Updating Samba-3 migrate install It was a little difficult to select an appropriate title for this chapter. From email messages on the Samba mailing lists it is clear that many people consider the updating and upgrading of Samba to be a migration matter. Others talk about migrating Samba servers when in fact the issue at hand is one of installing a new Samba server to replace an older existing Samba server. smbpasswd passdb backend There has also been much talk about migration of Samba-3 from an smbpasswd passdb backend to the use of the tdbsam or ldapsam facilities that are new to Samba-3. Clearly, there is not a great deal of clarity in the terminology that various people apply to these modes by which Samba servers are updated. This is further highlighted by an email posting that included the following neat remark:
netrpcvampire I like the net rpc vampire on NT4, but that to my surprise does not seem to work against a Samba PDC and, if addressed in the Samba to Samba context in either book, I could not find it.
contributions So in response to the significant request for these situations to be better documented this chapter has now been added. User contributions and documentation of real-world experiences will be a most welcome addition to this chapter. Introduction update upgrade frustration A Windows network administrator explained in an email what changes he was planning to make and and followed with the question: Anyone done this before?. Many of us have upgraded and updated Samba without incident. Others have experienced much pain and user frustration. So it is to be hoped that the notes in this chapter will make a positive difference by assuring that someone will be saved a lot of discomfort. Before anyone commences an upgrade or an update of Samba the one cardinal rule that must be observed is: Backup all Samba configuration files in case it is necessary to revert to the old version. Even if you do not like this precautionary step, users will punish an administrator who fails to take adequate steps to avoid situations that may inflict lost productivity on a user. configuration files down-grade Samba makes it possible to upgrade and update configuration files, but it is not possible to downgrade the configuration files. Please ensure that all configuration and control files are backed up to permit a down-grade in the rare event that this may be necessary. adequate precautions precaution It is prudent also to backup all data files on the server before attempting to perform a major upgrade. Many administrators have experienced the consequences of failure to take adequate precautions. So what is adequate? That is simple! If data is lost during an upgrade or and update and it can not be restored the precautions take were inadequate. If a backup was not needed, but was available, precaution was on the side of the victor. Cautions and Notes Someone once said, It is good to be sorry, but better never to need to be! These are wise words of advice to those contemplating a Samba upgrade or update. update upgrade generation This is as good a time as any to define the terms upgrade and update. The term upgrade is used to refer to the installation of a version of Samba that is a whole generation or more ahead of that which is installed. Generations are indicated by the first digit of the version number. So far Samba has been released in generations 1.x, 2.x, 3.x and currently 4.0 is in development. generation The term update is used to refer to a minor version number installation in place of one of the same generation. For example, updating from Samba 3.0.10 to 3.0.14 is an update. The move from Samba 2.0.7 to 3.0.14 is an upgrade. functional differences While the use of these terms is an exercise in semantics, what needs to be realized is that there are major functional differences between a Samba 2.x release and a Samba 3.0.x release. Such differences may require a significantly different approach to solving the same networking challenge and generally requires careful review of the latest documentation to identify precisely how the new installation may need to be modified to preserve prior functionality. There is an old axiom that says, The greater the volume of the documentation the greater the risk that no-one will read it, but where there is no documentation no-one can read it!. While true, some documentation is an evil necessity. It is to be hoped that this update to the documentation will avoid both extremes. Security Identifiers (SIDs) WindowsNT OS/2 DOS SID networkingclient securityidentifier Before the days of Windows NT and OS/2 every Windows and DOS networking client that used the SMB protocols was an entirely autonomous entity. There was no concept of a security identifier for a machine or a user outside of the username, the machine name, and the workgroup name. In actual fact, these were not security identifiers in the same context as the way that the SID is used since the development of Windows NT 3.10. SessionSetUpAndX SMB CIFS SID username Windowsclient Versions of Samba prior to 1.9 did not make use