David Trask writes “This is so cool! Many folks have struggled over the past 2 years to get Samba/LDAP servers up and running based on the how-to I had posted on my site (along with other how-to’s as well). Steve Kossakoski of SAU 16 in Exeter, NH had the vision of putting the whole thing into a script and brought a talented programmer into the fold to help put the idea into practice. With Matt Oquist doing the code…Art Reardon, Tech director of SAU 16, doing the testing, and myself doing testing and the documentation….we have managed to pull together an awesome Samba/LDAP installer package that makes installing Samba/LDAP on your server a practically idiot-proof process. In fact, I encourage you to see for yourself! You can see the how-to doc online at
http://web.vcs.u52.k12.me.us/linux/smbldap/index.h tm
Once there click one of the links at the top to download the smbldap-installer package. Simply untar the package and the run the script! It is primarily designed at this point to run on FC3 or K12LTSP 4.2. Set up a sandbox and give it a whirl….I think you’ll be astounded as to how easy it is to set up! Simply answer a few easy questions and the script sets everything up for you….including running authconfig and setting up an export of/home (should you say so). Also included are some VERY cool scripts for creating usernames and adding users in bulk to the server. In fact, with a little planning it could very well be the easiest user creation you’ve ever done! All of the user creation scripts are explained in detail near the end of the how-to. Check it out….let us know how it works for you! I can honestly say…I had a fully functional Samba/LDAP server up and running with users added in less than 20 mins. (not including the install of the OS) Wheeeee! Very special thanks to Matt for his awesome coding skills……and to Steve and Art for thier support, vision, and testing. You all ROCK!
PS….if you do not have all the necessary files installed…the script will prompt you for the CD and install the rpms for you!🙂 See? I told you it was easy!
Wondering what a Samba/LDAP server is? A centralized point of authentication regardless of OS. In my school…all my users live on the Samba/LDAP server and all the other servers authenticate to the Samba/LDAP server. All user home directories and profiles are accessible regardless of platform….Windows, Linux, OS X….all work fine. Adding a server to the network? No problem…simply point it to the Samba/LDAP server and away you go! Samba handles the Windows side of things and LDAP handles the rest….very cool!”
