Samba 4.0 opens Microsoft’s Active Directory to Open Source
The new Samba presents the features of Active Directory as its main virtue, allowing access to the capabilities of this software without having to purchase Windows Server. As a result, users can now manage Group Policies, Roaming Profiles and Administration Tools in Windows with Samba, as well as benefiting from integration with Microsoft Exchange or its Open Source counterpart, OpenChange.
While using Samba 4.0, administrators can, for example, manage Group Policies – setting the same desktop for an organization’s computers or preventing changes to proxy settings, among others – of the Active Directory without having to resort to Windows technology.
Another interesting aspect is the integration of this software with Microsoft Exchange, allowing the synchronization of employees’ email clients – and with it, calendars, contacts, and other schedules – connecting to Exchange or by way of a Samba solution and “Exchange in Linux”, where Outlook operates as if it were interacting with Exchange.
It is also possible to have Samba 4 replicate a Windows Active Directory or vice-versa, creating a redundancy of authentication infrastructure without additional costs. In case Samba 3 is being used as a NT Domain Controller, tools to upgrade to the latest version are available as well. The new Samba comes with version 2.1 of the SMB network protocol, allowing full interconnection with all Windows versions, including Windows 8.
Samba 4 and Eurotux
Eurotux has already created installable packages of Samba 4 for the latest version of Redhat Enterprise Linux (version 6.3) as well as similar versions (Centos and Scientific Linux) providing its clients with the capabilities of Active Directory combined with the stability of enterprise Linux.
