Hint

This documentation is valid for Samba-AD from version 4.8 onwards.

# Installing and Configuring Samba-AD RODC on Debian

Attention

For RODC support, it is recommended to use a recent version of Samba. RODC support is generally functional and its robustness continues to improve!

## Installing the operating system

Install a basic Debian machine with only ssh activated.

You may follow this documentation d’installation pour Debian 64 bits.

## Preparing the RODC

In this documentation, it is assumed:

- That the existing RWDC server is called srvads and that the forest and domain level is in 2008R2. To do this you can run the following command on the RWDC:

      samba-tool domain level show

- That the new server you just installed is called srvrodc.

- That the domain is called mydomain.lan.

- That a test user is called myuser.

In the instructions below, you will replace mydomain.lan with your own domain name and srvrodc with the machine name of your choice.

### Retrieving the necessary packages

Tranquil IT’s DEBs are currently validated for Debian 12 & 13.

The packages of the latest version validated by the engineering team at Tranquil IT can be downloaded from the url samba-4.24 [https://samba.tranquil.it/debian/samba-4.24/].

When it will be necessary to migrate to the next version of Samba, you’ll just have to update the repository url like for example redhat-samba-4.25 [https://samba.tranquil.it/redhat10/samba-4.25/] .

For more comfort, you can define an apt repository and add our GPG public key:

    wget -qO- https://samba.tranquil.it/tissamba-pubkey.gpg | tee /usr/share/keyrings/tissamba.gpg > /dev/null
    sha256sum /usr/share/keyrings/tissamba.gpg
      95ab9a408a3e94564f5a9bfb6e82c9dc371f32e92004ee98acbf64b431c93e81  /usr/share/keyrings/tissamba.gpg
    echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/tissamba.gpg] https://samba.tranquil.it/debian/samba-4.24/ $(lsb_release -c -s) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tissamba.list

Warning

For Samba versions earlier than 4.22.7 please use this gpg key

    wget -qO- https://samba.tranquil.it/tissamba-pubkey-2017.gpg | tee /usr/share/keyrings/tissamba.gpg > /dev/null

### Installing the packages

Debian13-Debian12

    export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
    apt-get update
    apt-get install samba samba-ad-dc winbind libnss-winbind krb5-user smbclient ldb-tools python3-cryptography
    unset DEBIAN_FRONTEND

### Configuring network settings carefully

- Change `/etc/hostname` to contain the FQDN:

      srvrodc.mydomain.lan

- Modify the `/etc/hosts` file so that it contains the DNS resolution of the machine’s FQDN on its IP, with the long name then the short name:

      127.0.0.1      localhost
      192.168.3.11   srvrodc.mydomain.lan srvrodc

### Configuring the DNS

In the file `/etc/resolv.conf` carefully enter the IP address of your DNS server.

    search mydomain.lan
    nameserver 192.168.1.11

### Configuring Kerberos

- Open `/etc/krb5.conf`, remove its contents and add:

      [libdefaults]
        default_realm = MYDOMAIN.LAN
        dns_lookup_kdc = false
        dns_lookup_realm=false
      [realms]
        MYDOMAIN.LAN = {
        kdc = 127.0.0.1
        kdc = 192.168.1.12
        }

  Attention

  It is necessary to respect the CAPITAL LETTERS and replace the 2 IPs by:

  - The IP of your srvrodc first, we can use localhost 127.0.0.1.

  - The IP of srvads as the second IP (ex 192.168.1.12).

- Reboot the host:

      reboot

- After rebooting, ensure that kerberos is properly configured and that you get a TGT:

  Attention

  The default administrator is administrator in English (type the account password administrator, if it doesn’t return anything or you get a message about the password expiration, it’s ok).

      kinit administrator
      klist

### Setting up the RODC service

- Join the machine to the domain:

      samba-tool domain join mydomain.lan RODC -U MYDOMAIN\\Administrator

- In the file `/usr/local/samba/etc/smb.conf`, add the DNS forwarder:

      dns forwarder = 8.8.8.8

- Launch the Samba service with /usr/local/samba/sbin/samba:

    /usr/local/samba/sbin/samba

- Edit `/etc/resolv.conf` to make it point to itself:

      search mydomain.lan
      nameserver 127.0.0.1

### Testing user password replication on the RODC server

- On srvads, add a user as a member of the Allowed RODC Password Replication Group;

- On srvrodc:

      samba-tool rodc preload myuser --server=srvads.mydomain.lan

- If all went well:

    Replicating DN CN=myuser,CN=Users,DC=mondomaine,DC=lan
    Exop on[CN=myuser,CN=Users,DC=mondomaine,DC=lan] objects[1] linked_values[0]