain specified?  If you don't have a 
> domain then you will have to run around and make users on 
> all the workstations.
A fair comment - I guess that in the interests of my making the switch
as invisible as possible to the users (and my sanity) I should look at
replacing the NT4 domain with a samba domain, yes.

I'd still like the single-box solution.  I don't have hundreds or
thousands of users so, performance-wise, can I still have the domain
authentication and file server on the same box?

Thanks

Paul