# LDAP and Samba

## nielchiano

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to set up an nice Samba domain and want to use LDAP for all account info (also for the linux-accounts). I currently have OpenLDAP (latest stable) and Samba 3.0.1 emerged.

Can anyone give me some support on LDAP and LDAP-Samba integration? Because I'm a newbie at those things...

What program should I use to add/remove/view LDAP entries?

What properities must/should/may be set?

I currently have a samba (3) domain set up on another machine (acting as PDC) with the smbpasswd file as database. I'd like to transport all password(hashed) and SID's to the new setup. Is that possible, how?

Can I use a different organisational-unit for machine accounts? or should they be in the same as the users?

Should I use SSL for LDAP? also allow non-encrypted? how to setup the nsswich?

In short: can anyone guide me through that setup-stage?

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## smart

Start here:

http://samba.epfl.ch/samba/docs/man/passdb.html#id2909980

and let us know how far you get.

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## nielchiano

probably no idea where I can read http://safari.oreilly.com/?XmlId=1-56592-491-6 online? I'm a poor student and blah blah blah..... I found a lot of O'Reilly's on a site, but this one isn't there....   :Sad:   :Sad: 

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## Xiderpunk

My advice is DON'T use LDAP... it's an outrageously bloated standard which is difficult to manage and navigate. Only use when you really have too.

Not to mention that often when openldap gets an update, the whole samba -> ldap thing breaks down.

LDAP is a poor poor solution to use, if you really want a single-sign on type network then I would consider MySql, but even then it's often not worth it. Truth is there isn't a clean and efficient way of providing single-sign-on services at the present time using Samba.

Just to re-iterate, LDAP is bloated through poor design, in-efficient in the extreme and plain crap.

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## nielchiano

ok, so LDAP is worth nothing...

can you give me an alternative to have a central user management for a small number of users (aprox 10) in a mixed linux/win environement?

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## Xiderpunk

For 10 users or so, I would be inclined to use tdbsam or smbpasswd as the passdb backend. It will work fine and be simple to manage with just that small number of users.

Using LDAP for authentication and user management currently is a stop-gap until a better solution becomes available, the samba team support it for the benefit of large networks with hundreds of users, because no better alternative exists.

LDAP does have it's uses, but more as a simple directory service.

Sorry if I sound vehmently against LDAP, I just talk from bitter experience of running such a network. LDAP + Samba = whole lot of lost time and energy.

p.s: also the performance begins to suffer with even a small ldap directory. Compare the speed of authenticating against LDAP with tdbsam or smbpasswd and you will soon see the picture.

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## Infamy

Speaking of LDAP, i get this error when i use smbpasswd and it mentions LDAP:

 # smbpasswd -a infamy

New SMB password:

Retype new SMB password:

LDAPS option set...!

fetch_ldap_pw: no ldap secret retrieved!

ldap_connect_system: Failed to retrieve password for  from secrets.tdb

LDAPS option set...!

fetch_ldap_pw: no ldap secret retrieved!

ldap_connect_system: Failed to retrieve password for  from secrets.tdb

Failed to add entry for user infamy.

Failed to modify password entry for user infamy

Does anyone know how to fix this? I am stuck at this point in the gentoo samba manual..

Thanks

Infamy

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## Xiderpunk

Infamy, can you please post your smb.conf? It's possible you have an ldap setting enabled.

A.F.A.I.K samba doesn't have any ldap stuff enabled by default.

