Hi,
[image] bonnietwin:
So I am sorry but you will not be able to use Samba on IPFire as a Domain Controller.
indeed, I vaguely recall this decision back then.
Samba is a very powerful and versatile beast, and to the best of my knowledge, nobody in the core developer team really uses it (th… Answer from pmueller on community.ipfire.org
SambaWiki
wiki.samba.org › index.php › Setting_up_Samba_as_an_Active_Directory_Domain_Controller
Setting up Samba as an Active Directory Domain Controller - SambaWiki
June 1, 2026 - This tutorial assumes that this is a fresh installation of Samba on a fresh operating system installation. It is important to note that there is a distinction between installing of Samba and Provisioning of Samba. In general, the entire process of setting up a Samba domain controller consists of 5 steps which are relatively straight forward.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/sysadmin › samba domain controllers
r/sysadmin on Reddit: Samba domain controllers
July 28, 2024 -
So right now Samba can run as an Active Directory domain controller. With the newer version it can even run in higher functional levels such as 2012_r2 and 2016. You could technically run your entire organization off of Samba if you felt the need to.
So, why don't we keep Samba DC's as backups for organizations? Active Directory is very critical in many places and yet it depends entirely on one platform. If a bad update hits it normally just impacts one OS and not all. It might make sense to spin up a backup Debian Samba DC and run it as a backup to help with recovery. Admittedly Samba doesn't have support for traditional sysvol replication but there are workarounds that work.
I also like samba-tool way more than powershell. For instance, to transfer all fsmo roles to Samba you would run samba-tool fsmo transfer --role=*. The syntax is so much easier than powershell and the commands are clean and elegant.
Any thoughts? I realize that many people here are Microsoft heavy admins so Samba may be outside the wheelhouse for many.
Samba as domain controller with win11? - Software & Web Applications - Lawrence Systems Forums
I’m thinking about changing my lab a bit, two possibilities. #1 buy a license for Windows Server 2025 from one of those shady key places. #2 is build up a Samba based system on Debian or some flavor of BSD. It looks like the current functional level of Samba 4.19.9 is 2016, which should be ... More on forums.lawrencesystems.com
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February 18, 2026SAMBA working as Active Directory domain controller
We use Windows Server 2012/2016/2019 in our environment. Some of those servers are NOT in Active Directory. We would like to include them into AD and install a Linux server playing the role of AD domain controller. By using IPFire, we try to combine AD domain controller, firewall and VPN sever ... More on community.ipfire.org
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April 10, 2022Using Direct Access with Samba 4 Domain Controller
Rumour has it that Samba 4 can emulate an Active Directory controller at the 2008R2 schema. Would it be possible to get a copy of Windows Server, join to the Samba domain, and enable Direct Access through that server? If so, how would licensing work, and are there any other requirements? More on community.spiceworks.com
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March 22, 2016Anyone been able to migrate from Samba DC to Windows DC?
Export data from Samba. Cleanse data. New domain from scratch. Import data. More on reddit.com
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May 21, 2018Videos
01:05:51
How to Install and Manage Samba Active Directory in Ubuntu Linux ...
15:54
Install and Configure Samba Domain Controller in CentOS 8 / RHEL ...
16:07
How to set up Samba AD Domain Controller Setup on Ubuntu 22.04 ...
31:39
Creating a Windows AD using Samba 4 on Ubuntu 22.04 - YouTube
23:48
Create an Active Directory Domain Controller in minutes using ...
Ubuntu
ubuntu.com › server › docs › how-to › samba › provision-samba-ad-controller
Provisioning a Samba Active Directory Domain Controller - Ubuntu Server documentation
1 week ago - A Samba Active Directory Domain Controller (also known as just Samba AD/DC) is a server running Samba services that can provide authentication to domain users and computers, linux or Windows. It sh...
Medium
medium.com › meetcyber › full-guide-deploying-samba-active-directory-on-fedora-and-rocky-with-hybrid-dns-and-gpo-support-30f47fab1e90
📚 COMPLETE AND DETAILED TUTORIAL: Installing Samba 4 Active Directory Domain Controller on Fedora 42+/Rocky Linux 9+ | by Euripedes Batista | MeetCyber
February 4, 2026 - It provides LDAP directory services, ... and receive GPOs just like against a Windows Server DC. Think of it as a full domain controller built on Linux....
ArchWiki
wiki.archlinux.org › title › Samba › Active_Directory_domain_controller
Samba/Active Directory domain controller - ArchWiki
April 9, 2026 - This article explains how to setup an Active Directory domain controller using Samba. It is assumed that all configuration files are in their unmodified, post-installation state. This article was written and tested on a fresh installation, with no modifications other than setting up a static ...
GitHub
github.com › LinuxCrafts › samba-ad-dc
GitHub - LinuxCrafts/samba-ad-dc: Docker Image - Samba4 Active Directory Domain Controller · GitHub
This repository contains Docker files used to build a working Samba 4 Active Directory Domain Controller (AC DC).
