Centrify Resource Center

Home  |  Centrify Resource Center  |  Centrify Suite Resources  |  Active Directory Integration for Storage Systems

Active Directory Integration for Samba

Centrify delivers a packaged and tested version of Samba that works seamlessly on systems that have been joined to Active Directory using DirectControl

We were impressed that within minutes we could get DirectControl up and running and working seamlessly with Samba, something that was not possible with alternatives we considered.

Christopher Smith
IS Manager, RadioFrame Networks

Samba enables Windows users to access file shares on a UNIX or Linux server using native Windows SMB protocols. Samba can be configured to use Active Directory to authenticate Windows users. However, when a Windows user saves a file on a UNIX share, Samba must assign UNIX user and group IDs to the file. Windows users do not typically have UNIX profiles, so Samba will set and store arbitrary values for these attributes on each UNIX server. Since Samba does not have a way to centrally store UNIX identity information in Active Directory, users can have different attributes from one server to the next. In most enterprise situations, this is not a workable solution.

Centrify overcomes this shortcoming with a packaged and tested version of Samba that works seamlessly on UNIX and Linux systems that have been joined to Active Directory using the Centrify Suite or Centrify Express. Centrify provides this Centrify-enabled version of Samba free of charge to help you be more productive and to accelerate your deployment.

Get Samba with Free Active
Directory Authentication

You can download the Centrify-enabled version of Samba along with Centrify Express, our free Active Directory-based solution for authentication and single sign-on to cross-platform systems.

Learn More about Centrify-Enabled Samba

Features & Benefits of the Centrify-Enabled Samba

Centrify's Samba solution makes this Open Source tool enterprise-ready and provides the following additional key features to enable Active Directory users to securely and consistently access UNIX SMB file shares:

  • Centrally controlled user identity mapping. The Centrify-enabled Samba module controls the mapping of Active Directory accounts to UNIX Zone profiles to ensure consistent file system access controls across all servers that are joined to the Active Directory domain with DirectControl.
  • Multi-domain single sign-on support. Users from one Active Directory domain can access Samba shares on servers in another trusted domain without being prompted for their credentials. This is the same behavior that users would expect when using an all-Windows environment.
  • Active Directory group-based access controls. Some UNIX operating systems limit the number of groups that a user can belong to. For example, a Solaris user can not be a member of more than 32 groups. Centrify's solution overcomes this limitation and also supports nested groups, enabling Samba to leverage Active Directory groups for file access control regardless of the UNIX operating system's limitations.
  • Automated configuration. The DirectControl for Samba solution includes scripts to automatically configure Samba to work with DirectControl and Active Directory, and scripts to start the appropriate services each time the UNIX system boots. Centrify includes pre-compiled binary versions of the Centrify-enabled Samba package for each of the supported platforms.

Supported Platforms

Summary
Details
Systems A-Z 32-bit 64-bit
Click Show Details for a list of every platform, including notifications of upcoming or recently added versions.
Learn More CentOS Linux 3, 4, 5 x86 Supported
3, 4, 5 x86_64 Supported
Learn More Citrix XenServer 4, 5 Supported
Learn More Debian Linux 3.0, 3.1, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0 x86 Supported
3.1, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0 x86_64 Supported
Learn More Hewlett Packard HP-UX 11.00, 11.11, 11.23, 11.31 PA-RISC Supported Supported
11.23, 11.31 Itanium Supported
Learn More IBM AIX 5.x, 6.1, 7.1 Supported Supported
Learn More Mandriva Linux One 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 x86 Supported
Ent. Server 5, 5.2 x86 Supported
Ent. Server 5, 5.2 x86_64 Supported
Learn More Novell SUSE Linux Ent. Desktop 9.0, 9.x, 10, 11 x86 Supported
Ent. Desktop 11 x86_64 Supported
Ent. Server 8, 9, 10, 11 x86 Supported
Ent. Server 9, 10, 11 x86_64 Supported
Learn More OpenSolaris 06/2009 SPARC Supported
11/2008, 06/2009 x86 Supported
11/2008, 06/2009 x86_64 Supported
Learn More OpenSUSE Linux 10.x, 11.x x86 Supported
10.x, 11.x x86_64 Supported
Learn More Oracle Enterprise Linux 4, 5, 6 x86 Supported
4, 5, 6 x86_64 Supported
Learn More Oracle Solaris 8, 9, 10 SPARC Supported Supported
9, 10 x86 Supported
10 x86_64 Supported
Learn More Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5, 6 x86 Supported
Desktop 5, 6 x86_64 Supported
AS/ES/WS 3, 4, 5, 6 x86 Supported
AS/ES/WS 3, 4, 5, 6 x86_64 Supported
Learn More Red Hat Fedora 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 x86 Supported
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 x86_64 Supported
Learn More Red Hat Linux 9 x86 Supported
Learn More Scientific Linux 3, 4, 5, 6 x86 Supported
3, 4, 5, 6 x86_64 Supported
Learn More Silicon Graphics IRIX 6.5.x MIPS Supported Supported
Learn More Ubuntu Linux 6.x, 7.x, 8.x, 9.x, 10.x, 11.04, 11.10 x86 Supported
6.x, 7.x, 8.x, 9.x, 10.x, 11.04, 11.10 x86_64 Supported
Learn More White Paper Our white paper details how DirectControl can make Samba more secure, more manageable, and enterprise ready.
Chalktalk Centrify's Dave Daugherty explains our packaged and tested version of Samba, and how DirectControl provides centralized ID mapping through Active Directory.
Blog Centrify Delivers CIFS File Server for Cross-Platform File Sharing
View a 5-Minute Demo
  Try It, Buy It Download a trial, get pricing info, or contact Sales.