of a SID, instead they make exclusive use of the username that is embedded in the SessionSetUpAndX component of the connection setup process between a Windows client and an SMB/CIFS server. MACHINE.SID rpc security Around November 1997 support was added to Samba-1.9 to handle the Windows security rpc based protocols that implemented support for Samba to store a machine SID. This information was stored in a file called MACHINE.SID. machine SID secrets.tdb Within the life time of the early Samba 2.x series the machine SID information was relocated into a tdb file called secrets.tdb, which is where is is still located in Samba 3.0.x along with other information that pertains to the local machine and its role within a domain security context. serverstand-alone serverdomain member DMS SAS There are two types of SID, those pertaining to the machine itself and the domain to which it may belong, and those pertaining to users and groups within the security context of the local machine (in the case of stand-alone servers (SAS) and domain member servers (DMS). smbd workgroup hostname daemon SID secrets.tdb When the Samba smbd daemon is first started, if the secrets.tdb file does not exist it is created at the first client connection attempt. If this file does exist, smbd checks that there is a machine SID (if it is a domain controller it searches for the domain SID). If smbd does not find one for the current name of the machine or for the current name of the workgroup a new SID will be generated and then written to the secrets.tdb file. The SID is generated in a non-determinative manner. This means that each time it is generated for a particular combination of machine name (hostname) and domain name (workgroup) it will be different. ACL The SID is the key used by MS Windows networking for all networking operations. This means that when the machine or domain SID changes all security encoded objects such as profiles and ACLs may become unusable. It is of paramount importance that the machine and domain SID must be backed up so that in the event of a change of hostname (machine name) or domain name (workgroup) the SID can be restored to its previous value. netgetlocalsid netsetlocalsid The local machine SID can be backed up using this procedure (Samba-3): &rootprompt; net getlocalsid > /etc/samba/my-local-SID The contents of the file /etc/samba/my-local-SID will be: SID for domain FRODO is: S-1-5-21-726309263-4128913605-1168186429 This SID can be restored by executing: &rootprompt; net setlocalsid S-1-5-21-726309263-4128913605-1168186429 Samba 1.9.x stored the machine SID in the the file /etc/MACHINE.SID from which it can be recovered and stored into the secrets.tdb file using the procedure shown above. Where the secrets.tdb file exists and a version of Samba 2.x or later has been used there is no specific need to go through this update process. Samba-3 has the ability to read the older tdb file and to perform an in-situ update to the latest tdb format. This is not a reversible process &smbmdash; it is a one-way upgrade. smbpasswd In the course of the Samba 2.0.x series the smbpasswd was modified to permit the domain SID to be captured to the secrets.tdb file by executing: &rootprompt; smbpasswd -S PDC -Uadministrator%password The release of the Samba 2.2.x series permitted the SID to be obtained by executing: &rootprompt; smbpasswd -S PDC -Uadministrator%password From which the SID could be copied to a file and then it could be written to the Samba 2.2.x secrets.tdb file by executing: &rootprompt; smbpasswd -W S-1-5-21-726309263-4128913605-1168186429 rpcclient netrpcinfo Domain security information, that includes the domain SID, can be obtained from Samba-2.2.x systems by executing: &rootprompt; rpcclient lsaquery -Uroot%password This can also be done with Samba-3 by executing: &rootprompt; net rpc info -Uroot%password Domain Name: MIDEARTH Domain SID: S-1-5-21-726309263-4128913605-1168186429 Sequence number: 1113415916 Num users: 4237 Num domain groups: 86 Num local groups: 0 It is a very good practice to store this SID information in a safely kept file, just in case it is ever needed at a later date. passdb backend LDAP SID Take note that the domain SID is used extensively in Samba. Where LDAP is used for the passdb backend, all user, group, and trust accounts are encoded with the domain SID. This means that if the domain SID changes for any reason the entire Samba environment can become broken thus requiring extensive corrective action is the original SID can not be restored. Fortunately, it can be recovered from a dump of the LDAP database. A dump of the LDAP directory database can be obtained by executing: &rootprompt; slapcat -v -l filename.ldif SID profiles RPM When the domain SID has changed roaming profiles will cease to be functional. The recovery of roaming profiles will necessitate resetting of the domain portion of the user SID that owns the profile. This is encoded in the NTUser.DAT and can be updated using the Samba profiles utility. Please be aware that not all Linux distributions of the Samba RPMs do include