samba - Aug 2010 - Moving to a new PDC, and if possible, rename the domain name

Hi there.

We've had a Samba (version 3.3) server acting as a primary domain
controller for about 30 windows PC (XP, vista and 7) for a while. All
nice and dandy there.

Samba is running on a FreeBSD 8 machine...

I would like to migrate this service to a newly acquired Mac mini
server , mainly in order to ease maintenance and creation of accounts.
Something I like with the 10.6 server solution is that accounts are
nicely integrated together, change your password once and it's all
changed everywhere and all in LDAP .

Now, is there a simple way to move the PDC from one machine to another
so it remains fully transparent for users, and mainly they won't loose
their account settings.
If I was to use a tdbsam database, I guess I could simply
backup/restore the whole thing, but as the new PDC would use LDAP, I'm
guessing it won't be that simple.

Having done this, is there an easy way to rename a domain, also so
users keep their local account settings.

Thanks
Jean-Yves

Is the existing server using tdbsam or LDAP?  The pdbedit command has
options to import/export from/to various backends.   Once you copy the
accounts from one server to another you could configure the new server to
temporarily be a BDC, then make it a PDC and drop the original serve.

Does the Mac OS server have LDAP server functionality already built in?  Is
it using openldap or something else.

Re renaming a domain-  each domain has a unique SID, so you could rename a
domain but keep the same SID.  However, samba logs show that domain members
are using the domain name when looking for a DC.   I don't think windows
clients will let you change the domain name without leaving and rejoining
the domain UNLESS you can find some registry setting to change.    

-----Original Message-----
From: samba-bounces at lists.samba.org [mailto:samba-bounces at lists.samba.org]
On Behalf Of Jean-Yves Avenard
Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2010 4:40 AM
To: samba at lists.samba.org
Subject: [Samba] Moving to a new PDC, and if possible, rename the domain
name

Hi there.

We've had a Samba (version 3.3) server acting as a primary domain
controller for about 30 windows PC (XP, vista and 7) for a while. All
nice and dandy there.

Samba is running on a FreeBSD 8 machine...

I would like to migrate this service to a newly acquired Mac mini
server , mainly in order to ease maintenance and creation of accounts.
Something I like with the 10.6 server solution is that accounts are
nicely integrated together, change your password once and it's all
changed everywhere and all in LDAP .

Now, is there a simple way to move the PDC from one machine to another
so it remains fully transparent for users, and mainly they won't loose
their account settings.
If I was to use a tdbsam database, I guess I could simply
backup/restore the whole thing, but as the new PDC would use LDAP, I'm
guessing it won't be that simple.

Having done this, is there an easy way to rename a domain, also so
users keep their local account settings.

Thanks
Jean-Yves
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