You might think that Samba is useful because it allows Windows users to access files or printers on a Unix system. Indeed, Samba does this perfectly well, but that’s only part of what this facility can do.
Whether you have a small growing site, a large established one, or just a home network, you can use some of Samba’s other features to help increase productivity, decrease costly downtime, and lower your total cost of ownership. Let’s find out how.
Defining a Domain and a Controller
In the Windows world, a collection of networked computers is typically called a workgroup. As a network grows, it often becomes desirable to turn it into a domain. By creating a domain, you gain an important feature.
Within a domain, there is a single system called the Primary Domain Controller (PDC). The PDC provides user authentication for all the other systems within the domain. It also stores information about the users within the domain.
Together, the domain and PDC allow for a concept known as “Single Sign On.” Any user can log on to any computer in the domain using a Samba username and password and need only do this once per session. This is also known as the domain logon. Each user has only a single profile, so the desktop, start menu, and any other personal settings will be the same on every system. And, the user can…
Please log in to view this content.
Not Yet a Member?
Register with LinuxMagazine.com and get free access to the entire archive, including:
