How to Create a Samba PDC Administrator User



How to Create a Samba PDC Administrator User

To do both SWAT and user administration with Samba, you'll need to create administrator accounts on the Samba PDC Linux server.

Home Environment

By default, the root user is the Samba administrator, and SWAT requires you to use the Linux root password. Fortunately, you can add workstations to the Windows domain by creating a Samba-specific root password using the smbpasswd command.

     [root@bigboy tmp]# /usr/bin/smbpasswd -a root password

Note

Remember that regular Linux logins via the console, TELNET, or SSH require the Linux passwd command. Samba domain logins use the smbpasswd password. Samba passwords are stored in the /etc/samba/smbpasswd file.


Corporate Environment

In a corporate environment, you might want more than one person to administer Samba, giving each an individual username. Here are the steps to follow:

1.
Create a Linux user group, such as sysadmin, with the groupadd command.

2.
Use SWAT to update your smb.conf file so that the sysadmin group is listed in the [global] parameter settings:

domain admin group = @sysadmin
admin users = @sysadmin
printer admin = @sysadmin

3.
Create individual Linux users that are part of this group.

4.
Use the smbpasswd command to create Samba passwords for domain logins for this group. For security reasons this password may be different from the Linux password used to log into the Linux system from the console, via telnet or ssh. (Remember that Linux passwords are changed with the passwd command.)