joining Linux machine to Windoz Active Directory domain - WHY is Samba necessary???

centurion · Post by **centurion** » 2011/10/04 17:45:34

ok so there's a linux centos machine which I wanna join to an AD (active directory) domain (a windows 2003 machine which is both AD and DNS server)

both are virtual machines on vbox. they serve no practical purpose but I wish to learn how this all works but I've several questions which google can't answer

1) why is it everytime I inquire about joining Linux to an AD domain, the name 'Samba' comes up??
Samba is suppose to be a *file sharing* thing, so what does file sharing have to do with active directory? I don't want file sharing, I just want local linux users to be part of an AD domain. so conceptually this makes no sense

2) I can already mount windows shares from linux, using "mount -t cifs" command. so this means file sharing is already possible between windows & my linux machine, right? if so, would I still need to install Samba (and if so, why? what's the difference with "mount -t cifs"?)

3) active directory uses a weird thing called LDAP protocol, and apparently Linux has their own version called Openldap.
Does this mean that I've to install openldap on a Linux machine to join it to an AD domain?

4) when installing AD on windows, for some reason it says that I've to install DNS too but as usual these microsoft **** dont explain why. so 2nd question is, do I have to install a DNS-related app on the linux machine too? (the machine has a host name but it ain't part of a DNS domain or anything, and I can't ping it from outside using its host name, only IP)
and if so, why? what does DNS have to do with active directory?
(on the net I've read that active directory domain & DNS domain are different things, but then this means one doesn't need the other, right? since their unrelated...)

Post by **scottro** » 2011/10/04 19:45:33

Samba is more of a suite of programs, I think. You shouldn't have to worry about ldap on the Linux side.

I have a page, that should still work at

http://home.roadrunner.com/~computertaijutsu/adsamba.html

See if it helps.