this essential utility. Please do not complain to the Samba Team if this utility is missing, that is an issue that must be addressed to the creator of the RPM package. The Samba Team do their best to make available all the tools needed to manage a Samba based Windows networking environment. Change of hostname netbiosmachine name netbios name Samba uses two (2) methods by which the primary NetBIOS machine name (also known as a computer name or the hostname) may be determined: If the &smb.conf; file contains an entry netbios name entry its value will be used directly. In the absence of such and entry the UNIX system hostname will be used. Many sites have become victims of lost Samba functionality because the UNIX system hostname was changed for one reason or another. Such a change will cause a new machine SID to be generated. If this happens on a domain controller it will also change the domain SID. These SIDs can be updated (restored) using the procedure outlined above. Do NOT change the hostname or the netbios name. If this is changed be sure to reset the machine SID to the original setting, otherwise there may be serious interoperability and/or operational problems. Change of workgroup (domain) name workgroup The domain name of a Samba server is identical with the workgroup name and is set in the &smb.conf; file using the workgroup parameter. This has been consistent throughout the history of Samba and across all versions. SID Be aware that when the workgroup name is changed a new SID will be generated. The old domain SID can be reset using the procedure outlined earlier in this chapter. Location of config files directory The Samba 1.9.x &smb.conf; file may be found either in the /etc directory or in /usr/local/samba/lib. During the life of the Samba 2.x release the &smb.conf; file was relocated on Linux systems to the /etc/samba directory where it remains located also for Samba 3.0.x installations. secrets.tdb Samba 2.x introduced the secrets.tdb file that is also stored in the /etc/samba directory, or in the /usr/local/samba/lib directory sub-system. smbd The location at which smbd expects to find all configuration and control files is determined at the time of compilation of Samba. For versions of Samba prior to 3.0 one way to find the expected location of these files is to execute: &rootprompt; strings /usr/sbin/smbd | grep conf &rootprompt; strings /usr/sbin/smbd | grep secret &rootprompt; strings /usr/sbin/smbd | grep smbpasswd Note: The smbd executable may be located in the path /usr/local/samba/sbin. compile-time Samba-3 provides a neat new way to track the location of all control files as well as to find the compile-time options used as the Samba package was built. Here is how the dark secrets of the internals of the location of control files within Samba executables can be uncovered: &rootprompt; smbd -b | less Build environment: Built by: root@frodo Built on: Mon Apr 11 20:23:27 MDT 2005 Built using: gcc Build host: Linux frodo 2.6... SRCDIR: /usr/src/packages/BUILD/samba-3.0.15/source BUILDDIR: /usr/src/packages/BUILD/samba-3.0.15/source Paths: SBINDIR: /usr/sbin BINDIR: /usr/bin SWATDIR: /usr/share/samba/swat CONFIGFILE: /etc/samba/smb.conf LOGFILEBASE: /var/log/samba LMHOSTSFILE: /etc/samba/lmhosts LIBDIR: /usr/lib/samba SHLIBEXT: so LOCKDIR: /var/lib/samba PIDDIR: /var/run/samba SMB_PASSWD_FILE: /etc/samba/smbpasswd PRIVATE_DIR: /etc/samba ... It is important that both the &smb.conf; file and the secrets.tdb should be backed up before attempting any upgrade. The secrets.tdb file is version encoded and therefore a newer version may not work with an older version of Samba. A backup means that it is always possible to revert a failed or problematic upgrade. Upgrading from Samba 1.x and 2.x to Samba-3 Sites that are being upgraded from Samba-2 (or earlier versions) to Samba-3 may experience little difficulty or may require a lot of effort, depending on the complexity of the configuration. Samba-1.9.x upgrades to Samba-3 will generally be simple and straight forward, although no upgrade should be attempted without proper planning and preparation. There are two basic modes of use of Samba versions prior to Samba-3. The first does not use LDAP, the other does. Samba-1.9.x did not provide LDAP support. Samba-2.x could be compiled with LDAP support. Samba 1.9.x and 2.x Versions Without LDAP Where it is necessary to upgrade an old Samba installation to Samba-3 the following procedure can be followed: winbindd smbd nmbd Stop Samba. This can be done using the appropriate system tool that is particular for each operating system or by executing the kill command on smbd, nmbd and on winbindd. Find the location of the Samba &smb.conf; file - back it up to a safe location. Find the location of the smbpasswd file - back it up to a safe location. Find the location of the secrets.tdb file - back it up to a safe location. lock directory /usr/local/samba/var/locks /var/cache/samba /var/lib/samba Find the location of the lock directory. This is the directory in which Samba stores all its tdb control files. The default