looking for an alternative to Active Directory in Window$

mia_tech · 08-19-2009, 01:50 PM

guys, I've been looking for alternatives to Active Directory with Centos mainly SAMBA and OpenLDAP. I have worked with SAMBA and I know I can create a PDC and make clients join a domain but how about enforcing Group Policy?... is this possible with SAMBA or OpenLDAP/LDAP?

ECRocker · 08-19-2009, 02:48 PM

I don't know how you would control Group Policies on a Windows client, but I use Puppet to control my Linux clients. Just a thought.

sabir_mustafa · 08-20-2009, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ECRocker

I don't know how you would control Group Policies on a Windows client, but I use Puppet to control my Linux clients. Just a thought.

Does any of you have any knowledge of RedHat Directory Server? I have heard a day back about it and trying to get its RPM.

jschiwal · 08-20-2009, 08:02 AM

sabir mustafa: Please report your own post and ask that it be moved to another thread. Your's may be somewhat similar but bouncing back and forth between two problems will get confusing. You will probably also solicit more help when your post has it's own thread title as well.

jschiwal · 08-20-2009, 08:33 AM

mia tech: I would suggest picking up the latest "Using Samba" from the book store. Samba HOWTO & Reference Guide & Samba 3 by Example would also be useful. Using Samba has more ldap info. Samba 3 can't be a drop in replacement for AD. It can use and LDAP backend however. But is is mainly geared to replacing NT domain controllers.

According to the Using Samba book, you can use usrmgr.exe to create, midify and remove accounts within NT 4.0 domains. The Windows 2000/XP local user tools such as lusrmgr.msc or the AD domain tools don't support managing users and groups in NT 4.0 equivalent domains.

When configuring the network, groups, users, etc. you are using the Samba server which happens to use LDAP as a backend, unless you use one of the other backends. Samba 3 is geared mainly as a replacement for NT 4 domain controllers. Replacing AD domain controllers is the aim of Samba 4 which might be too new to use just yet IIRC.

mia_tech · 08-21-2009, 01:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jschiwal

According to the Using Samba book, you can use usrmgr.exe to create, midify and remove accounts within NT 4.0 domains. The Windows 2000/XP local user tools such as lusrmgr.msc or the AD domain tools don't support managing users and groups in NT 4.0 equivalent domains.
.

NT 4.0 is a thing of the late 1990.., and SAMBA does a remarkable job as a file server or as a member server of a Windows Active Drirectory, but I heard that SAMBA 4 would have even more robust support as a Primary Domain Controller; therefore, eliminating the need for a Windows PDC... I just haven't tried yet; I believe this would be a great thing for Linux