Linux Networking Cookbook

11.4. Using Samba As a Primary Domain Controller

Problem

You want a central login and authentication server on your network; you have either Windows hosts, or a mixed LAN of Windows and Linux hosts. You may also want this server to provide access to network resources, such as file shares and printers. You do not have a Windows domain controller or existing password server, but a mish-mash of peer networking plus sneakernet, or just shared Internet, so you are starting from scratch.

Solution

There are seven steps to building a Samba domain controller:

1. Install Samba.

2. Configure /etc/samba/smb.conf.

3. Create a Samba root user.

4. Create a group for machine accounts.

5. Join all Windows NT/200x/XP/Vista computers in the domain to the Samba server.

6. Create user accounts on both Linux and Samba.

7. Fire it up and connect clients for testing.

Here is a complete, basic /etc/samba/smb.conf for your new domain controller. Substitute your own workgroup name (which is the name of the primary domain), NetBIOS name, server string, and network IP:

 [global] workgroup = bluedomain netbios name = samba1 server string = Samba PDC domain master = yes os level = 64 preferred master = yes domain logons = yes add machine script = /usr/sbin/useradd -s /bin/false -d /dev/null -g machines '%u' passdb backend = tdbsam security = user encrypt passwords = yes log file = /var/log/samba/log log level = 2 max log size = 50 hosts allow = 192.168.1. wins support = yes [netlogon] comment = Network Logon Service path = /var/lib/samba/netlogon/ ...