location used by the Samba Team is in /usr/local/samba/var/locks directory, but on Linux systems the old location was under the /var/cache/samba directory, however the Linux Standards Base specified location is now under the /var/lib/samba directory. Copy all the tdb files to a safe location. RPM It is now safe to ugrade the Samba installation. On Linux systems it is not necessary to remove the Samba RPMs becasue a simple upgrade installation will automatically remove the old files. On systems that do not support a reliable package management system it is advisable either to delete the Samba old installation , or to move it out of the way by renaming the directories that contain the Samba binary files. When the Samba upgrade has been installed the first step that should be completed is to identify the new target locations for the control files. Follow the steps shown in to locate the correct directories to which each control file must be moved. Do not change the hostname. Do not change the workgroup name. testparm Execute the testparm to validate the &smb.conf; file. This process will flag any parameters that are no longer supported. It will also flag configuration settings that may be in conflict. One solution that may be used to clean up and to update the &smb.conf; file involves renaming it to smb.conf.master and then executing the following: &rootprompt; cd /etc/samba &rootprompt; testparm -s smb.conf.master > smb.conf stripped The resulting &smb.conf; file will be stripped of all comments and will be stripped of all non-conforming configuration settings. winbindd It is now safe to start Samba using the appropriate system tool. Alternately, it is possible to just execute nmbd, smbd and winbindd for the command line while logged in as the 'root' user. Applicable to all Samba 2.x to Samba-3 Upgrades PDC domain controller inter-domain Samba 2.x servers that were running as a domain controller (PDC) require changes to the configuration of the scripting interface tools that Samba uses to perform operating system updates for users, groups and trust accounts (machines and inter-domain). parameters The following parameters are new to Samba-3 and should be correctly configured. Please refer to Chapters 3-6 in this book for examples of use of the new parameters shown here: add group script add machine script add user to group script delete group script delete user from group script set primary group script passdb backend add group script add machine script add user to group script delete group script delete user from group script passdb backend set primary group script add machine script add user script The add machine script functionality was previously hanlded by the add user script, which in Samba-3 is used exclusively to add user accounts. Where the passdb backend used is either smbpasswd (the default), or the new tdbsam, the system interface scripts are typically used. These involve use of operating system tools such as useradd, usermod, userdel, groupadd, groupmod, groupdel, etc. Where the passdb backend makes use of an LDAP directory it will be necessary either to use the smbldap-tools provided by Idealx, or else to use an alternate toolset either provided by another third party, or else home crafted tools to manage the LDAP directory accounts. Samba-2.x with LDAP support Samba version 2.x could be compiled for use either with, or without, LDAP. The LDAP control settings in the &smb.conf; file in this old version are completely different (and less complete) than they are with Samba-3. This means that after migrating the control files it will be necessary to reconfigure the LDAP settings entirely. Follow the procedure outlined in to affect a migration of all files to the correct locations. The Samba SAM schema required for Samba-3 is significantly different from that used with Samba 2.x. This means that the LDAP directory will need to be updated using the procedure outlined in the Samba WHATSNEW.txt file that accompanies all releases of Samba-3. This information is repeated here directly from this file: This is an extract from the Samba-3.0.x WHATSNEW.txt file: ========================================================== Changes in Behavior ------------------- The following issues are known changes in behavior between Samba 2.2 and Samba 3.0 that may affect certain installations of Samba. 1) When operating as a member of a Windows domain, Samba 2.2 would map any users authenticated by the remote DC to the 'guest account' if a uid could not be obtained via the getpwnam() call. Samba 3.0 rejects the connection as NT_STATUS_LOGON_FAILURE. There is no current work around to re-establish the 2.2 behavior. 2) When adding machines to a Samba 2.2 controlled domain, the 'add user script' was used to create the UNIX identity of the machine trust account. Samba 3.0 introduces a new 'add machine script' that must be specified for this purpose. Samba 3.0 will not fall back to using the 'add user script' in the absence of an 'add machine script' ###################################################################### Passdb Backends and Authentication ################################## There have been a few new changes that Samba administrators should be aware of when moving to Samba 3.0. 