Can samba 3 act as ADC or not ?

marozsas · 09-10-2008, 08:22 AM

I'm confused

I've seen (superficially) several howtos about how configure samba to act as Active Directory Controller.

But, in official samba how to is stated:

Quote:

Originally Posted by http://us6.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/samba-bdc.html#id2560391

Active Directory Domain Control (section)
...Samba-3 is not able to be a domain controller within an Active Directory tree, and it cannot be an Active Directory server. This means that Samba-3 also cannot act as a BDC to an Active Directory domain controller.

Right, it can not be ADC or even BDC.
But just a few sections below:

Quote:

Originally Posted by http://us6.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/samba-bdc.html#id2560722

Backup Domain Controller Configuration (section)
The creation of a BDC requires some steps to prepare the Samba server before smbd is executed for the first time. These steps are as follows:
...

and there is even a example configuration below.

Can Samba 3 act as ADC or not ?

I'm interested in create a ADC domain using Samba 3 and apply GPO's to the windows XP workstations/users.
Is it possible ?

farslayer · 09-10-2008, 01:59 PM

http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/...html#id2557346

Quote:

Samba-3 is not, and cannot act as, an Active Directory server. It cannot truly function as an Active Directory PDC. The protocols for some of the functionality of Active Directory domain controllers has been partially implemented on an experimental only basis. Please do not expect Samba-3 to support these protocols. Do not depend on any such functionality either now or in the future. The Samba Team may remove these experimental features or may change their behavior. This is mentioned for the benefit of those who have discovered secret capabilities in Samba-3 and who have asked when this functionality will be completed. The answer is maybe someday or maybe never!

To be sure, Samba-3 is designed to provide most of the functionality that Microsoft Windows NT4-style domain controllers have. Samba-3 does not have all the capabilities of Windows NT4, but it does have a number of features that Windows NT4 domain controllers do not have. In short, Samba-3 is not NT4 and it is not Windows Server 200x: it is not an Active Directory server. We hope this is plain and simple enough for all to understand.