The /etc/openldap/slapd.conf file Misty used is shown here:

#/etc/openldap/slapd.conf
#
# See slapd.conf(5) for details on configuration options.
# This file should NOT be world readable.
#
include   /etc/openldap/schema/core.schema
include   /etc/openldap/schema/cosine.schema
include   /etc/openldap/schema/inetorgperson.schema
include   /etc/openldap/schema/nis.schema
include   /etc/openldap/schema/samba3.schema
include   /etc/openldap/schema/dhcp.schema
include   /etc/openldap/schema/misc.schema
include   /etc/openldap/schema/idpool.schema
include   /etc/openldap/schema/eduperson.schema
include   /etc/openldap/schema/commURI.schema
include   /etc/openldap/schema/local.schema
include   /etc/openldap/schema/courier.schema

pidfile   /var/run/slapd/run/slapd.pid
argsfile  /var/run/slapd/run/slapd.args

replogfile  /data/ldap/log/slapd.replog

# Load dynamic backend modules:
modulepath  /usr/lib/openldap/modules

#######################################################################
# Logging parameters
#######################################################################
loglevel 256

#######################################################################
# SASL and TLS options
#######################################################################
sasl-host     ldap.corp.abmas.org
sasl-realm    DIGEST-MD5
sasl-secprops   none
TLSCipherSuite HIGH:MEDIUM:+SSLV2
TLSCertificateFile    /etc/ssl/certs/private/abmas-cert.pem
TLSCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/certs/private/abmas-key.pem
password-hash   {SSHA}
defaultsearchbase "dc=abmas,dc=biz"

#######################################################################
# bdb database definitions
#######################################################################
database          bdb
suffix            "dc=abmas,dc=biz"
rootdn            "cn=manager,dc=abmas,dc=biz"
rootpw            {SSHA}gdo/dUvoT4ZJmULz3rUt6A3H/hBEduJ5
directory         /data/ldap
mode    0600
# The following is for BDB to make it flush its data to disk every
# 500 seconds or 5kb of data
checkpoint 500 5

## For running slapindex
#readonly on

## Indexes for often-requested attributes
index   objectClass             eq
index   cn                      eq,sub
index   sn                      eq,sub
index   uid                     eq,sub
index   uidNumber               eq
index   gidNumber               eq
index   sambaSID                eq
index   sambaPrimaryGroupSID    eq
index   sambaDomainName         eq
index   default                 sub
cachesize 2000

replica         host=baa.corp.abmas.org:389
                suffix="dc=abmas,dc=biz"
                binddn="cn=replica,dc=abmas,dc=biz"
                credentials=verysecret
                bindmethod=simple
                tls=yes
replica         host=ns.abmas.org:389
                suffix="dc=abmas,dc=biz"
                binddn="cn=replica,dc=abmas,dc=biz"
                credentials=verysecret
                bindmethod=simple
                tls=yes

#######################################################################
# ACL section
#######################################################################
## MOST RESTRICTIVE RULES MUST GO FIRST!
# Admins get access to everything. This way I do not have to rename.
access to *
  by group/groupOfUniqueNames/uniqueMember="cn=LDAP
Administrators,ou=groups,dc=abmas,dc=biz" write
  by * break

## Users can change their own passwords. 
access to 
attrs=userPassword,sambaNTPassword,sambaLMPassword,sambaPwdLastSet,
sambaPwdMustChange,sambaPwdCanChange
  by self write
  by * auth

## Home contact info restricted to the logged-in user and the HR dept
access to attrs=hometelephoneNumber,homePostalAddress,
mobileTelephoneNumber,pagerTelephoneNumber
  by group/groupOfUniqueNames/uniqueMember="cn=hr_admin,
ou=groups,dc=abmas,dc=biz" 
write
  by self write
  by * none

## Everyone can read email aliases
access to dn.sub="ou=Email Aliases,dc=abmas,dc=biz"
  by * read

## Only admins can manage email aliases
## If someone is the role occupant of an alias they can change it -- this
## is accomplished by the "organizationalRole" objectclass and is
## pretty cool -- like a groupOfUniqueNames but for individual
## users.
access to dn.children="ou=Email Aliases,dc=abmas,dc=biz"
  by dnattr=roleOccupant write
  by * read

## Admins and HR can add and delete users
access to dn.sub="ou=people,dc=abmas,dc=biz"
  by group/groupOfUniqueNames/uniqueMember="cn=hr_admin,
ou=groups,dc=abmas,dc=biz" 
write
  by * read

## Admins and HR can add and delete bizputers
access to dn.sub="ou=bizputers,dc=abmas,dc=biz"
  by group/groupOfUniqueNames/uniqueMember="cn=hr_admin,
ou=groups,dc=abmas,dc=biz" 
write
  by * read

## Admins and HR can add and delete groups
access to dn.sub="ou=groups,dc=abmas,dc=biz"
  by group/groupOfUniqueNames/uniqueMember="cn=hr_admin,
ou=groups,dc=abmas,dc=biz" 
write
  by * read

## This is used to quickly deactivate any LDAP object only 
##  Admins have access.
access to dn.sub="ou=inactive,dc=abmas,dc=biz"
  by * none

## This is for programs like Windows Address Book that can 
## detect the default search base.
access to attrs=namingcontexts,supportedControl
  by anonymous =cs
  by * read

## Default to read-only access
access to *
  by dn.base="cn=replica,ou=people,dc=abmas,dc=biz" write
  by * read

The /etc/ldap.conf file used is listed in “NSS LDAP Control File /etc/ldap.conf”.

# /etc/ldap.conf
# This file is present on every *NIX client that authenticates to LDAP.
# For me, most of the defaults are fine. There is an amazing amount of
# customization that can be done see the man page for info.

# Your LDAP server. Must be resolvable without using LDAP. The following
# is for the LDAP server all others use the FQDN of the server
URI ldap://127.0.0.1

# The distinguished name of the search base.
base ou=corp,dc=abmas,dc=biz

# The LDAP version to use (defaults to 3 if supported by client library)
ldap_version 3

# The distinguished name to bind to the server with if the effective
# user ID is root. Password is stored in /etc/ldap.secret (mode 600)
rootbinddn cn=Manager,dc=abmas,dc=biz

# Filter to AND with uid=%s
pam_filter objectclass=posixAccount

# The user ID attribute (defaults to uid)
pam_login_attribute uid

# Group member attribute
pam_member_attribute memberUID

# Use the OpenLDAP password change
# extended operation to update the password.
pam_password exop

# OpenLDAP SSL mechanism
# start_tls mechanism uses the normal LDAP port, LDAPS typically 636
ssl start_tls

tls_cacertfile /etc/ssl/certs/private/abmas-cert.pem
...

The NSS control file /etc/nsswitch.conf has the following contents:

# /etc/nsswitch.conf
# This file controls the resolve order for system databases.

# the following two lines obviate the "+" entry in /etc/passwd and /etc/group.
passwd:   compat ldap
group:    compat ldap
# The above are all that I store in LDAP at this point. There are 
# possibilities to store hosts, services, ethers, and lots of other things.

In my setup, users authenticate via PAM and NSS using LDAP-based accounts. The configuration file that controls the behavior of the PAM pam_unix2 module is shown in “The PAM Control File /etc/security/pam_unix2.conf” file. This works out of the box with the configuration files in this chapter. It enables you to have no local accounts for users (it is highly advisable to have a local account for the root user). Traps for the unwary include the following:

# pam_unix2 config file
#
# This file contains options for the pam_unix2.so module.
# It contains a list of options for every type of management group,
# which will be used for authentication, account management and
# password management. Not all options will be used from all types of
# management groups.
#
# At first, pam_unix2 will read this file and then uses the local
# options. Not all options can be set her global.
#
# Allowed options are:
#
# debug                 (account, auth, password, session)
# nullok                (auth)
# md5                   (password / overwrites /etc/default/passwd)
# bigcrypt              (password / overwrites /etc/default/passwd)
# blowfish              (password / overwrites /etc/default/passwd)
# crypt_rounds=XX
# none                  (session)
# trace                 (session)
# call_modules=x,y,z    (account, auth, password)
#
#  Example:
#  auth:        nullok
#  account:
#  password:    nullok blowfish crypt_rounds=8
#  session:     none
#
auth: use_ldap
account: use_ldap
password: use_ldap
session: none

I do have two LDAP slave servers configured. That subject is beyond the scope of this document, and steps for implementing it are well documented.

The following services authenticate using LDAP:

Companywide white pages can be searched using an LDAP client such as the one in the Windows Address Book.

Having gained a solid understanding of LDAP and a relatively workable LDAP tree thus far, it was time to configure Samba. I compiled the latest stable Samba and also installed the latest smbldap-tools from Idealx.

The Samba smb.conf file was configured as shown in “Samba Configuration File smb.conf Part A”.

Most of these shares are only used by one company group, but they are required because of some ancient Qbasic and Rbase applications were that written expecting their own drive letters.

Note: During the process of building the new server, I kept data files up to date with the Novell server via use of rsync. On a separate system (my workstation in fact), which could be rebooted whenever necessary, I set up a mount point to the Novell server via ncpmount. I then created a rsyncd.conf to share that mount point out to my new server, and synchronized once an hour. The script I used to synchronize is shown in “Rsync Script”. The files exclusion list I used is shown in “Rsync Files Exclusion List /root/excludes.txt”. The reason I had to have the rsync daemon running on a system that could be rebooted frequently is because ncpfs (part of the MARS NetWare Emulation package) has a nasty habit of creating stale mount points that cannot be recovered without a reboot. The reason for hourly synchronization is because some part of the chain was very slow and performance-heavy (whether rsync itself, the network, or the Novell server, I am not sure, but it was probably the Novell server).

#!/bin/bash
# Part 1 - rsync the Novell directories to the new server
echo "#############################################"
echo "New sync operation starting at `date`"
if ! pgrep -fl '^rsync\> ; then
        echo "Good, no rsync is running!"
  echo "Synchronizing oink to BHPRO"
        rsync -av --exclude-from=/root/excludes.txt 
baa.corp:/BHPRO/SYS1/ /data/samba/shares/SYS1
        retval=$?
        [ ${retval} = 0 ] && echo "Sync operation completed at `date`"
        echo "Fixing permissions"
        # I had a whole lot more permission-fixing stuff here.  It got
        # pared down as groups got moved over.  The problem
        # was that the way I was mounting the directory, everything
        # was owned by the Novell administrator which translated to
        # Root.  This is also why I could only do one-way sync because
        # I could not fix the ACLs on the Novell side.
        find /data/samba/shares/Engr/ -perm +770 -exec chmod 770 {} \;
        find /data/samba/shares/Engr/ ! -group engr -exec chgrp engr {} \;
else
        # This rsync took ages and ages -- I had it set to run every hour but
        # I needed a way to prevent it running into itself.
        echo "Oh no, rsync is already running!"
echo "#############################################"
fi

/Acct/
/Apps/
/DATA/
/Engr/*.pc3
/Engr/plotter
/Engr/APPOLO/
/Engr/LIBRARY/
/Home/Accounting/
/Home/Angie/
/Home/AngieY/
/Home/Brandon/
/Home/Carl/

After Samba was configured, I initialized the LDAP database. The first thing I had to do was store the LDAP password in the Samba configuration by issuing the command (as root):

root#  smbpasswd -w verysecret

where “verysecret” is replaced by the LDAP bind password.

Now Samba was ready for use and it was time to configure the smbldap-tools. There are two relevant files, which are usually put into the directory /etc/smbldap-tools. The main file, smbldap.conf is shown in “Idealx smbldap-tools Control File Part A”.

#########
#
# located in /etc/smbldap-tools/smbldap.conf
#
######################################################################
#
# General Configuration
#
######################################################################

# Put your own SID
# to obtain this number do: net getlocalsid
SID="S-1-5-21-725326080-1709766072-2910717368"

######################################################################
#
# LDAP Configuration
#
######################################################################

# Notes: to use to dual ldap servers backend for Samba, you must patch
# Samba with the dual-head patch from IDEALX. If not using this patch
# just use the same server for slaveLDAP and masterLDAP.
# Those two servers declarations can also be used when you have
# . one master LDAP server where all writing operations must be done
# . one slave LDAP server where all reading operations must be done
#   (typically a replication directory)

