samba - Mar 2007 - Rebuild Samba Server: Do my XP clients need to rejoin domain?

All,

I would like to upgrade our Fedora Core 3 Linux server (hosting samba,
among other services) to Cent OS 4.4. However, if I reformat the array
and install Cent OS 4.4 and copy back all the samba files (and other
files), do my Windows XP Clients have to re-join the domain? I ask
this because I have 150 machines and going to each one and leaving the
domian and rejoining essentially the same domain would be a major time
sink.

Has anyone recovered a samba server from a fatal crash (or other
reason) and had any luck with windows xp clients and not having to
go to each client?

Samba Version: 3.0.14

Thanks in advance,

On 29/03/2007 18:17, Aaron Souza wrote:
> I would like to upgrade our Fedora Core 3 Linux server (hosting samba,
> among other services) to Cent OS 4.4. However, if I reformat the array
> and install Cent OS 4.4 and copy back all the samba files (and other
> files), do my Windows XP Clients have to re-join the domain? I ask
I do not know Fedora and CentOS, but I performed a similar upgrade 
recently with Samba 3.0.23: I had a PDC running on Debian Sarge, I got a 
new machine and installed Debian Etch on it, then copied all relevant 
system and Samba files, following the migration guides in the official 
docs, and everything went smooth, also with WinXP Professional clients. 
No need to rejoin them.

I suppose the same applies to your situation, as long as you take into 
account any different paths the two distros might use for Samba files.

-- 
Ciao,
   Marco.

I recently did a similar upgrade, moving from Suse 9.3 to 10.2(the 10.2 
was installed on a new machine).  I copied over the relevant files 
(which for me on Suse where /var/lib/samba, /etc/samba, /etc/passwd, 
/etc/group), configured samba on the new box, shutdown the old samba and 
started the new samba and I did not have to rejoin any machine to the 
domain.

Aaron Souza wrote:
> All,
>
> I would like to upgrade our Fedora Core 3 Linux server (hosting samba,
> among other services) to Cent OS 4.4. However, if I reformat the array
> and install Cent OS 4.4 and copy back all the samba files (and other
> files), do my Windows XP Clients have to re-join the domain? I ask
> this because I have 150 machines and going to each one and leaving the
> domian and rejoining essentially the same domain would be a major time
> sink.
>
> Has anyone recovered a samba server from a fatal crash (or other
> reason) and had any luck with windows xp clients and not having to
> go to each client?
>
> Samba Version: 3.0.14
>
> Thanks in advance,