Thats very interesting. We are utilizing Samba 4 for our Active Directory implementation, and for the most part we leave it alone from a development stand point, at least now anyway. Samba is a very thorough and stable solution, so I'm not sure there would be much advantage to us, at this point anyway, to try to assemble a different technology. <div>
<br></div><div>In a nutshell, Resara Server is taking existing technology and making it accessible and easy to use by anyone, regardless of Linux expertise. The management tools, packaging, and support are our development priorities. <br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 5:36 PM, Dean Anderson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:dean@av8.com">dean@av8.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
This is not as hard as you might think, but still a lot of work.<br>
<br>
You need some things:<br>
kerberos5<br>
directory service<br>
RPC integrated with k5 and directory service<br>
Optional: Distributed File System (few sites use DFS from either<br>
OSF or M$, but its the same thing)<br>
<br>
On that layer, you can do cool things like group policy, etc.<br>
<br>
Microsoft ActiveDirectory is based o a reimplementation of OSF DCE, from<br>
the OSF Application Environment Specification (AES). Microsoft liked<br>
DCE, but determined that it was cheaper to re-implement it than to<br>
licence source from OSF. The good news is that while DCE is slightly<br>
crufty 18 year code, it still works with MS, and OSF has made the code<br>
GPL. So you could, conceivably, update it to run on modern unix systems.<br>
Then you will need to re-implement the group policy and other<br>
enhancements made by M$ over the years.<br>
<br>
Another enhancement that MS did was in the actual directory service<br>
implementation. MS used LDAP, while OSF used a cell directory service<br>
from Apollo and HP. OSF also included an X.500 service that almost no<br>
one used at the time, but in retrospect was obviously the way to go.<br>
<br>
The easy part of the work is changing to ANSI c, updating stdarg, etc.<br>
The hard part is a pthread4 adapter. Fortunately, Jim Doyle and others<br>
have done a lot of work on that. I can get you a copy if need be.<br>
<br>
M$ RPC is completely compatible with OSF DCE on the TCP stack, but they<br>
made a trivial change to the UDP stack. I've been meaning to update the<br>
OSF RFC to reflect the MS changes, but it hasn't been pressing. Let me<br>
know if you intend to go this route, and I'll see what I can do to help<br>
out.<br>
<br>
--Dean<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On Fri, 18 Feb 2011, Warren Luebkeman wrote:<br>
<br>
> We are a software company up in NH, and have developed a free/open source<br>
> Linux Active Directory server based on Samba. The objective of this project<br>
> was to create an AD alternative that was easier to use, and accessible to<br>
> anyone regardless of expertise. Its mostly geared towards small businesses,<br>
> but is also being used in schools on large networks.<br>
><br>
> We are looking for people to download/test the beta of the software we<br>
> released earlier this week. If any of you are IT consultants that work with<br>
> small businesses, I think this could be a very useful tool for you.<br>
><br>
> Let us know what you think!<br>
><br>
> <a href="http://www.resara.org" target="_blank">http://www.resara.org</a><br>
><br>
><br>
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</font></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Warren Luebkeman<div>Partner, COO</div><div>Resara LLC</div><div>888.357.9195</div><div><a href="http://www.resara.com" target="_blank">www.resara.com</a></div><br>
</div>