Jean FrançoisMicouleau
&author.jerry;
&author.jht;
Mapping MS Windows and UNIX Groupsgroupsmapping
Starting with Samba-3, new group mapping functionality is available to create associations
between Windows group SIDs and UNIX groups. The groupmap subcommand
included with the &net; tool can be used to manage these associations.
The first immediate reason to use the group mapping on a Samba PDC, is that
domain admin group
the domain admin group has been removed and should no longer
be specified in &smb.conf;. This parameter was used to give the listed users membership
in the Domain Admins Windows group which gave local admin rights on their workstations
(in default configurations).
Features and Benefits
Samba allows the administrator to create MS Windows NT4 / 200x group accounts and to
arbitrarily associate them with UNIX/Linux group accounts.
UIDGID
Group accounts can be managed using the MS Windows NT4 or MS Windows 200x / XP Professional MMC tools.
Appropriate interface scripts should be provided in &smb.conf; if it is desired that UNIX / Linux system
accounts should be automatically created when these tools are used. In the absence of these scripts, and
so long as winbind is running, Samba accounts group accounts that are created using these tools will be
allocated UNIX UIDs/GIDs from the parameters set by the idmap uid/idmap gid settings
in the &smb.conf; file.
groupaddgroupdel
Administrators should be aware that where &smb.conf; group interface scripts make
direct calls to the UNIX/Linux system tools (eg: the shadow utilities, groupadd,
groupdel, groupmod) then the resulting UNIX/Linux group names will be subject
to any limits imposed by these tools. If the tool does NOT allow upper case characters
or space characters, then the creation of an MS Windows NT4 / 200x style group of
Engineering Managers will attempt to create an identically named
UNIX/Linux group, an attempt that will of course fail!
GIDSID
There are several possible work-arounds for the operating system tools limitation. One
method is to use a script that generates a name for the UNIX/Linux system group that
fits the operating system limits, and that then just passes the UNIX/Linux group id (GID)
back to the calling Samba interface. This will provide a dynamic work-around solution.
Another work-around is to manually create a UNIX/Linux group, then manually create the
MS Windows NT4 / 200x group on the Samba server and then use the net groupmap
tool to connect the two to each other.
Discussion
When installing MS Windows NT4 / 200x on a computer, the installation
program creates default users and groups, notably the Administrators group,
and gives that group privileges necessary privileges to perform essential system tasks.
eg: Ability to change the date and time or to kill (or close) any process running on the
local machine.
Administrator
The 'Administrator' user is a member of the 'Administrators' group, and thus inherits
'Administrators' group privileges. If a 'joe' user is created to be a member of the
'Administrator' group, 'joe' has exactly the same rights as 'Administrator'.
When an MS Windows NT4 / W200x is made a domain member, the "Domain Admins" group of the
PDC is added to the local 'Administrators' group of the workstation. Every member of the
'Domain Administrators' group inherits the rights of the local 'Administrators' group when
logging on the workstation.
The following steps describe how to make Samba PDC users members of the 'Domain Admins' group?
create a unix group (usually in /etc/group), let's call it domadm
add to this group the users that must be Administrators. For example
if you want joe, john and mary, your entry in /etc/group will
look like:
domadm:x:502:joe,john,mary
Map this domadm group to the "Domain Admins" group by running the command:
&rootprompt;net groupmap add ntgroup="Domain Admins" unixgroup=domadm"Domain Admins" group
The quotes around "Domain Admins" are necessary due to the space in the group name.
Also make sure to leave no whitespace surrounding the equal character (=).
Now joe, john and mary are domain administrators!
groupsdomain
It is possible to map any arbitrary UNIX group to any Windows NT4 / 200x group as well as
making any UNIX group a Windows domain group. For example, if you wanted to include a
UNIX group (e.g. acct) in a ACL on a local file or printer on a domain member machine,
you would flag that group as a domain group by running the following on the Samba PDC:
&rootprompt;net groupmap add rid=1000 ntgroup="Accounting" unixgroup=acct
Be aware that the RID parameter is a unsigned 32 bit integer that should
normally start at 1000. However, this rid must not overlap with any RID assigned
to a user. Verifying this is done differently depending on the passdb backend
you are using. Future versions of the tools may perform the verification automatically,
but for now the burden is on you.