1) encrypted passwords have been enabled by default in order to inter-operate better with out-of-the-box Windows client installations. This does mean that either (a) a samba account must be created for each user, or (b) 'encrypt passwords = no' must be explicitly defined in smb.conf. 2) Inclusion of new 'security = ads' option for integration with an Active Directory domain using the native Windows Kerberos 5 and LDAP protocols. MIT kerberos 1.3.1 supports the ARCFOUR-HMAC-MD5 encryption type which is neccessary for servers on which the administrator password has not been changed, or kerberos-enabled SMB connections to servers that require Kerberos SMB signing. Besides this one difference, either MIT or Heimdal Kerberos distributions are usable by Samba 3.0. Samba 3.0 also includes the possibility of setting up chains of authentication methods (auth methods) and account storage backends (passdb backend). Please refer to the smb.conf(5) man page for details. While both parameters assume sane default values, it is likely that you will need to understand what the values actually mean in order to ensure Samba operates correctly. The recommended passdb backends at this time are * smbpasswd - 2.2 compatible flat file format * tdbsam - attribute rich database intended as an smbpasswd replacement for stand alone servers * ldapsam - attribute rich account storage and retrieval backend utilizing an LDAP directory. * ldapsam_compat - a 2.2 backward compatible LDAP account backend Certain functions of the smbpasswd(8) tool have been split between the new smbpasswd(8) utility, the net(8) tool, and the new pdbedit(8) utility. See the respective man pages for details. ###################################################################### LDAP #### This section outlines the new features affecting Samba / LDAP integration. New Schema ---------- A new object class (sambaSamAccount) has been introduced to replace the old sambaAccount. This change aids us in the renaming of attributes to prevent clashes with attributes from other vendors. There is a conversion script (examples/LDAP/convertSambaAccount) to modify and LDIF file to the new schema. Example: $ ldapsearch .... -b "ou=people,dc=..." > sambaAcct.ldif $ convertSambaAccount --sid=<Domain SID> \ --input=sambaAcct.ldif --output=sambaSamAcct.ldif \ --changetype=[modify|add] The <DOM SID> can be obtained by running 'net getlocalsid <DOMAINNAME>' on the Samba PDC as root. The changetype determines the format of the generated LDIF output--either create new entries or modify existing entries. The old sambaAccount schema may still be used by specifying the "ldapsam_compat" passdb backend. However, the sambaAccount and associated attributes have been moved to the historical section of the schema file and must be uncommented before use if needed. The 2.2 object class declaration for a sambaAccount has not changed in the 3.0 samba.schema file. Other new object classes and their uses include: * sambaDomain - domain information used to allocate rids for users and groups as necessary. The attributes are added in 'ldap suffix' directory entry automatically if an idmap uid/gid range has been set and the 'ldapsam' passdb backend has been selected. * sambaGroupMapping - an object representing the relationship between a posixGroup and a Windows group/SID. These entries are stored in the 'ldap group suffix' and managed by the 'net groupmap' command. * sambaUnixIdPool - created in the 'ldap idmap suffix' entry automatically and contains the next available 'idmap uid' and 'idmap gid' * sambaIdmapEntry - object storing a mapping between a SID and a UNIX uid/gid. These objects are created by the idmap_ldap module as needed. * sambaSidEntry - object representing a SID alone, as a Structural class on which to build the sambaIdmapEntry. New Suffix for Searching ------------------------ The following new smb.conf parameters have been added to aid in directing certain LDAP queries when 'passdb backend = ldapsam://...' has been specified. * ldap suffix - used to search for user and computer accounts * ldap user suffix - used to store user accounts * ldap machine suffix - used to store machine trust accounts * ldap group suffix - location of posixGroup/sambaGroupMapping entries * ldap idmap suffix - location of sambaIdmapEntry objects If an 'ldap suffix' is defined, it will be appended to all of the remaining sub-suffix parameters. In this case, the order of the suffix listings in smb.conf is important. Always place the 'ldap suffix' first in the list. Due to a limitation in Samba's smb.conf parsing, you should not surround the DN's with quotation marks. Updating a Samba-3 Installation The key concern in this section is to deal with the changes that have been affected in Samba-3 between the samba-3.0.0 release and the current update. Network administrators have expressed concerns over the steps that should be taken to update Samba-3 versions. The