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## Xiderpunk

Oops, sorry.. if you mean to use LDAP then you need to set the secret first.. 

```
smbpasswd -w secret
```

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## Infamy

well, i am not trying to use LDAP,  since i only have 3 other users who would be connecting to my linux box with windows. I am at the smbpasswd part of the manual, and i produce errors about ldap. My smb.conf:

# $Header: /home/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/net-fs/samba/files/smb.conf.example,v 1.3 2002/08/27 20:39:48 woodchip Exp $

# This is the main Samba configuration file. You should read the

# smb.conf(5) manual page in order to understand the options listed

# here. Samba has a huge number of configurable options (perhaps too

# many!) most of which are not shown in this example

#

# Any line which starts with a ; (semi-colon) or a # (hash) 

# is a comment and is ignored. In this example we will use a #

# for commentry and a ; for parts of the config file that you

# may wish to enable

#

# NOTE: Whenever you modify this file you should run the command "testparm"

# to check that you have not made any basic syntactic errors. 

#

#======================= Global Settings =====================================

[global]

# 1. Server Naming Options:

# workgroup = NT-Domain-Name or Workgroup-Name

   workgroup = WORKGROUP

# netbios name is the name you will see in "Network Neighbourhood",

# but defaults to your hostname

;  netbios name = <name_of_this_server>

# server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field

   server string = Samba Server %v

# Message command is run by samba when a "popup" message is sent to it.

# The example below is for use with LinPopUp:

; message command = /usr/bin/linpopup "%f" "%m" %s; rm %s

# 2. Printing Options:

# CHANGES TO ENABLE PRINTING ON ALL CUPS PRINTERS IN THE NETWORK

# if you want to automatically load your printer list rather

# than setting them up individually then you'll need this

   printcap name = lpstat

   load printers = yes

# It should not be necessary to spell out the print system type unless

# yours is non-standard. Currently supported print systems include:

# bsd, sysv, plp, lprng, aix, hpux, qnx, cups

   printing = cups

# Samba 2.2 supports the Windows NT-style point-and-print feature. To

# use this, you need to be able to upload print drivers to the samba

# server. The printer admins (or root) may install drivers onto samba.

# Note that this feature uses the print$ share, so you will need to 

# enable it below.

# This parameter works like domain admin group:

# printer admin = @<group> <user>

;   printer admin = @adm

# 3. Logging Options:

# this tells Samba to use a separate log file for each machine

# that connects

   log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m

# Put a capping on the size of the log files (in Kb).

   max log size = 50

# Set the log (verbosity) level (0 <= log level <= 10)

; log level = 3

# 4. Security and Domain Membership Options:

# This option is important for security. It allows you to restrict

# connections to machines which are on your local network. The

# following example restricts access to two C class networks and

# the "loopback" interface. For more examples of the syntax see

# the smb.conf man page. Do not enable this if (tcp/ip) name resolution does

# not work for all the hosts in your network.

;   hosts allow = 192.168.1. 192.168.2. 127.