Example Configuration
You can list the various groups in the mapping database by executing
net groupmap list. Here is an example:
&rootprompt; net groupmap list
System Administrators (S-1-5-21-2547222302-1596225915-2414751004-1002) -> sysadmin
Domain Admins (S-1-5-21-2547222302-1596225915-2414751004-512) -> domadmin
Domain Users (S-1-5-21-2547222302-1596225915-2414751004-513) -> domuser
Domain Guests (S-1-5-21-2547222302-1596225915-2414751004-514) -> domguest
For complete details on net groupmap, refer to the net(8) man page.
Configuration Scripts
Everyone needs tools. Some of us like to create our own, others prefer to use canned tools
(ie: prepared by someone else for general use).
Sample &smb.conf; add group script
A script to create complying group names for use by the Samba group interfaces:
smbgrpadd.sh
#!/bin/bash
# Add the group using normal system groupadd tool.
groupadd smbtmpgrp00
thegid=`cat /etc/group | grep smbtmpgrp00 | cut -d ":" -f3`
# Now change the name to what we want for the MS Windows networking end
cp /etc/group /etc/group.bak
cat /etc/group.bak | sed s/smbtmpgrp00/$1/g > /etc/group
# Now return the GID as would normally happen.
echo $thegid
exit 0
The &smb.conf; entry for the above script would look like:
add group script/path_to_tool/smbgrpadd.sh %gScript to configure Group Mapping
In our example we have created a UNIX/Linux group called ntadmin.
Our script will create the additional groups Orks, Elves, Gnomes:
#!/bin/bash
net groupmap modify ntgroup="Domain Admins" unixgroup=ntadmin
net groupmap modify ntgroup="Domain Users" unixgroup=users
net groupmap modify ntgroup="Domain Guests" unixgroup=nobody
net groupmap modify ntgroup="Administrators" unixgroup=root
net groupmap modify ntgroup="Users" unixgroup=users
net groupmap modify ntgroup="Guests" unixgroup=nobody
net groupmap modify ntgroup="System Operators" unixgroup=sys
net groupmap modify ntgroup="Account Operators" unixgroup=root
net groupmap modify ntgroup="Backup Operators" unixgroup=bin
net groupmap modify ntgroup="Print Operators" unixgroup=lp
net groupmap modify ntgroup="Replicators" unixgroup=daemon
net groupmap modify ntgroup="Power Users" unixgroup=sys
groupadd Orks
groupadd Elves
groupadd Gnomes
net groupmap add ntgroup="Orks" unixgroup=Orks type=d
net groupmap add ntgroup="Elves" unixgroup=Elves type=d
net groupmap add ntgroup="Gnomes" unixgroup=Gnomes type=d
Of course it is expected that the administrator will modify this to suit local needs.
For information regarding the use of the net groupmap tool please
refer to the man page.
Common Errors
At this time there are many little surprises for the unwary administrator. In a real sense
it is imperative that every step of automated control scripts must be carefully tested
manually before putting them into active service.
Adding Groups Fails
This is a common problem when the groupadd is called directly
by the Samba interface script for the add group script in
the &smb.conf; file.
The most common cause of failure is an attempt to add an MS Windows group account
that has either an upper case character and/or a space character in it.
There are three possible work-arounds. Firstly, use only group names that comply
with the limitations of the UNIX/Linux groupadd system tool.
The second involves use of the script mentioned earlier in this chapter, and the
third option is to manually create a UNIX/Linux group account that can substitute
for the MS Windows group name, then use the procedure listed above to map that group
to the MS Windows group.
Adding MS Windows Groups to MS Windows Groups Failsgroupsnested
Samba-3 does NOT support nested groups from the MS Windows control environment.
Adding Domain Users to the Power Users group
What must I do to add Domain Users to the Power Users group?
The Power Users group is a group that is local to each Windows
200x / XP Professional workstation. You can not add the Domain Users group to the Power Users
group automatically, this must be done on each workstation by logging in as the local workstation
administrator and then using click on Start / Control Panel / Users and Passwords
now click on the 'Advanced' tab, then on the 'Advanced' Button.
"Domain Users" group
Now click on 'Groups', then double click on 'Power Users'. This will launch the panel to add users
or groups to the local machine 'Power Uses' group. Click on the 'Add' button, select the domain
from which the 'Domain Users' group is to be added, double click on the 'Domain Users' group, then
click on the 'Ok' button. Note: If a logon box is presented during this process please remember to
enter the connect as DOMAIN\UserName. ie: For the domain MIDEARTH and the user 'root' enter
MIDEARTH\root.