information in would not be necessary if every person who has ever produced Samba executable (binary) files could agree on the preferred location of the &smb.conf; file and other Samba control files. Clearly, such agreement is further away than a pipe-dream. Vendors and packagers who produce Samba binary installable packages do not, as a rule, use the default paths used by the Samba-Team for the location of the binary files, the &smb.conf; file, and the Samba control files (tdb's as well as files such as secrets.tdb. This means that the network or UNIX administrator who sets out to build the Samba executable files from the Samba tarball must take particular care. Failure to take care will result in both the original vendors' version of Samba remaining installed as well as the new version that will be installed in the default location used by the Samba-Team. This can lead to confusion and to much lost time as the uninformed administrator deals with apparent failure of the update to take effect. The best advice for those lacking in code compilation experience is to use only vendor (or Samba-Team) provided binary packages. The Samba packages that are provided by the Samba-Team are generally built to use file paths that are compatible with the original operating system vendors' practices. If you are not sure whether or a binary package complies with the operating system vendors' practices it is better to ask the package maintainer via email to be certain than to waste much time dealing with the nuances. Alternately, just diagnose the paths specified by the binary files following the procedure outlined above. Samba-3 to Samba-3 updates on the Same Server The guidance in this section deals with updates to an existing Samba-3 server installation. Updating from Samba Versions Earlier than 3.0.5 With the provision that the binary Samba-3 package has been built with the same path and feature settings as the existing Samba-3 package that is being updated, an update of Samab-3 versions 3.0.0 through 3.0.4 can be updated to 3.0.5 without loss of functionality and without need to change either the &smb.conf; file or, where used, the LDAP schema. Updating from Samba Versions between 3.0.6 and 3.0.10 When updating versions of Samba-3 prior to 3.0.6 to 3.0.6-3.0.10 it is necessary only to update the LDAP schema (where LDAP is used). Always use the LDAP schema file that is shipped with the latest Samba-3 update. Samba-3.0.6 introduced the ability to remember the last 'n' number of passwords a user has used. This information will work only with the tdbsam and ldapsam passdb backend facilities. After updating the LDAP schema, do not forget to reindex the LDAP database. Updating from Samba Versions after 3.0.6 to a Current Release Samba-3.0.8 introduced changes in how the username map behaves. It also included a change in behavior of winbindd. Please refer to the man page for &smb.conf; before implementing any update from versions prior to 3.0.8 to a current version. In Samba-3.0.11 a new privileges interface was implemented. Please refer to for information regarding this new feature. It is not necessary to implement the privileges interface, but it is one that has been requested for several years and thus may be of interest at your site. In Samba-3.0.11 there were some functional changes to the ldap user suffix and to the ldap machine suffix behaviors. The following information has been extracted from the WHATSNEW.txt file from this release: ============ LDAP Changes ============ If "ldap user suffix" or "ldap machine suffix" are defined in smb.conf, all user-accounts must reside below the user suffix, and all machine and inter-domain trust-accounts must be located below the machine suffix. Previous Samba releases would fall back to searching the 'ldap suffix' in some cases. Migrating Samba-3 to a New Server The two most likely candidates for replacement of a server are domain member servers and domain controllers. Each needs to be handled slightly differently. Replacing a Domain Member Server Replacement of a domain member server (DMS) should be done using the same procedure as outlined in . Usually the new server will be introduced with a temporary name. After the old server data has been migrated to the new server it is customary that the new server will be renamed to that of the old server. This will change its SID and will necessitate re-joining to the domain. Following a change of hostname (netbios name) it is a good idea on all servers to shutdown the Samba smbd, nmbd and winbindd services, delete the wins.dat and browse.dat files, then restart Samba. This will ensure that the old name and IP address information is no longer able to interfere with name to IP address resolution. If this is not done, there can be temporary name resolution problems. These problems usually clear within 45 minutes of a name change, but can persist for a longer period of time. If the old DMS had local accounts, it is necessary to create on the new DMS the same accounts with the same UID and GID for each account. Where the passdb backend database is