# Uncomment this if you want a guest account, you must add this to /etc/passwd

# otherwise the user "nobody" is used

;  guest account = pcguest

# Security mode. Most people will want user level security. See

# security_level.txt for details.

   security = user

# Use password server option only with security = server or security = domain

# When using security = domain, you should use password server = *

;   password server = <NT-Server-Name>

;   password server = *

# Password Level allows matching of _n_ characters of the password for

# all combinations of upper and lower case.

;  password level = 8

;  username level = 8

# You may wish to use password encryption. Please read

# ENCRYPTION.txt, Win95.txt and WinNT.txt in the Samba documentation.

# Do not enable this option unless you have read those documents

# Encrypted passwords are required for any use of samba in a Windows NT domain

# The smbpasswd file is only required by a server doing authentication, thus

# members of a domain do not need one.

  encrypt passwords = yes

  smb passwd file = /etc/samba/private/smbpasswd

# The following are needed to allow password changing from Windows to

# also update the Linux system password.

# NOTE: Use these with 'encrypt passwords' and 'smb passwd file' above.

# NOTE2: You do NOT need these to allow workstations to change only

#        the encrypted SMB passwords. They allow the Unix password

#        to be kept in sync with the SMB password.

;  unix password sync = Yes

;  passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u

;  passwd chat = *New*UNIX*password* %n\n *ReType*new*UNIX*password* %n\n

;*passwd:*all*authentication*tokens*updated*successfully*

# Unix users can map to different SMB User names

;  username map = /etc/samba/smbusers

# Using the following line enables you to customise your configuration

# on a per machine basis. The %m gets replaced with the netbios name

# of the machine that is connecting

;   include = /etc/samba/smb.conf.%m

# Options for using winbind. Winbind allows you to do all account and

# authentication from a Windows or samba domain controller, creating

# accounts on the fly, and maintaining a mapping of Windows RIDs to unix uid's 

# and gid's. winbind uid and winbind gid are the only required parameters.

#

# winbind uid is the range of uid's winbind can use when mapping RIDs to uid's

;  winbind uid = 10000-20000

#

# winbind gid is the range of uid's winbind can use when mapping RIDs to gid's

;  winbind gid = 10000-20000

#

# winbind separator is the character a user must use between their domain

# name and username, defaults to "\"

;  winbind separator = +

#

# template homedir determines the home directory for winbind users, with 

# %D expanding to their domain name and %U expanding to their username:

;  template homedir = /home/%D/%U

#

# template shell determines the shell users authenticated by winbind get

;  template shell = /bin/bash

# 5. Browser Control and Networking Options:

# Most people will find that this option gives better performance.

# See speed.txt and the manual pages for details

   socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192

# Configure Samba to use multiple interfaces

# If you have multiple network interfaces then you must list them

# here. See the man page for details.

;   interfaces = 192.168.12.2/24 192.168.13.2/24 

# Configure remote browse list synchronisation here

#  request announcement to, or browse list sync from:

#       a specific host or from / to a whole subnet (see below)

;   remote browse sync = 192.168.3.25 192.168.5.255

# Cause this host to announce itself to local subnets here

;   remote announce = 192.168.1.255 192.168.2.44

# set local master to no if you don't want Samba to become a master

# browser on your network. Otherwise the normal election rules apply

;   local master = no

# OS Level determines the precedence of this server in master browser

# elections. The default value should be reasonable

;   os level = 33

# Domain Master specifies Samba to be the Domain Master Browser. This

# allows Samba to collate browse lists between subnets. Don't use this

# if you already have a Windows NT domain controller doing this job

;   domain master = yes 

# Preferred Master causes Samba to force a local browser election on startup

# and gives it a slightly higher chance of winning the election

;   preferred master = yes

# 6. Domain Control Options:

# Enable this if you want Samba to be a domain logon server for 

# Windows95 workstations or Primary Domain Controller for WinNT and Win2k

;   domain logons = yes

# if you enable domain logons then you may want a per-machine or

# per user logon script

# run a specific logon batch file per workstation (machine)

;   logon script = %m.bat

# run a specific logon batch file per username

;   logon script = %U.bat

# Where to store roaming profiles for WinNT and Win2k

#        %L substitutes for this servers netbios name, %U is username

#        You must uncomment the [Profiles] share below

;   logon path = \\%L\Profiles\%U

# Where to store roaming profiles for Win9x. Be careful with this as it also

# impacts where Win2k finds it's /HOME share

; logon home = \\%L\%U\.profile

# The add user script is used by a domain member to add local user accounts

# that have been authenticated by the domain controller, or by the domain

# controller to add local machine accounts when adding machines to the domain.

# The script must work from the command line when replacing the macros,

# or the operation will fail. Check that groups exist if forcing a group.

# Script for domain controller for adding machines:

; add user script = /usr/sbin/useradd -d /dev/null -g machines -c 'Machine Account' -s /bin/false -M %u

