Hi ALL

I have currently got a setup where my ubuntu server is part of the AD domain using samba. So a user using their windows PC can access their personal folders on the ubuntu server (which has been mapped to a drive on their PC) once they have logged on to their computer.

My question is, if however the windows server failed for whatever reason, how can i get the users to access their personal folders on the ubuntu server using their windows PC? Hope this makes sense!

Thanks for any help in advance!

t.

This does not make sense to me. It read like:

"I have configured X and it is working."
"How do I configure X and get it working?"

Can you restate?

Sorry! Let me try again!...

Currently users can access their personal folders on the UBUNTU server using their windows login. However I still want the users to be able to access their personal folders from their windows machine on the UBUNTU server even if the WINDOW SERVER fails...does this make sense??? So the setup contains Windows server, Ubuntu server (where the personal folders are located) and windows pcs (clients)....

Would I have to make the users also ubuntu and smb users too? Sorry this is all new to me...

t.

Ok. I think I understand what you are asking. You want to know if your DOMAIN users can still access a DOMAIN share if the DOMAIN server goes offline (for whatever reason.) The short answer is "No."

The reason for this is the strict policies and procedures that go into making a computer part of an AD domain. Each user is not a Windows user anymore. They are DOMAIN users and authentication is handled by the domain controller, not the individual client PCs. If the domain controller goes offline, then whatever rights a user has on the network, go with it. Getting around that is not difficult, but has the unwanted side effect of ruining any security that your AD domain provides on your internal network. It becomes infinitely harder to assign user rights, and restrictions to individual shares/services that are available on the network (including the user folders on your Ubuntu server.) The concept of "Single-Sign-On" goes right out the window and each user would be prompted for their username and password for just about every network available resource. That's assuming you wish to maintain a similar level of security, minus the AD domain server.

A better focus would be on providing some kind of redundancy for the AD domain controller. Insure that domain level rights are always available and domain level authentication is never (99.999% up time is close enough) unavailable. Currently, AD domain control is beyond the scope of a linux based server, but there are several in-roads being made into that territory. Your best bet (and I cannot tell you how much this repulses me to say) is to have another Windows server standing in the wings waiting to take over as the AD domain controller. The ability to replicate the server for redundancy purposes is built into the OS and is not "too" difficult to configure, but it is not a topic for this forum. Microsoft's Knowledge Base is the best place to search for answers relating to that configuration.

Good luck. You'll need it.

Hello all and thanks for all the responses!

Apologies also for the late response, have been so busy doing other things havent had a chance to look into this problemo until this morning!!!

I have actually solved the problem now.


How to ensure that users still have access to their Files on Ubuntu even if the windows server fails:

1) Make the windows user into a linux and samba user. Ensure that the passwords used is the same as their windows PC password.
2) Have an alternative samba config file changing things like who the valid users are in the file. You may need to create local linux groups.
3) Test by taking out the windows server cable, where the user should still be able to gain access to their personal folders as well as shared folders on the UBUNTU server.

Thanks for all your responses, and apologies for having difficulty explaining what the actual problemo was!!! Really not my area!!!

t.