Today I got back onto my big network project at home. Last time I worked on it I had discovered that OpenLDAP/Samba as a PDC still didn't work. I had decided to switch back to Sun Directory Server, have all my other server software and tools (such as mail, collaboration, webservices, portals, etc) authenticate it but not have my Windows computers use it as a PDC.

After removing OpenLDAP I put Sun Directory Server back on and configured it. What made me almost tear my hair out is that when you run the config tool, at the end it does a bunch of stuff and fails. The directory server won't start and keeps telling me it needs to be configured. I've had this problem several times before and thought it was because when I uninstalled it earlier I didn't do something right and left poopoo'ed configs scattered around the PC. A format used to solve the problem :) I've formatted that dam machine so many times now I'm an expert at it. I formatted again, put it back on and same problems! The only time I had it working was when I had a graphical desktop installed on the server.

I had reached rock bottom. After many weeks of working on this in my spare time I have concluded that you can't use Samba with OpenLDAP as a PDC for Windows without major problems that I could not solve. The same with Samba and Sun Directory Server. Plus, just getting Sun Directory Server installed is a total nightmare. The installation procedure is simple, but I always have problems getting it to start after installation. I think I had it working twice before? When it did work, I was impressed. I really want to use it, it seems like one of the best DS out there and it's free.

I think all of my installation problems with it is because I'm using OpenSuse 10.1. They specifically say it's only supported on Solaris, RedHat Enterprise x.x, and Suse Enterprise 9.x. Yes the distro really does matter. Since Sun DS was written in C, it relies on all kinds of stuff (older versions etc) that is not in your distro or newer distros. Plus it's not just one RPM that you install. There a tons and tons of them. They have a special install tool to make it all install properly. So really I can't be too upset at Sun since I am not using an expensive enterprise linux distro. I could use the now free Solaris OS but that means learning their flavor of UNIX. I tried it already and learned not to use it on my x64 hardware and without UNIX knowledge. Almost everything I'm used to in linux is different on unix.

Man, I feel like I should just put Windows on and use Active Directory. I know that DOES work. At IJW our PDC is a Windows machine with Active Directory and we have no issues. However, something in me still wants to use Linux and all these cool programs I've been toying with.

Shortly after I felt like giving up I stumbled upon a guy's blog talking about OpenDS. It's a new open source rewrite of Sun's Directory Server, written by Sun, and was litterally released a few weeks ago! It has no admin tools yet, but you can manage it with other existing LDAP tools such as Sun Access Manager :) Here's a couple quotes:

The Sun Java System Directory Server has a distinguished heritage and a proven track record, with thousands of customers and billions of entries deployed. However the codebase is over ten years old and its origins are from a time when performance, scalability, and feature set requirements then were very different from what we're seeing today and expect to see in the future.

OpenDS is an open source Directory Service written entirely in Java. I say "Directory Service" because we will include more than just the core LDAP-accessible database. Much like our current Directory Server Enterprise Edition, we'll also include directory proxy functionality (including virtual directory and data distribution capabilities), the ability to synchronize with Active Directory and potentially other sources, and various client-side tools.

...In particular, many of them have focused on the fact that OpenDS is written in Java. I wanted to take this opportunity to address them here. If you've heard anything about Sun's Directory Server in the last several years, it's hard to miss the fact that performance and scalability are very important to us. We've been continually working on improving this in our current Sun Java System Directory Server, and it is one of the main goals of OpenDS to be even faster and more scalable. If we really thought that Java was going to significantly hold us back, then the project probably wouldn't have even gotten off the ground.