# Script for domain member for adding local accounts for authenticated users:

; add user script = /usr/sbin/useradd -s /bin/false %u

# Domain groups:

# domain admin group is a list of unix users or groups who are made members

# of the Domain Admin group

; domain admin group = root @wheel

#

# domain guest groups is a list of unix users or groups who are made members

# of the Domain Guests group

; domain guest group = nobody @guest

# 7. Name Resolution Options:

# All NetBIOS names must be resolved to IP Addresses

# 'Name Resolve Order' allows the named resolution mechanism to be specified

# the default order is "host lmhosts wins bcast". "host" means use the unix

# system gethostbyname() function call that will use either /etc/hosts OR

# DNS or NIS depending on the settings of /etc/host.config, /etc/nsswitch.conf

# and the /etc/resolv.conf file. "host" therefore is system configuration

# dependant. This parameter is most often of use to prevent DNS lookups

# in order to resolve NetBIOS names to IP Addresses. Use with care!

# The example below excludes use of name resolution for machines that are NOT

# on the local network segment

# - OR - are not deliberately to be known via lmhosts or via WINS.

; name resolve order = wins lmhosts bcast

# Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section:

# WINS Support - Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable it's WINS Server

;   wins support = yes

# WINS Server - Tells the NMBD components of Samba to be a WINS Client

#       Note: Samba can be either a WINS Server, or a WINS Client, but NOT both

;   wins server = w.x.y.z

# WINS Proxy - Tells Samba to answer name resolution queries on

# behalf of a non WINS capable client, for this to work there must be

# at least one  WINS Server on the network. The default is NO.

;   wins proxy = yes

# DNS Proxy - tells Samba whether or not to try to resolve NetBIOS names

# via DNS nslookups. The built-in default for versions 1.9.17 is yes,

# this has been changed in version 1.9.18 to no.

   dns proxy = no 

# 8. File Naming Options:

# Case Preservation can be handy - system default is _no_

# NOTE: These can be set on a per share basis

;  preserve case = no

;  short preserve case = no

# Default case is normally upper case for all DOS files

;  default case = lower

# Be very careful with case sensitivity - it can break things!

;  case sensitive = no

# Enabling internationalization:

# you can match a Windows code page with a UNIX character set.

# Windows: 437 (US), 737 (GREEK), 850 (Latin1 - Western European),

# 852 (Eastern Eu.), 861 (Icelandic), 932 (Cyrillic - Russian),

# 936 (Japanese - Shift-JIS), 936 (Simpl. Chinese), 949 (Korean Hangul),

# 950 (Trad. Chin.).

# UNIX: ISO8859-1 (Western European), ISO8859-2 (Eastern Eu.),

# ISO8859-5 (Russian Cyrillic), KOI8-R (Alt-Russ. Cyril.)

# This is an example for french users:

;   client code page = 850

;   character set = ISO8859-1

#============================ Share Definitions ==============================

[homes]

   comment = Home Directories

   browseable = no

   writable = yes

# Un-comment the following and create the netlogon directory for Domain Logons

; [netlogon]

;   comment = Network Logon Service

;   path = /var/lib/samba/netlogon

;   guest ok = yes

;   writable = no

# Un-comment the following to provide a specific roving profile share

# the default is to use the user's home directory

;[Profiles]

;    path = /var/lib/samba/profiles

;    browseable = no

;    guest ok = yes

# NOTE: If you have a CUPS print system there is no need to 

# specifically define each individual printer.

# You must configure the samba printers with the appropriate Windows

# drivers on your Windows clients. On the Samba server no filtering is

# done. If you wish that the server provides the driver and the clients

# send PostScript ("Generic PostScript Printer" under Windows), you have

# to swap the 'print command' line below with the commented one.

[printers]

   comment = All Printers

   path = /var/spool/samba

   browseable = no

# to allow user 'guest account' to print.

   guest ok = yes

   writable = no

   printable = yes

   create mode = 0700

# =====================================

# print command: see above for details.

# =====================================

   print command = lpr -P %p -o raw %s -r   # using client side printer drivers.

;   print command = lpr -P %p %s # using cups own drivers (use generic PostScript on clients).

