Domain Authenication
 

Ive got a windows domain controller, i want to have my linux samba servers and everything else authenticate through the windows domain controller. What is the best way to get that process working. I'm not new to linux Ive got some experience but im just new to administrating a box on a major network like this. Someone suggested LDAP to me however the more i read that is another way of doing authentication through linux when really i want the Linux boxes to log in using the windows server.

Samba, when setup correctly, allows you to use your Windows login credentials and gain access to Windows shares, network resources, Internet access, etc. but it depends on how your Windows DC's are setup as to alternatives to this. You could configure LDAP to connect in, I use this method for authenticating users accessing the Intranet, getting the Linux webserver to authenticate against the Windows DC's, but then I have Samba helpers to allow Squid to authenticate against the DC's.
What kinda access are you going to be providing to your users?

Basically i want there to be as little problems with authentication as possible, right now i've got a couple linux servers and all of them have their own users on the box, so every time i get a new user we have to add his user name to five different boxes. Plus i figure if i can authenticate through the domain it would make accessing samba shares easier cause right now in order to authenticate I'm basically allowing everyone access to a share where i want to be able to lock it down to a group or individual user.