# Ex: slaveLDAP=127.0.0.1
slaveLDAP="127.0.0.1"
slavePort="389"

# Master LDAP : needed for write operations
# Ex: masterLDAP=127.0.0.1
masterLDAP="127.0.0.1"
masterPort="389"

# Use TLS for LDAP
# If set to 1, this option will use start_tls for connection
# (you should also used the port 389)
ldapTLS="0"

# How to verify the server's certificate (none, optional or require)
# see "man Net::LDAP" in start_tls section for more details
verify=""

# CA certificate
# see "man Net::LDAP" in start_tls section for more details
cafile=""
 certificate to use to connect to the ldap server
# see "man Net::LDAP" in start_tls section for more details
clientcert=""

# key certificate to use to connect to the ldap server
# see "man Net::LDAP" in start_tls section for more details
clientkey=""

# LDAP Suffix
# Ex: suffix=dc=IDEALX,dc=ORG
suffix="ou=MEGANET2,dc=abmas,dc=biz"

# Where are stored Users
# Ex: usersdn="ou=Users,dc=IDEALX,dc=ORG"
usersdn="ou=People,${suffix}"

# Where are stored Computers
# Ex: computersdn="ou=Computers,dc=IDEALX,dc=ORG"
computersdn="ou=People,${suffix}"

# Where are stored Groups
# Ex groupsdn="ou=Groups,dc=IDEALX,dc=ORG"
groupsdn="ou=Groups,${suffix}"

# Where are stored Idmap entries
# (used if samba is a domain member server)
# Ex groupsdn="ou=Idmap,dc=IDEALX,dc=ORG"
idmapdn="ou=Idmap,${suffix}"

# Where to store next uidNumber and gidNumber available
sambaUnixIdPooldn="sambaDomainName=MEGANET2,${suffix}"

# Default scope Used
scope="sub"

# Unix password encryption (CRYPT, MD5, SMD5, SSHA, SHA)
hash_encrypt="MD5"

# if hash_encrypt is set to CRYPT, you may set a salt format.
# default is "%s", but many systems will generate MD5 hashed
# passwords if you use "$1$%.8s". This parameter is optional!
crypt_salt_format="%s"

######################################################################
#
# Unix Accounts Configuration
#
######################################################################

# Login defs
# Default Login Shell
# Ex: userLoginShell="/bin/bash"
userLoginShell="/bin/false"

# Home directory
# Ex: userHome="/home/%U"
userHome="/home/%U"

# Gecos
userGecos="Samba User"

# Default User (POSIX and Samba) GID
defaultUserGid="513"

# Default Computer (Samba) GID
defaultComputerGid="515"

# Skel dir
skeletonDir="/etc/skel"

# Default password validation time (time in days) Comment the next
# line if you don't want password to be enable for
# defaultMaxPasswordAge days (be careful to the sambaPwdMustChange
# attribute's value)
defaultMaxPasswordAge="45"

######################################################################
#
# SAMBA Configuration
#
######################################################################

# The UNC path to home drives location (%U username substitution)
# Ex: \\My-PDC-netbios-name\homes\%U
# Just set it to a null string if you want to use the smb.conf
# 'logon home' directive and/or disable roaming profiles
userSmbHome=""

# The UNC path to profiles locations (%U username substitution)
# Ex: \\My-PDC-netbios-name\profiles\%U
# Just set it to a null string if you want to use the smb.conf
# 'logon path' directive and/or disable roaming profiles
userProfile=""

# The default Home Drive Letter mapping
# (will be automatically mapped at logon time if home directory exist)
# Ex: H: for H:
userHomeDrive=""

# The default user netlogon script name (%U username substitution)
# if not used, will be automatically username.cmd
# make sure script file is edited under DOS
# Ex: %U.cmd
# userScript="startup.cmd" # make sure script file is edited under DOS
userScript=""

# Domain appended to the users "mail"-attribute
# when smbldap-useradd -M is used
mailDomain="abmas.org"

######################################################################
#
# SMBLDAP-TOOLS Configuration (default are ok for a RedHat)
#
######################################################################
# Allows not to use smbpasswd
# (if with_smbpasswd == 0 in smbldap_conf.pm) but
# prefer Crypt::SmbHash library
with_smbpasswd="0"
smbpasswd="/usr/bin/smbpasswd"

Note: I chose not to take advantage of the TLS capability of this. Eventually I may go back and tweak it. Also, I chose not to take advantage of the master/slave configuration as I heard horror stories that it was unstable. My slave servers are replicas only.

