Ldap – Is it possible to have Windows and Linux machines use the same LDAP server

active-directoryldapopenldapsamba

I'm trying to set up an accept-all environment between linux and windows. This includes LDAP support, as I want all the log-in credentials to stay server-side.

My goal is to have a user use the same username and password for both his Windows 7 Laptop and his Linux Mint Desktop.

So far I've set up Samba to work as an Active Directory. The AD works fine but it seems the backend is not OpenLDAP, so I can't directly tie the AD to the Linux machines. What must be configured so that both linux and windows machines share the same LDAP backend?

Best Answer

Configure Active Directory (on Windows or Linux) then:

  • join Windows to AD
  • join Linux to AD using realmd or SSSD

SSSD provides the translation layer from AD attributes to the information that Linux's NSS layer is expecting.

Remember OpenLDAP or any LDAP server is just a tool - it depends on the schema in use.