Linux Domain Controller/Resara Server

[Ben Scott]

On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 12:35 PM, Warren Luebkeman <warren at resara.com> wrote:
> Yes, its an Active Directory DC, and can host FSMO roles.  Once you have the
> domain setup, you can create/manage standard AD group policies via
> Microsoft's group policy tools.

  *Very* impressive.  You can bet I'll be checking this out.  Thanks
for the info.

  For those *nix-heads on the list wondering what all this
gobbledygook is about:

  Active Directory (AD) is Microsoft's directory service.  It manages
things like users, groups, email addresses, passwords, computers, etc.
 It's vaguely LDAP based.  A Domain Controller (DC) is a server
hosting the AD services.  In order to do just about anything with
MS-Windows on a network at a business, you need AD.

  DCs are mostly peers.  The FSMO roles (Flexible Single Master
Operation) are a handful of special tasks which need to be assigned to
a single DC.  One is responsible for generating unique IDs, for
example.

  Group Policy Objects (GPOs) are how Windows computers are managed.
Pretty much everything about Windows management starts there.

  The ability to do the above means a Linux server can handle the
proper care and feeding of Windows clients.

-- Ben