The /etc/smbldap-tools/smbldap_bind.conf file is shown here:

# smbldap_bind.conf
#
# This file simply tells smbldap-tools how to bind to your LDAP server.
# It has to be a DN with full write access to the Samba portion of
# the database.

############################
# Credential Configuration #
############################
# Notes: you can specify two different configurations if you use a
# master ldap for writing access and a slave ldap server for reading access
# By default, we will use the same DN (so it will work for standard Samba
# release)
slaveDN="cn=Manager,dc=abmas,dc=biz"
slavePw="verysecret"
masterDN="cn=Manager,dc=abmas,dc=biz"
masterPw="verysecret"

The next step was to run the smbldap-populate command, which populates the LDAP tree with the appropriate default users, groups, and UID and GID pools. It creates a user called Administrator with UID=0 and GID=0 matching the Domain Admins group. This is fine because you can still log on as root to a Windows system, but it will break cached credentials if you need to log on as the administrator to a system that is not on the network.

After the LDAP database has been preloaded, it is prudent to validate that the information needed is in the LDAP directory. This can be done done by restarting the LDAP server, then performing an LDAP search by executing:

root#  ldapsearch -W -x -b "dc=abmas,dc=biz"\
	 -D "cn=Manager,dc=abmas,dc=biz" \
	"(Objectclass=*)"
Enter LDAP Password:
# extended LDIF
#
# LDAPv3
# base <dc=abmas,dc=biz> with scope sub
# filter: (ObjectClass=*)
# requesting: ALL
#

# abmas.biz
dn: dc=abmas,dc=biz
objectClass: dcObject
objectClass: organization
o: abmas
dc: abmas

# People, abmas.biz
dn: ou=People,dc=abmas,dc=biz
objectClass: organizationalUnit
ou: People

# Groups, abmas.biz
dn: ou=Groups,dc=abmas,dc=biz
objectClass: organizationalUnit
ou: Groups

# Idmap, abmas.biz
dn: ou=Idmap,dc=abmas,dc=biz
objectClass: organizationalUnit
ou: Idmap
...

With the LDAP directory now initialized, it was time to create the Windows and POSIX (UNIX) group accounts as well as the mappings from Windows groups to UNIX groups. The easiest way to do this was to use smbldap-groupadd command. It creates the group with the posixGroup and sambaGroupMapping attributes, a unique GID, and an automatically determined RID. I learned the hard way not to try to do this by hand.

After I had my group mappings in place, I added users to the groups (the users don't really have to exist yet). I used the smbldap-groupmod command to accomplish this. It can also be done manually by adding memberUID attributes to the group entries in LDAP.

The most monumental task of all was adding the sambaSamAccount information to each already existent posixAccount entry. I did it one at a time as I moved people onto the new server, by issuing the command:

root#  smbldap-usermod -a -P username

I completed that step for every user after asking the person what his or her current NetWare password was. The wiser way to have done it would probably have been to dump the entire database to an LDIF file. This can be done by executing:

root#  slapcat > somefile.ldif

Then update the LDIF file created by using a Perl script to parse and add the appropriate attributes and objectClasses to each entry, followed by re-importing the entire database into the LDAP directory.

Rebuilding of the LDAP directory can be done as follows:

root#  rcldap stop
root#  cd /data/ldap
root#  rm *bdb _* log*
root#  su - ldap -c "slapadd -l somefile.ldif"
root#  rcldap start

This can be done at any time and for any reason, with no harm to the database.