Starred by 5 users
Forked by 4 users
Languages Shell 82.2% | Dockerfile 17.8%
Lawrence Systems
forums.lawrencesystems.com › software & web applications
Samba as domain controller with win11? - Software & Web Applications - Lawrence Systems Forums
February 18, 2026 - I’m thinking about changing my lab a bit, two possibilities. #1 buy a license for Windows Server 2025 from one of those shady key places. #2 is build up a Samba based system on Debian or some flavor of BSD. It looks like the current functional level of Samba 4.19.9 is 2016, which should be fine for my lab.
IPFire
community.ipfire.org › add-ons
SAMBA working as Active Directory domain controller - Add-Ons - IPFire Community
April 10, 2022 - We use Windows Server 2012/2016/2019 in our environment. Some of those servers are NOT in Active Directory. We would like to include them into AD and install a Linux server playing the role of AD domain controller. By using IPFire, we try to combine AD domain controller, firewall and VPN sever ...
Fedora Magazine
fedoramagazine.org › home › for system administrators › samba as ad and domain controller
Samba as AD and Domain Controller - Fedora Magazine
April 13, 2022 - Using Samba for Active Directory services and as a Domain Controller will let you keep your users and groups in one easy-to-manage place.
SambaWiki
wiki.samba.org › index.php › Active_Directory_Domain_Controller
Active Directory Domain Controller - SambaWiki
Setting up a Samba as an Active Directory Domain Controller · Joining a Samba DC to an Existing Active Directory · Running Samba AD Domain Controllers in large domains ·
GitHub
github.com › windwheel › samba-ad-dc
GitHub - windwheel/samba-ad-dc: Provision a Samba 4 Active Directory domain controller on a CentOS/RHEL7 Vagrant box · GitHub
This project provisions a Samba 4 active directory domain controller on a Vagrant box running RHEL/CentOS7.
Author windwheel
Zabbix
zabbix.com › home › product
Zabbix Integrations and Templates
The Zabbix Team has collected all official Zabbix monitoring templates and integrations.
DEV Community
dev.to › aciklab › adding-a-windows-2019-dc-to-your-samba-domain-im2
Adding a Windows 2019 DC to Your Samba Domain - DEV Community
January 25, 2022 - The primary DNS server must be itself (127.0.0.1), and the secondary DNS server is the Samba-AD server (Microsoft does the opposite when joining) In the DNS console, change the DNS redirector to the network recursor (by default Windows sets the first domain controller as the recursor when joining).
Samba
samba.tranquil.it › doc › en › samba_config_server-server_secondary_debian.html
Installing and configuring a secondary Samba-AD on Debian - Samba-AD documentation
That the main domain controller is called srvads1.
Alpine Linux
wiki.alpinelinux.org › wiki › Setting_up_a_samba-ad-dc
Setting up a samba-ad-dc - Alpine Linux
December 22, 2025 - Alpine doesn't provide an example configuration file in the package so you'll need to create one at /etc/samba/smb.conf. [global] server role = domain controller workgroup = EXAMPLE realm = example.com netbios name = HOSTNAME passdb backend = samba4 idmap_ldb:use rfc2307 = yes [netlogon] path = /var/lib/samba/sysvol/example.com/scripts read only = No [sysvol] path = /var/lib/samba/sysvol read only = No
Samba
samba.org › samba › docs › current › man-html › samba-tool.8.html
samba-tool
Join a domain as either member or backup domain controller.
Kaspersky
support.kaspersky.com › ksc-linux › 15.4 › 257889
Configuring a Samba domain controller
May 4, 2026 - To do this, add the following line to the /etc/samba/smb.conf file: ... If the schema update completes with an error, you need to perform a full restore of the domain controller that acts as a schema master.
OneUptime
oneuptime.com › home › blog › how to set up samba as an active directory domain controller on ipv4
How to Set Up Samba as an Active Directory Domain Controller on IPv4
March 20, 2026 - Samba 4 can act as a full Active Directory Domain Controller (AD DC), providing Kerberos authentication, LDAP, DNS, and SMB services - all over IPv4.
Top answer 1 of 6
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The Samba server would have to be capable of pushing out Group Policy to the Windows machines. There are a couple Group Policies that get created that are required for DA to work correctly.
There would likely be zero licensing benefits. You would still have to have a Domain User CAL for every user that touches that server. As well as licensing the DA server.
While it may work I probably would not want to try.
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I read a few posts earlier about Direct Access, starting with Windows Server 2008 R2. Rumour has it that Samba 4 can emulate an Active Directory controller at the 2008R2 schema.
Would it be possible to get a copy of Windows Server, join to the Samba domain, and enable Direct Access through that server? If so, how would licensing work, and are there any other requirements?
SambaWiki
wiki.samba.org › index.php › GSOC_cockpit_samba_ad_dc
GSOC cockpit samba ad dc - SambaWiki
August 20, 2023 - The plugin first checks the Samba configuration file (smb.conf) to make sure that the server is set as an Active Directory Domain Controller (AD DC).