stored in the smbpasswd or in the tdbsam format the user and group account information for UNIX accounts, that match the Samba accounts, will reside in the system /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and /etc/group files. In this case be sure to copy these account entries to the new target server. Where the user accounts for both UNIX and Samba are stored in LDAP, the new target server must be configured to use the nss_ldap tool set. This will then automatically ensure that the appropriate user entities are available on the new server. Replacing a Domain Controller In the past, people who replaced a Windows NT4 domain controller would typically install a new server, create printers and file shares on it, then migrate across all data that was destined to reside on it. The same can of course be done with Samba. From recent mailing list postings it would seem that some administrators have the intent to just replace the old Samba server with a new one with the same name as the old one. In this case, simply follow the same process as upgrading a Samba 2.x system in respect of the following: Where UNIX (POSIX) user and group accounts are stored in the system /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and /etc/group files be sure to add the same accounts with identical UID and GID values for each user. Where LDAP is used, if the new system is intended to be the LDAP server migrate it across by configuring the LDAP server (/etc/openldap/slapd.conf). The directory can either be populated initially by setting this LDAP server up as a slave, or else by dumping the data from the old LDAP server using the slapcat command and then reloading the same data into the new LDAP server using the slapadd command. Do not forget to install and configure the nss_ldap tool and the /etc/nsswitch.conf (as shown in Chapter 5). Copy the &smb.conf; file from the old server to the new server into the correct location as indicated previously in this chapter. Copy the secrets.tdb file, the smbpasswd file (if it is used), the /etc/samba/passdb.tdb file (only used by the tdbsam backend), and all the tdb control files from the old system to the correct location on the new system. Before starting the Samba daemons, verify that the hostname of the new server is identical with that of the old one. Note: The IP address can be different from that of the old server. Copy all files from the old server to the new server, taking precaution to preserve all file ownership and permissions as well as any POSIX ACLs that may have been created on the old server. Migration of Samba Accounts to Active Directory Yes, it works. The Windows ADMT tool can be used to migrate Samba accounts to MS Active Directory. There are a few pitfalls to be aware of: Administrator password must be THE SAME on the Samba server, the 2003 ADS, and the local Administrator account on the workstations. Perhaps this goes without saying, but there needs to be an account called Administrator in your Samba domain, with full administrative (root) rights to that domain. In the Advanced/DNS section of the TCP/IP settings on your Windows workstations, make sure DNS suffix for this connection field is blank. Because you are migrating from Samba, user passwords cannot be migrated. You'll have to reset everyone's passwords. (If you were migrating from NT4 to ADS, you could migrate passwords as well.) To date this has not been attempted with roaming profile support; it has been documented as working with local profiles. Disable the Windows Firewall on all workstations. Otherwise, workstations won't be migrated to the new domain. When migrating machines, always test first (using ADMT's test mode) and satisfy all errors before committing the migration. Note that the test will always fail, because the machine will not have been actually migrated. You'll need to interpret the errors to know whether the failure was due to a problem, or simply due to the fact that it was just a test. There are some significant benefits of using the ADMT, besides just migrating user accounts. ADMT can be found on the Windows 2003 CD. You can also migrate workstations remotely. You can specify that SIDs be simply added instead of replaced, giving you the option of joining a workstation back to the old domain if something goes awry. The workstations will be joined to the new domain. Not only are user accounts migrated from the old domain to the new domain, but ACLs on the workstations are migrated as well. Like SIDs, ACLs can be added instead of replaced. Locally stored user profiles on workstations are migrated as well, presenting almost no disruption to the user. Saved passwords will be lost, just as when you administratively reset the password in Windows ADS. The ADMT lets you test all operations before actually performing the migration. Accounts and workstations can be migrated individually or in batches. User accounts can be safely migrated all at once (since no changes are made on the original domain); It is recommended to migrate only one or two workstations as a test before committing them all.