I first added a test user, of course. The LDIF for this test user looks like this, to give you an idea:

# Entry 1: cn=Test User,ou=people,ou=corp,dc=abmas,dc=biz
dn:cn=Test User,ou=people,ou=corp,dc=abmas,dc=biz
cn: Test User
gecos: Test User
gidNumber: 513
givenName: Test
homeDirectory: /home/test.user
homePhone: 555
l: Somewhere
l: ST
mail: test.user
o: Corp
objectClass: top
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
objectClass: posixAccount
objectClass: sambaSamAccount
postalCode: 12345
sn: User
street: 10 Some St.
uid: test.user
uidNumber: 1074
sambaLogonTime: 0
sambaLogoffTime: 2147483647
sambaKickoffTime: 2147483647
sambaPwdCanChange: 0
displayName: Samba User
sambaSID: S-1-5-21-725326080-1709766072-2910717368-3148
sambaLMPassword: 9D29C287C58448F9AAD3B435B51404EE
sambaAcctFlags: [U]
sambaNTPassword: D062088E99C95E37D7702287BB35E770
sambaPwdLastSet: 1102537694
sambaPwdMustChange: 1106425694
userPassword: {SSHA}UzFZ2VxRGdwUueLnTGtsTBtnsvMO1oj8
loginShell: /bin/false

Then I went over to a spare Windows NT machine and joined it to the MEGANET2 domain. It worked, and the machine's account entry under ou=Computers looks like this:

dn:uid=w2kengrspare$,ou=Computers,ou=MEGANET2,dc=abmas,dc=biz
objectClass: top
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
objectClass: posixAccount
objectClass: sambaSamAccount
cn: w2kengrspare$
sn: w2kengrspare$
uid: w2kengrspare$
uidNumber: 1104
gidNumber: 515
homeDirectory: /dev/null
loginShell: /bin/false
description: Computer
gecos: Computer
sambaSID: S-1-5-21-725326080-1709766072-2910717368-3208
sambaPrimaryGroupSID: S-1-5-21-725326080-1709766072-2910717368-2031
displayName: W2KENGRSPARE$
sambaPwdCanChange: 1103149236
sambaPwdMustChange: 2147483647
sambaNTPassword: CA199C45CB6737035DB6D9D9F6CD1834
sambaPwdLastSet: 1103149236
sambaAcctFlags: [W          ]

So now I could log on with a test user from the machine w2kengrspare. It was all well and good, but that user was in no groups yet and so had pretty boring access. I fixed that by writing the login script! To write the login script, I used Kixtart because it will work with every architecture of Windows, has an active and helpful user base, and was both easier to learn and more powerful than the standard netlogon scripts I have seen. I also did not have to do a logon script per user or per group.

I downloaded Kixtart and put the following files in my netlogon share:

KIX32.EXE
KX32.dll
KX95.dll  <-- Not needed unless you are running Win9x clients.
kx16.dll  <-- Probably not needed unless you are running DOS clients.
kxrpc.exe <-- Probably useless as it has to run on the server and can
          only be run on NT.  It's for Windows 95 to become group-aware.
          We can get around the need.

I then wrote the logon.kix file that is shown in “Kixtart Control File File: logon.kix”. I chose to keep it all in one file, but it can be split up and linked via include directives.

; This script just calls the other scripts.

; First we want to get things done for everyone.

; Second, we do first-time login stuff.

; Third, we go through the group-oriented scripts one at a time.


; We want to check for group membership here to avoid the overhead of running
; scripts which don't apply.
call "\\massive\netlogon\scripts\main.kix"
call "\\massive\netlogon\scripts\setup.kix"
IF INGROUP("MEGANET2\ACCT")
  call "scripts\acct.kix"
ENDIF
IF INGROUP("MEGANET2\ENGR","MEGANET2\RECEPTIONIST")
call "\\massive\netlogon\scripts\engr.kix"
ENDIF
IF INGROUP("MEGANET2\FURN")
  call "\\massive\netlogon\scripts\furn.kix"
ENDIF
IF INGROUP("MEGANET2\TRUSS")
  call "\\massive\netlogon\scripts\truss.kix"
ENDIF

break on

; Choose whether to hide the login window or not
IF INGROUP("MEGANET2\Domain Admins")
  USE Z: \\massive\everything
  SETCONSOLE("show")
ELSE
  ; Nobody cares about seeing the login script except admins
  SETCONSOLE("hide")
ENDIF

