[CentOS] Setting up Samba as fileserver for existing Windows domain

Wed Feb 4 16:24:04 UTC 2015
Chris Adams <linux at cmadams.net>

Once upon a time, Les Mikesell <lesmikesell at gmail.com> said:
> On Wed, Feb 4, 2015 at 10:05 AM, Chris Adams <linux at cmadams.net> wrote:
> > I have an existing office of Windows computers, in a domain, with a
> > couple of Windows Server 2012 AD servers.  I need to add a file server,
> > so I'd prefer to use CentOS 7 and Samba to do it (because I know very
> > little about Windows).  However, I'm not finding a good how-to on that.
> > When I search for "samba active directory" or "samba domain", the
> > results are mostly about setting up Samba to be the domain controller,
> > or join an AD domain as a controller, which I don't really want to do if
> > I don't have to.
> >
> > Anybody have any tips, pointers, etc.?
> 
> If you expect existing domain credentials to work, I think you have to
> join the domain.  Depending on the nature of the files being served, I
> sometimes find it useful to have a public read-only share and avoid
> the authentication mess entirely - copying the files in place with
> linux tools or winscp.   It is possible to maintain local accounts on
> the linux side and add those to samba (an extra step) but it is
> painful to keep passwords in sync.

Yeah, I want to join the domain, and use domain credentials for access,
I just don't want to be an additional domain controller (which is what
the docs/howtos I keep finding seem to assume).  I've done Samba with
basic locally-configured users before (not in a long time), but this
needs to use domain credentials.

-- 
Chris Adams <linux at cmadams.net>