Setting up a Linux ADC with Samba

Setting up a domain controller with Samba probably couldn't be easier but the functionality is limited.

The 3 key features that I know work are:-

*User Authentication

*Roaming Profiles

*Logon scripts.


If you haven’t already set one up, This Guide still works for newer versions of Ubuntu/Debian though the quota settings are old, but i chose to skip that part.

After that, joining the computer to the domain is done the same way as usual on Windows.

(Right click my computer, go to properties, then computer name and add it as a member of a domain instead of a workgroup)

Note: Windows 7 users need to apply a registry tweak in order for windows 7 to connect to a Samba domain controller successfully. Information on this can be found here

Windows XP and Windows Vista/7 Cross compatibility

If you use your Samba domain controller for Windows XP, when you join a Windows 7 workstation to the domain, even if the user is already on the network and has a roaming profile, Windows 7 will create a new roaming profile on the server and thus not access your old profile settings, as Windows 7 is 'Not compatible' with Server 2003 style active directory configurations.

I haven't tested the set up using Windows 7 alone, so I’m not sure if the behaviour is the same, but i found that when i Joined a Windows 7 terminal to an existing Ubuntu domain controller that was already serving windows XP clients, it created a new profile folder called username.V2 which did not contain any of my old documents from my XP profile.

To get around this, I found that if you delete the username.V2 folder created by windows 7, and replace it with a Symbolic link under the same name pointing to the old Windows XP profile folder, You actually create cross compatibility, so both windows 7 and Windows XP will be usable on your network, and roaming profiles will continue to function on both machines.

For example,

Fred is a member of the domain, and on the Linux server, his profile is stored under /home/samba/profiles/fred

When he logged on to a Windows 7 work station on the same domain, it created a new folder which contained no settings,

/home/samba/profiles/fred.V2

As a kind loving IT support technician, I made sure that when he logged in to the windows work station; he would still have all his files and folders.



n the Linux command prompt (assuming your server does not have a GUI) As root (because the samba folder should be protected!) I did the following:

(change to the directory the profiles are stored)

Code:
cd /home/samba/profiles

Remove the new Windows 7 Profile folder

Code:
rm -rf fred.V2

Make a Symbolic link to the old one, so windows 7 is forced to read the contents of the old profile even though it still thinks its viewing the new one.

Code:

ln -s fred fred.V2

Fred is now happy, when he logs in to the Windows 7 Workstation, all his documents and desktop stuff appears as normal.

Sadly though the themes do not, as that’s handled differently in windows 7, but no big deal.