; Delete all previously connected shares
USE * /delete

SETTITLE("Logging on @USERID to @LDOMAIN at @TIME")

; Set the time on the workstation
$Timeserver = "\\massive"
Settime $TimeServer

; Map the home directory
USE H: @HOMESHR ; connect to user's home share
IF @ERROR = 0

  H:
  CD @HOMEDIR ; change directory to user's home directory
ENDIF

; Everyone gets the N drive
USE N: \\massive\network

; My setup.kix is where all of the redirection stuff happens.  Note that with 
; the use of registry keys, this only happens the first time they log in ,or if 
; I delete the pertinent registry keys which triggers it to happen again:

; Check to see if we have written the abmas sub-key before
$RETURNCODE = EXISTKEY("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\abmas")
IF NOT $RETURNCODE = 0
; Add key for abmas-specific things on the first login
  ADDKEY("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\abmas")
  ; The following key gets deleted at the end of the first login
  ADDKEY("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\abmas\FIRST_LOGIN")
ENDIF

; People with laptops need My Documents to be in their profile.  People with
; desktops can have My Documents redirected to their home directory to avoid
; long delays with logging out and out-of-sync files.

; Check to see if this is the first login -- doesn't make sense to do this
; at the very first login

$RETURNCODE = EXISTKEY("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\abmas\FIRST_LOGIN")
IF NOT $RETURNCODE = 0

; We don't want to do this stuff for people with laptops or people in the FURN
; group.  (They store their profiles in a different server)

  IF NOT INGROUP("MASSIVE\Laptop","MASSIVE\FURN")
    $RETURNCODE=EXISTKEY("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\abmas\profile_copied")

; A  crude way to tell what OS our profile is for and copy the "My Documents"
; to the redirected folder on the server.  It works because the profiles
; are stored as \\server\profiles\user\architecture
    IF NOT $RETURNCODE = 0
      IF EXIST("\\massive\profiles\@userID\WinXP")
        copy "\\massive\profiles\@userID\WinXP\My Documents\*" 
"\\massive\@userID\"
      ENDIF
      IF EXIST("\\massive\profiles\@userID\Win2K")
        copy "\\massive\profiles\@userID\Win2K\My Documents\*" 
"\\massive\@userID\"
      ENDIF
      IF EXIST("\\massive\profiles\@userID\WinNT")
        copy "\\massive\profiles\@userID\WinNT\My Documents\*" 
"\\massive\@userID\"
      ENDIF

; Now we will write the registry values to redirect the locations of "My 
Documents"
; and other folders.
      ADDKEY("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\abmas\profile_copied")
      WRITEVALUE("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User 
Shell Folders", "Personal","\\massive\@userID","REG_SZ")
      WRITEVALUE("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User 
Shell Folders", "My Pictures", "\\massive\@userID\My Pictures", "REG_SZ")
      IF @PRODUCTTYPE="Windows 2000 Professional" or @PRODUCTTYPE="Windows XP
Professional"
      WRITEVALUE("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User 
Shell Folders", "My Videos", "\\massive\@userID\My Videos", "REG_SZ")
      WRITEVALUE("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User 
Shell Folders", "My Music", "\\massive\@userID\My Music", "REG_SZ")
      WRITEVALUE("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User 
Shell Folders", "My eBooks", "\\massive\@userID\My eBooks", "REG_SZ")
      ENDIF
    ENDIF
  ENDIF

; Now we will delete the FIRST_LOGIN sub-key that we made before.
; Note - to run this script again you will want to delete the HKCU\abmas
; sub-key, log out, and log back in.
$RETURNVALUE = EXISTKEY("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\abmas\FIRST_LOGIN")
IF $RETURNVALUE = 0
  DELKEY("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\abmas\FIRST_LOGIN")
ENDIF

; And here is one group-oriented script to show what can be
; done that way: acct.kix:

IF INGROUP("MASSIVE\Acct_Admin","MASSIVE\HR")
  USE I: \\MEGANET2\HR_PR
ENDIF

; Set up printer
$RETURNVALUE = existkey("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Printers\,,massive,acct_hp8500")
IF NOT $RETURNVALUE = 0
  ADDPRINTERCONNECTION("\\massive\acct_hp8500")
  SETDEFAULTPRINTER("\\massive\acct_hp8500")
ENDIF
; Set up drive mappings
  USE M: \\massive\ACCT
  IF INGROUP("MEGANET2\ABRA")
    USE T: \\trussrv\abra
  ENDIF

As you can see in the script, I redirected the My Documents to the user's home share if he or she were not in the Laptop group. I also added printers on a group-by-group basis, and if applicable I set the group printer. For this to be effective, the print drivers must be installed on the Samba server in the [print$] share. Ample documentation exists about how to do that, so it is not covered here.

