Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server

coliver

@Danp said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

I believe NethServer was the other one recently discussed.

Yep that was it. Here's the link http://www.nethserver.org/

jrc

The application is a custom (badly) build one that they have to use as per their franchise agreement. It has to be local, and it has to be on Windows.

coliver

@jrc said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

@coliver

The application is a custom (badly) build one that they have to use as per their franchise agreement. It has to be local, and it has to be on Windows.

Fair enough.

jrc

Hmm, the problem with the pre-built ones you mentioned is that they come with a ton of things that won't be needed. There is no reason for it to handle email, or web filtering among other things. AD, DNS and File Server is all they need.

I assume the non-needed services can be turned off so that they do not consume any resources?

scottalanmiller

@jrc said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

Are there any good linux substitutions for AD and Windows Server?

For AD definitely. Samba 4 has been around for years. For "Windows Server", that's a broad question. Depends on the service you want to provide.

scottalanmiller

@jrc said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

@coliver

Is there a web front end that could used with it to make config easier? I am not shy to use the command line, but I do like to make my life easier when I can.

NethServer is the place to look first. And they are active here in the forum.

scottalanmiller

@jrc said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

Hmm, the problem with the pre-built ones you mentioned is that they come with a ton of things that won't be needed. There is no reason for it to handle email, or web filtering among other things. AD, DNS and File Server is all they need.

I assume the non-needed services can be turned off so that they do not consume any resources?

You can turn those things off, of course. Or just use CentOS, Fedora, openSuse, Ubuntu, etc. as your Samba 4 base OS. Even FreeBSD is an option.

jrc

@scottalanmiller

Fair enough. They just use it for AD services (users, groups, access permissions, some minor group policy stuff and as a file server).

Sounds like NethServer could do all of that, and DNS as well.

jrc

@scottalanmiller

I like the option to use a Web front end, which the pre-builts seem to have. Community support for a specific build would also be pretty critical.

JaredBusch

@scottalanmiller said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

You can turn those things off, of course.

Do this.

@scottalanmiller said in [Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server]

Or just use CentOS, Fedora, openSuse, Ubuntu, etc. as your Samba 4 base OS. Even FreeBSD is an option.

I would not do that. That requires more advanced knowledge of the pieces needed. Uunless the OP desires to learn those skills, doing things this way would be a waste of time when there are solid products available.

jrc

@JaredBusch said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

@scottalanmiller said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

You can turn those things off, of course.

Do this.

@scottalanmiller said in [Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server]

Or just use CentOS, Fedora, openSuse, Ubuntu, etc. as your Samba 4 base OS. Even FreeBSD is an option.

I would not do that. That requires more advanced knowledge of the pieces needed. Uunless the OP desires to learn those skills, doing things this way would be a waste of time when there are solid products available.

If I could maintain it 8 hours a day 7 days a week, then I would totally build it from scratch. Something that could be fun to do.

However, I can only maintain it from a distance and fleetingly, so having something that is tried and true, offers a solid community and has a time saving front end is what I would need in order to keep them up and running smoothly.

I'll give NethServer a go, since it seems to check the boxes I need.

jrc

NethServer would run in XenServer without issue, correct?

Danp

@jrc It should be hypervisor agnostic.

scottalanmiller

@jrc said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

NethServer would run in XenServer without issue, correct?

Just an OS. It's CentOS underneath.

alefattorini

@scottalanmiller said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

NethServer is the place to look first. And they are active here in the forum.

Thanks for mentioning us, I'm still here. Just mention me or @nethserver
All things I just read here about NethServer are correct, it's worth noting that

NethServer is extremely modular, you can add just what you need and nothing more
if you can install CentOS 7 you can install NethServer 7, period
NethServer avoids learning all those skills and saves your time. You can do almost everything by webui

I hope it helps.

scottalanmiller

@alefattorini Thanks for jumping in.

vhinzsanchez

@jrc said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

Hmm, the problem with the pre-built ones you mentioned is that they come with a ton of things that won't be needed. There is no reason for it to handle email, or web filtering among other things. AD, DNS and File Server is all they need.
I assume the non-needed services can be turned off so that they do not consume any resources?

As mentioned by @alefattorini, NethServer is extremely modular. If you just need the DC, there's no need to install/activate firewall, email, VPN, etc. Though you can also install the backup for the just-in-case scenario.

For help in installation and/or configuration, head out to the community forum, developers are there as well to lend their helping hand.

Emad R

@coliver

Hi,

Can Samba4 be used to push .msi packages to AD clients ? like I do on my Windows Group Policy management?

coliver

@msff-amman-Itofficer said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

@coliver

Hi,

Can Samba4 be used to push .msi packages to AD clients ? like I do on my Windows Group Policy management?

I believe so... You'll still need a Windows workstation with rsat installed to configure the group policies.

scottalanmiller

@msff-amman-Itofficer said in Substitutes for Active Directory and Windows Server:

@coliver

Hi,

Can Samba4 be used to push .msi packages to AD clients ? like I do on my Windows Group Policy management?

Yes. The only push mechanism is Group Policy and that works just the same.