How to replace my Windows AD Domain?
 

Hello
At home I am using a Windows Server 2003 as Domain controller with Active Directory. My "client" computers are all currently running Windows XP. They all require CONTROL-ALT-DELETE and the user to enter their credentials before they will allow logon.

Shared files reside on various other Server 2003 machines and have restrictions on so only specific users can access certain resources.

For example, I have the family finances and other important documents in a share named 'Private-Files', only members of the 'PrivateFiles' global group have access. Likewise, I have my movies sorted into their appropriate age categories - after all, I don't want my 5 year old son accidentally watching Aliens!

So this all works but as you can imagine, the copies of Windows XP and Server 2003 are far from legitimate. I want to go legal and the only real way I can afford to do this is to switch over to Linux.

I have used Suse, Ubuntu, Fedora and a few other distros in the past and found that for ease of use, I want to use Ubuntu on the desktop computers but power the servers with some flavour of Linux.

The problem is, although I can install the OSes, I have no idea where to proceed from there - for example, how do I create a Domain in Suse? Where and how do I create domain users and groups? How do I set permissions on shares for the domain users?

Please, can someone point me to docs or help out here in the forum (so others can see the results and problems run into for avoidance etc in the future)?


ps. Sorry I just realised this should be in the SERVER forum, missed it when scrolling so if a mod can move it that would be great, thanks!

You could setup everything using the ubuntu howtos, and you should be able to get the setup that you like. Take a look here for some more info: https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/serverguide/C/index.html, particularly chapter 17: https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/server...etworking.html, hope that points you in the right direction. I suggest you start with a test server, try to get an ubuntu desktop client to auth against it. Then move into the more complex issues around groups and so forth. hope that helps!

Hello,

Have a look at Calculate Directory Server. It's put together to replace a Windows server as domain controller. It's based on Gentoo, a bit more complicated than other distros, but it's very well documented.

Kind regards,

Eric