# The following two commands are the samba defaults for printing=cups

# change them only if you need different options:

;   lpq command = lpq -P %p

;   lprm command = cancel %p-%j

# This share is used for Windows NT-style point-and-print support.

# To be able to install drivers, you need to be either root, or listed

# in the printer admin parameter above. Note that you also need write access

# to the directory and share definition to be able to upload the drivers.

# For more information on this, please see the Printing Support Section of

# /usr/share/doc/samba-<version>/docs/Samba-HOWTO-Collection.pdf 

[print$]

   path = /var/lib/samba/printers

   browseable = yes

   read only = yes

   write list = @adm root

# This one is useful for people to share files

;[tmp]

;   comment = Temporary file space

;   path = /tmp

;   read only = no

;   public = yes

# A publicly accessible directory, but read only, except for people in

# the "staff" group

;[public]

;   comment = Public Stuff

;   path = /home/samba/public

;   public = yes

;   writable = no

;   write list = @staff

# Other examples. 

#

# A private printer, usable only by Fred. Spool data will be placed in Fred's

# home directory. Note that fred must have write access to the spool directory,

# wherever it is.

;[fredsprn]

;   comment = Fred's Printer

;   valid users = fred

;   path = /homes/fred

;   printer = freds_printer

;   public = no

;   writable = no

;   printable = yes

# A private directory, usable only by Fred. Note that Fred requires write

# access to the directory.

;[fredsdir]

;   comment = Fred's Service

;   path = /usr/somewhere/private

;   valid users = fred

;   public = no

;   writable = yes

;   printable = no

# a service which has a different directory for each machine that connects

# this allows you to tailor configurations to incoming machines. You could

# also use the %u option to tailor it by user name.

# The %m gets replaced with the machine name that is connecting.

;[pchome]

;  comment = PC Directories

;  path = /usr/pc/%m

;  public = no

;  writable = yes

# A publicly accessible directory, read/write to all users. Note that all files

# created in the directory by users will be owned by the default user, so

# any user with access can delete any other user's files. Obviously this

# directory must be writable by the default user. Another user could of course

# be specified, in which case all files would be owned by that user instead.

;[public]

;   path = /usr/somewhere/else/public

;   public = yes

;   only guest = yes

;   writable = yes

;   printable = no

# The following two entries demonstrate how to share a directory so that two

# users can place files there that will be owned by the specific users. In this

# setup, the directory should be writable by both users and should have the

# sticky bit set on it to prevent abuse. Obviously this could be extended to

# as many users as required.

;[myshare]

;   comment = Mary's and Fred's stuff

;   path = /usr/somewhere/shared

;   valid users = mary fred

;   public = no

;   writable = yes

;   printable = no

;   create mask = 0765

Not much is different than the smb.conf example that come with an installation of samba. 

So i guess to clarify, i am trying to do smbpasswd -a infamy, and i produce the errors listed in my previous post. 

Thanks for the help,

Infamy

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## axxackall

 *nielchiano wrote:*   

> What program should I use to add/remove/view LDAP entries? What properities must/should/may be set?

 

I've installed Zope with Plone, created a portal site and added LDAPuserFolder to the portal folder. Now, using ZMI, I can manage users, their groups and passwords. Also, users, using the portal membership, can change their passwords, or email autogenerated ones back if forgotten. That helps users of several application on several servers. 

No need to mention that late,r after that, I've added to that portal much more than just user management. But the original motivation was to have a unified user management GUI.

 *nielchiano wrote:*   

> Should I use SSL for LDAP? also allow non-encrypted? how to setup the nsswich?

 

I've installed nsswitch (with PADL migration scripts) using just official LDAP docs from Gentoo. Just follow all steps carefully one by one. Now my ssh users login using same LDAP account as in other applications. I've left in shadow passwd only non-pesonal users, like root, vmail, nobody, lp, postfix, apache. Oppositely, I keep in LDAP only personal users (no root, or apache, or lp)

I use SSL with LDAP for network segments I don't trust. In other words i don't use SSL with LDAP only within localhosts and inside the server segment.

