Joining a Domain

carlosinfl · 07-25-2008, 11:30 AM

I have a machine that came from another network and now needs to be a member of our domain here in the office. Someone asked me how we make this Debian machine a member of the domain and I simply drew a blank. I have always made the machine a member of the domain when I configure the hostname during the installation. The next question after you set the host name is to always select a domain.

How would one join a rogue Linux PC to a domain?

Mr. C. · 07-25-2008, 06:25 PM

Domains and now Active Directory are Windows networking concepts. Unix/Linux systems don't natively understand those protocols. To make them work in Windows networking, you use Samba. Install Samba, and configure it to be a Domain client.

There are plenty of HowTos and pointers here in the forums. If you need more help, ask.

marozsas · 07-26-2008, 07:06 AM

I known the command "net rpc join ...." is used on a linux client to join itself to a domain, and, on the samba server side, the parameter "add machine script = " on smb.conf is used to complete the process.

I can't give you more details, 'cauze I never had this need, but I am very interested if you figure out how.

The command "net" is part of package "samba-common" on a fedora 9.

cheers

JimBass · 07-26-2008, 07:16 PM

If this wasn't a windows domain question but actually on about setting the FQDN (computer.domain.com) after an install, this section of 'man hostname' is what you're looking for -

Code:

 THE FQDN
       You  can’t  change the FQDN (as returned by hostname --fqdn) or the DNS
       domain name (as returned by dnsdomainname) with this command. The  FQDN
       of  the  system  is  the name that the resolver(3) returns for the host
       name.

       Technically: The FQDN is the name gethostbyname(2) returns for the host
       name returned by gethostname(2).  The DNS domain name is the part after
       the first dot.

       Therefore it depends on the configuration (usually  in  /etc/host.conf)
       how  you can change it. Usually (if the hosts file is parsed before DNS
       or NIS) you can change it in /etc/hosts.

And also in the same man page -

Code:

-f, --fqdn, --long
              Display the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name). A FQDN  consists
              of  a  short  host  name and the DNS domain name. Unless you are
              using bind or NIS for host lookups you can change the  FQDN  and
              the  DNS  domain  name  (which  is  part  of  the  FQDN)  in the
              /etc/hosts file.

Peace,
JimBass