Fedora Core: Connecting to an ADS Server

by scott_glaser — last modified Feb 01, 2010 07:41 PM

— filed under: Server Solutions

As many Fedora Core users may note, there are times when Windows just does not cut it, and you would rather be working on your data in Linux instead of Windows. During those times you may find it necessarry to connect to a Server 2003 ADS. This soulution came about for just one such ocassion. We are not going to cover the requirements in this procedure as this solution is not recommended for a new Fedora Core user, this is tailored for an advanced user that would have the knowledge to join a domain with their Fedora Core machine. Also assistance will be required from the Administrator of the domain, should that not be you!!

Requirements

You must have a Windows 2003 ADS server acting as a domain controller.
Setup and account on the ADS server for the Fedora Core that you with to connect.
Configure the Fedora Core box to join the Domain controlled by the ADS server.

Doing the work

Open a Terminal.
To become root, you type.
```
su --login
```
Note that the "--login" is very important -- it sets things so that you have easy access to all the commands on the computer.

Then, you have to type in your root password. You set this when you installed Fedora Core.
In a terminal window following command.
```
# system-config-authentication
```
In the Authentication Configuration window select "Enable Winbind Support", Then select "Configure Winbind".
In the Winbind Settings Window enter the following, these settings will differ based on the network which you will be joining. The settings shown here are just examples based on my network configuration.
Then select "Join Domain". First you will be presented with an alert screen as shown below, select Save.
After you select Save you will need the Domain Administrator login and password then select ok.
Once the authentication is setup and you have joined the domain, you need to create a mount point by entering the following.
```
# mkdir /mnt/windows
```
Next you need to mount your ADS Server Directory to which you wish to connect, do so by executing the following (Substiute the <Server> with the actual name or IP of the server and the directory to me mounted i.e. //216.54.64.13/swap ).
```
# mount -t cifs //<Server> /mnt/windows -o username=<ads user account>
```
Enter the password for the user and you have now mounted your ADS working directory.