I did not answer question related to keeping PDC users in LDAP - that is the next thing I am gonna soon with LDAP.

I love LDAP, it designed exactly for a centralized user management and their authentication. It might be a bit difficult for novices at the beginning (wasn't Linux difficult too?), but if you'll follow guidlenes (books, docs) - you will be fine. There are lots of maillists about LDAP, don't hesitate to use Google as well.

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## Xiderpunk

Sorry axxackall but LDAP was designed to be a directory service, not to be used in authentication. For authentication purposes LDAP is in-efficient in every possible way. The only reason LDAP has been implemented in this way is down to a void in the tools available, Sun Microsystems to my knowledge are planning to fill that void in the near future with their work on directory services.

I use samba and ldap on multiple networks and have done for over a year, so it's definately not the case of having a lack of understanding. Yes it works, but it works poorly for authentication purposes.

Equally, googling for drawbacks to LDAP brings up many such bad experiences and highlights the problem, that LDAP is not a good solution for authentication and logon user management.

Following my experiences and investigation into LDAP, I can only recommend that wherever possible users on small networks (less than 20 users) should use tdbsam or smbpasswd. Only network administrators with large domains will need LDAP. This I feel should be better highlighted within the Samba documentation.

I do recognise that for you LDAP is working and that is good, but in most cases LDAP brings more trouble than it's worth when coupled with Samba authentication.

LDAP is however excellent as a "read from" directory, providing customer information, supplier information, etc, on EAI tiered systems and other heterogeneous environments.

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## dvc5

As mentioned earlier, LDAP is a bit tricky to work with. A useful tool I use for my ldap directories is the "LDAP Browser/Editor" and can be downloaded at:

http://www.iit.edu/~gawojar/ldap/. 

Also some other useful links to help you get started on Samba w/ LDAP authentication:

http://www.unav.es/cti/ldap-smb/smb-ldap-3-howto.html

http://network.gouldacademy.org/randomfiles/sambaldap/SambaLDAP/

http://howto.aphroland.de/HOWTO/LDAP/SambaTNGwithOpenLDAPSambaTNGConfig

Good luck.

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## axxackall

 *Xiderpunk wrote:*   

> Sorry axxackall but LDAP was designed to be a directory service, not to be used in authentication. For authentication purposes LDAP is in-efficient in every possible way. The only reason LDAP has been implemented in this way is down to a void in the tools available, Sun Microsystems to my knowledge are planning to fill that void in the near future with their work on directory services.

 

Sorry, Xiderpunk, but LDAP was designed as a lightweight re-implementation of X.500 standards, most of them are for authentication. The only reason it was implemented through directory-like structure is to repeate the best part of X.500 standards. 

And it is not Sun, but it's Novell, who has for years the best LDAP implementation, proving in many successful stories that centralized authentication is best to be done with directory services.

 *Xiderpunk wrote:*   

> I do recognise that for you LDAP is working and that is good, but in most cases LDAP brings more trouble than it's worth when coupled with Samba authentication.

 

Feel free to post here you argiments why LDAP with SAMBA is bad. Don't forget to explain why many (even *n*x admins!) consider Active Directories (LDAP from Microsoft) as one of the best pices from that monopolist.

 *Xiderpunk wrote:*   

> LDAP is however excellent as a "read from" directory, providing customer information, supplier information, etc, on EAI tiered systems and other heterogeneous environments.

 

OpenLDAP with the default backend based on DBM/DB is better be used in  mostly read-only way. But Novell LDAP, as well as OpenLDAP with SQL backend do not have such limitation.

By the way, authentication mostly reads from LDAP and barely write anything into it.

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## maloo38

I found this link very useful for setting up ldap

http://www.mandrakesecure.net/en/docs/ldap-auth2.php

When joining my win2K system to my samba PDC I still had to create a user in the passwd file for the machine. May be a quirk with my setup.

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