Configuring Samba as an Active Directory compatible directory service

As of Samba 4.0, Samba has the ability to act as a primary domain controller (PDC) in a manner that is compatible with Active Directory.

How to do it…

Installing on Ubuntu 14.04:

1. Configure your system with a static IP address and update /etc/hosts to point to that IP address rather than localhost.

2. Make sure that your time is kept up to date by installing an NTP client:

   sudo apt-get install ntp
   

3. Pre-emptively disable smbd/nmbd from running automatically:

   sudo bash -c 'echo "manual" > /etc/init/nmbd.override'
   sudo bash –c 'echo "manual" > /etc/init/smbd.override'
   

4. Install Samba and smbclient:

   sudo apt-get install samba smbclient
   

5. Remove stock smb.conf:

   sudo rm /etc/samba/smb.conf
   

6. Provision the domain:

   sudo samba-tool domain provision --realm ad.example.org --domain example --use-rfc2307 --option="interfaces=lo eth1" --option="bind interfaces only=yes" --dns-backend BIND9_DLZ
   

7. Save the randomly generated admin password.

8. Symlink...