winbindd [-d debuglevel] [-i]
This program is part of the Samba suite version 3.0 and describes functionality not yet implemented in the main version of Samba.
winbindd is a daemon that provides a service for the Name Service
Switch capability that is present in most modern C libraries. The Name
Service Switch allows user and system information to be obtained from
different databases services such as NIS or DNS. The exact behaviour can
be configured throught the /etc/nsswitch.conf file. Users and groups
are allocated as they are resolved to a range of user and group ids
specified by the administrator of the Samba system.
The service provided by winbindd is called `winbind' and can be used to resolve user and group information from a Windows NT server. The service can also provide authentication services via an associated PAM module.
The following nsswitch databases are implemented by the winbindd service:
User information traditionally stored in the passwd(5) file and used by getpwent(3) functions.
Group information traditionally stored in the group(5) file and used by getgrent(3) functions.
For example, the following simple configuration in the
/etc/nsswitch.conf file can be used to initially resolve user and group
information from /etc/passwd and /etc/group and then from the
Windows NT server.
passwd: files winbind group: files winbind
The following options are available to the winbindd daemon:
Users and groups on a Windows NT server are assigned a relative id (rid) which is unique for the domain when the user or group is created. To convert the Windows NT user or group into a unix user or group, a mapping between rids and unix user and group ids is required. This is one of the jobs that winbindd performs.
As winbindd users and groups are resolved from a server, user and group ids are allocated from a specified range. This is done on a first come, first served basis, although all existing users and groups will be mapped as soon as a client performs a user or group enumeration command. The allocated unix ids are stored in a database file under the Samba lock directory and will be remembered.
WARNING: The rid to unix id database is the only location where the user and group mappings are stored by winbindd. If this file is deleted or corrupted, there is no way for winbindd to determine which user and group ids correspond to Windows NT user and group rids.
Configuration of the winbindd daemon is done through configuration parameters in the smb.conf file. All parameters should be specified in the [global] section of smb.conf.
The winbind separator option allows you to specify how NT domain names and user names are combined into unix user names when presented to users. By default winbind will use the traditional \ separator so that the unix user names look like DOMAIN\username. In some cases this separator character may cause problems as the \ character has special meaning in unix shells. In that case you can use the winbind separator option to specify an alternative sepataror character. Good alternatives may be / (although that conflicts with the unix directory separator) or a + character. The + character appears to be the best choice for 100% compatibility with existing unix utilities, but may be an aesthetically bad choice depending on your taste.
Example:
winbind separator = +
The winbind uid parameter specifies the range of user ids that are allocated by the winbindd daemon. This range of ids should have no existing local or nis users within it as strange conflicts can occur otherwise.
Default:
winbind uid = <empty string>
Example:
winbind uid = 10000-20000
The winbind gid parameter specifies the range of group ids that are allocated by the winbindd daemon. This range of group ids should have no existing local or nis groups within it as strange conflicts can occur otherwise.
Default:
winbind gid = <empty string>
Example:
winbind gid = 10000-20000
This parameter specifies the number of seconds the winbindd daemon will cache user and group information before querying a Windows NT server again. When a item in the cache is older than this time winbindd will ask the domain controller for the sequence number of the servers account database. If the sequence number has not changed then the cached item is marked as valid for a further "winbind cache time" seconds. Otherwise the item is fetched from the server. This means that as long as the account database is not actively changing winbindd will only have to send one sequence number query packet every "winbind cache time" seconds.
Default:
winbind cache time = 15
When filling out the user information for a Windows NT user, the
winbindd daemon uses this parameter to fill in
the home directory for that user. If the string %D is present it is
substituted with the user's Windows NT domain name. If the string %U
is present it is substituted with the user's Windows NT user name.
Default:
template homedir = /home/%D/%U
When filling out the user information for a Windows NT user, the winbindd daemon uses this parameter to fill in the shell for that user.
Default:
template shell = /bin/false
To setup winbindd for user and group lookups plus authentication from a domain controller use something like the following setup. This was tested on a RedHat 6.2 Linux box.
In /etc/nsswitch.conf put the following:
passwd: files winbind group: files winbind
In /etc/pam.d/* replace the auth lines with something like this:
auth required /lib/security/pam_securetty.so auth required /lib/security/pam_nologin.so auth sufficient /lib/security/pam_winbind.so auth required /lib/security/pam_pwdb.so use_first_pass shadow nullok
Note in particular the use of the sufficient keyword and the use_first_pass keyword.
Now replace the account lines with this:
account required /lib/security/pam_winbind.so
The next step is to join the domain. To do that use the samedit program like this:
samedit -S '*' -W DOMAIN -UAdministrator
Then within samedit run the command:
createuser MACHINE$ -j DOMAIN -L
This assumes your domain is called DOMAIN and your Samba workstation is called MACHINE.
Next copy libnss_winbind.so.2 to /lib and pam_winbind.so to /lib/security.
Finally, setup a smb.conf containing directives like the following:
[global]
winbind separator = +
winbind cache time = 10
template shell = /bin/bash
template homedir = /home/%D/%U
winbind uid = 10000-20000
winbind gid = 10000-20000
workgroup = DOMAIN
security = domain
password server = *
Now start winbindd and you should find that your user and group database is expanded to include your NT users and groups, and that you can login to your unix box as a domain user, using the DOMAIN+user syntax for the username. You may wish to use the commands "getent passwd" and "getent group" to confirm the correct operation of winbindd.
NOTE: nmbd must be running on the local machine for winbindd to work.
The following files are relevant to the operation of the winbindd daemon.
Name service switch configuration file.
The UNIX pipe over which clients communicate with the winbindd program.
For security reasons, the winbind client will only attempt to connect to the
winbindd daemon if both the /tmp/.winbindd directory and
/tmp/.winbindd/pipe file are owned by root.
Implementation of name service switch library.
Storage for the Windows NT rid to UNIX user/group id mapping. If this file is damaged or destroyed then the mappings will be lost.
The lock directory is specified when Samba is initially compiled using the
--with-lockdir option. This directory is by default
/usr/local/samba/var/locks.
Storage for cached user and group information.
samba(7), smb.conf(5), nsswitch.conf(5)
The original Samba software and related utilities were created by Andrew Tridgell. Samba is now developed by the Samba Team as an Open Source project.
Winbindd was written by Tim Potter.