 |
|
||||
|
Samba 3: Linux File Serving for the Active Directory GenerationBy Steven J. Vaughan-NicholsAugust 11, 2003
Samba 2.x is faster than NT or W2K Server, a lot cheaper and in its most recent versions you can not only use it in an NT Domain style network not only as a simple domain server or a Backup Domain Server (BDC) but as a Primary Domain controller (PDC) as well. But, the key word here is "Domain" and with Microsoft planning to retire out NT 4 server with its Domain-based networking on December 31st 2004, it's high time for NT and Samba Domain administrators to think about switching over to Active Directory (AD). For NT mangers, Microsoft finally has a decent upgrade path built from Windows Server 2003 and Active Directory Migration Tool 2.0. And, now, Samba administrators do as well thanks to the arrival the feature complete Samba 3 beta 3. Don't get me wrong, it's not ready for prime time yet, but with this beta, Samba shows that if the day ever comes that NT domains are antique, Samba will be ready to contribute, fast, inexpensive AD compatible servers. But, Why Bother with AD? Or, you could do what John Terpstra of the Samba Team suggested at the SambaXP Conference in Germany last April... migrate to a Samba 3-only solution for your Windows style file/print requirements and abandon both the NT Domain and W2K/Server 2003 AD paths. Why would you want to do make such a radical move? The biggest reason is, to be frank about it, cost. By going it alone with Samba-3 for your file/print needs you avoid the initial costs of buying Microsoft server operating systems and the continuing costs of Microsoft's Licensing 6. It also frees you from being stuck with Microsoft's upgrade plans even when you don't want to upgrade. Since Samba is open source, you can never be cut completely off from support, as will be the case with NT users come 2005, since you'll always have the source code at hand. If you were to make this move, you can choose just how far you'll remove your network from Domains or AD. For example, under Samba 3, you can still use Winbind to connect with NT or 200x servers for authentication or you could run authentication using a combination of smbpasswd, the Samba password program, with a MySQL-based DBMS. Tempting as this path may be for administrators who love open source, to use an exclusively Samba 3 approach really requires administrators and programmers who also understand open source extremely well. Although Samba as a file/print server is very mature, Samba as a drop-in file/print/user/group/administration package is relatively new. Page 2: Continued...
|
|
|
|
Email
Print
Digg This
Add to del.icio.us
