Using Linux as a directory server for Windows clients

[Nasty_Savage]

Anyone ever done this? A guy is looking at me to help him get a NAS box using the built in directory server to host home folders for his users from a Synology unit. I looked at an open source client but was unable to get it to authenticate properly to the NAS. Any advice? Scratching my head...

/edit...i should clarify it as an LDAP service, basically, want to bind Windows 7 client to an LDAP directory hosted by a Synology Disk Station...

 

[aaronearles]

Are you trying to have the Synology host the directory server, or just the home directories?

No clue on the first, but I doubt they do that, I've never worked with one.
However, you can simply install samba and edit a few config files within linux to act as a domain controller for Windows clients, they join the domain just like a Windows server was running Active Directory. You can configure the path to the home directories in Samba to point to the Synology share.
(Disclaimer - I have only done this in test environment, and have no production experience with it's reliability long-term)

If you're less experienced with Linux, I believe turnkey has a samba "directory server" prebuilt VM you can download and manage via web interface. Again, I've messed around with a few of their appliances in testing, but never run one in production, and I have not used this particular appliance at all.
(http://www.turnkeylinux.org/domain-controller)

Good luck, and let us know what you come up with!

 

[Nasty_Savage]

Thanks for the reply, I indeed wanted the Synology to host the directory server (AND host the home folders). The description of the device seems to indicate it can, but after further digging it appears that the version of SAMBA within the Synology software is incompatable with this feature, and what they MEANT was that you can bind it to AD, meaning another device is needed :/