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Q: Samba LDAP server for other LDAP supported services/devices, e.g. network routers, firewalls, etc I am setting up a Samba AD/DC server and as far as I understand I have to use the "built-in" LDAP server provided by Samba. My question is, is the Samba LDAP server a full-fledged LDAP server? Can I replace our existing LDAP server and use the Samba server instead? The point is of course to have one single database with usernames and passwords and eventually reuse the Samba LDAP for all other services/devices that support LDAP, i.e. network routers, email servers, and so on. And just to confirm, I am correct in concluding that Samba v4 AD does not support 3rd party LDAP servers, or at least not OpenLDAP?
Thanks for any advice.

A: Quoting the samba wiki:

Starting from version 4.0, Samba is able to run as an Active Directory (AD) domain controller (DC).

So most things you can do with AD, you can with the native samba ldap server. You can use it against radius for network devices, integrate it your e-mail software and so on. But why don't you try for yourself?
As to your question regarding openldap, it is a FAQ in the samba wiki:

Active Directory requires features, such as ACLs stored within the directory and a different schema, that are not supported by LDAP servers.
One of the main reasons people ask for OpenLDAP as the back end for AD, is that they are currently running Samba as an NT4 PDC using the OpenLDAP back end and want to migrate to Samba AD without manual transferring directory data to AD. However, even if OpenLDAP gets to be a supported back end on a Samba AD DC, the directory schema would be the AD schema. This means, you will have to update external applications accessing the directory using, such as you have to do it when you use the Samba internal LDAP server. Additionally you will have to import attributes manually from the old LDAP server that are not included in the AD schema.
Is It Planned to Support OpenLDAP as Back End for Samba AD?
Currently, there is no active work on this project.
The biggest problem is that a significant part of the complexity of the AD DC is in the LDB modules. Creating a general-purpose OpenLDAP back end requires rewriting many of these modules as OpenLDAP overlays, outside the standard Samba programming environment.
Specific problems include:

the metadata required for both DRS replication and dirsync
schema manipulation
transactions
access control lists (ACL)


The Samba team decided not to peruse this as a development avenue, and no viable approach to re-opening this functionality has been proposed.


user
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