I call this script via the logon.bat script in the [netlogon] directory:

\\corpsrv\netlogon\kix32 \\corpsrv\netlogon\logon.kix /f

I only had to fully qualify the paths for Windows 9x, as Windows NT and greater automatically add [NETLOGON] to the path.

Also of note for Win9x is that the drive mappings and printer setup will not work because they rely on RPC. You merely have to put the appropriate settings into the c:\autoexec.bat file or map the drives manually. One option is to check the OS as part of the Kixtart script, and if it is Win9x and is the first login, copy a premade autoexec.bat to the C: drive. I have only three such machines, and one is going away in the very near future, so it was easier to do it by hand.

At this point I was able to add the users. This is the part that really falls into upgrade. I moved the users over one group at a time, starting with the people who used the least amount of resources on the network. With each group that I moved, I first logged on as a standard user in that group and took careful note of the environment, mainly the printers he or she used, the PATH, and what network resources he or she had access to (most importantly, which ones the user actually needed access to).

I then added the user's SambaSamAccount information as mentioned earlier, and join the computer to the domain. The very first thing I had to do was to copy the user's profile to the new server. This was very important, and I really struggled with the most effective way to do it. Here is the method that worked for every one of my users on Windows NT, 2000, and XP:

Words to the Wise:

After all these steps are accomplished, only cleanup details are left. Make sure user's shortcuts and Network Places point to the appropriate place on the new server, check the important applications to be sure they work as expected and troubleshoot any problems that might arise, and check to be sure the user's printers are present and working. By the way, if there are any network printers installed as system printers (the Novell way), you will need to log in as a local administrator and delete them.

For my non-laptop systems, I would then log in and out a couple times as the user to be sure that his or her registry settings were modified, and then I was finished.

Some compatibility issues that cropped up included the following:

Blackberry client: It did not like having its registry settings moved around and so had to be reinstalled. Also, it needed write permissions to a portion of the hard drive, and I had to give it those manually on the one system where this was an issue.

CAMedia: Digital camera software for Canon cameras caused all kinds of trouble with the registry. I had to use the Run as service to open the registry of the local user while logged in as the domain user, and give the domain user the appropriate permissions to some registry keys, then export that portion of the registry to a file. Then, as the domain user, I had to import that file into the registry.

Crystal Reports version 7: More registry problems that were solved by recopying the user's profile.

Printing from legacy applications: I found out that Novell sends its jobs to the printer in a raw format. CUPS sends them in PostScript by default. I had to make a second printer definition for one printer and tell CUPS specifically to send raw data to the printer, then assign this printer to the LPT port with Kixtart's version of the net use command.

These were all eventually solved by elbow grease, queries to the Samba mailing list and others, and diligence. The complete migration took about 5 weeks. My userbase is relatively small but includes multiple versions of Windows, multiple Linux member servers, a mechanized saw, a pen plotter, and legacy applications written in Qbasic and R:Base, just to name a few. I actually ended up making some of these applications work better (or work again, as some of them had stopped functioning on the old server) because as part of the process I had to find out how things were supposed to work.

The one thing I have not been able to get working is a very old database that we had around for reference purposes; it uses Novell's Btrieve engine.

As the resources compare, I went from 95 percent disk usage to just around 10 percent. I went from a very high load on the server to an average load of between one and two runnable processes on the server. I have improved the security and robustness of the system. I have also implemented ClamAV antivirus software, which scans the entire Samba server for viruses every 2 hours and quarantines them. I have found it much less problematic than our ancient version of Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition, and much more up-to-date.

In short, my users are much happier now that the new server is running, and that is what is important to me.