CIFS/9000 and user management

[Wim Rombauts]

Let's start by saying I am new to CIFS, maybe that explains this question.

So, here is my question :
I want to set up a CIFS fileserver for about 800 to 900 Windows NT 4.0 users. Since winbind is not yet supported, how do I set up the CIFS fileserver in a way that I don't need to create all those windows users and groups explicitly in the UNIX passwd and group files.

If a user is added in the windows user manager and added to the necessary groups, I want him to have access to the UNIX filesystem without further local management on UNIX security. Is that possible ?

By the way, I have tried to set up the server with domain security, but I am unable to make a connection to a share on that CIFS server.

[Rainer von Bongartz]

Wim,

Whenever you find a solution let me know !!!!!

With the current restriction of passwd entry for every NT user I
think that the usability of CIFS/9000 is not very high

I currently use it as a central print server where I don't need users in passwd as all printer accesses are allowed as user guest.

Regards
Rainer

[Yvonne Butler]

If you go to www.samba.org and look at the latest releases of samba you'll see that winbind is now supported (apparently). I haven't tried this myself yet but it says its there on the website...

[Wim Rombauts]

Yes, I know about winbindd in samba, but it is not released in the supported version by HP (CIFS/9000). Winbind should be released soon they say ... meaning anything between now and 2 jears ?

So, what is the best way for easy user and group management on CIFS right now.

By the way, I tried downloading version 01.08.01 from the software depot, but I cannot open the download page. Something wrong on the site I guess.

[James_160]

I have been working on a similar task recently. The difference is that with Windows 2000 environment.

If CIFS is compiled with "--with-krb5" option, when CIFS received userid and password from Windows client, it will verify them with KDC (kerberos key distribution center), in Windows2000 environment, KDC can be (DC) domain controller. In another word, windows user can got authentication from Domain Controller so that they can get access to UNIX CIFS shares. Sonds good, but:

Problem is "--with-krb5" option is OFF by default. So the CIFS depot I downloaded from HP website doesn't support Kerberos, I have to compile the whole thing by myself.

[Wim Rombauts]

I'm afraid there is no current good solution as long as winbind is not supported.

Anyway, since most of the users are windows-only users, I have been experimenting met the "add user script" setting, and it has been helping me part of the way.
Not really what I was looking for, but maybe good enough to live with for now.