Samba AD DC is the identity source of truth for the whole environment: Kerberos, LDAP, DNS, SMB and Group Policy — a real Active Directory domain that Windows VMs can domain-join and be GPO-managed, without a licensed Windows Server as the DC.

Consumers layered on top (later docs):

Samba file server — domain member serving SMB shares.
Linux clients — realmd/sssd domain join for central login.
Authelia — LDAP source against this DC → OIDC / forward-auth web SSO.

This document covers Phase 1 (the DC) and Phase 2 (the Windows admin box) only.

Everything here is managed as code with Ansible — see ansible/. The shell commands in §1–§2 are documentation of what the roles automate, not steps to run by hand. Run the playbooks.

Ansible quickstart

cd ansible

# 1. one-time: ansible + collections + WinRM lib
#    (uv-installed ansible: uv tool install ansible-core --with ansible --with pywinrm --with requests-ntlm)
ansible-galaxy collection install -r requirements.yml

# 2. set your values (already filled in for ad.ddupan.top / DDUPAN / 192.168.10.5)
$EDITOR group_vars/all/vars.yml     # realm, netbios, DC IP, forwarder, KMS host
$EDITOR inventory/hosts.yml         # DC + Windows box addresses
cp group_vars/all/vault.example.yml group_vars/all/vault.yml
$EDITOR group_vars/all/vault.yml    # admin passwords
ansible-vault encrypt group_vars/all/vault.yml   # optional; plaintext also works (gitignored)

# 3. create the VM locally (libvirt + Ubuntu cloud image + cloud-init)
ssh-keygen -t ed25519               # if you don't have ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub yet
ansible-playbook create-dc-vm.yml   # boots dc1 on br0 at 192.168.10.5

# 4. provision the domain, then verify
ansible-playbook provision-dc.yml --ask-vault-pass
ansible-playbook provision-dc.yml --ask-vault-pass --tags verify

# 5. join + configure the Windows admin box (needs WinRM reachable)
ansible-playbook join-windows.yml --ask-vault-pass

Re-running is safe: domain provisioning is guarded by the sam.ldb database, so a second run is a no-op there and only reconciles config drift.

Layout

Path	Purpose
`roles/dc_vm/`	creates the DC VM locally via libvirt + cloud-init
`roles/samba_ad_dc/`	provisions the DC (§1) — idempotent
`ansible/collections/ansible_collections/ddupan/homelab/`	repository-local collection containing the Samba DNS module and its `ansible-test` tests
`roles/samba_ad_dc/tasks/verify.yml`	smoke tests (`--tags verify`)
`roles/samba_ad_dc/tasks/legacy.yml`	opt-in retro-client protocols (§ Retro clients)
`roles/windows_vm/`	unattended-installs the Windows Server 2025 admin box (§2.0)
`roles/win_domain_join/`	joins Windows box, installs RSAT, KMS activation (§2)
`group_vars/all/vars.yml`	all non-secret settings — edit this
`group_vars/all/vault.yml`	admin passwords (gitignored; encrypt with ansible-vault)
`inventory/hosts.yml`	DC + Windows hosts

Static DNS records are declared once in ../../dns/records.yml. The role manages only those RRsets and deliberately leaves Samba-generated AD locator records alone.

0. Decisions — fill these in before touching anything

These map 1:1 onto ansible/group_vars/all.yml.

Item	Value	Notes
DNS realm	`AD.DDUPAN.TOP`	Delegated subdomain of `ddupan.top`. Never `.local`.
NetBIOS / short name	`DDUPAN`	≤15 chars, uppercase, no dots. Windows-visible short domain.
DC hostname (FQDN)	`dc1.ad.ddupan.top`
DC static IP	`192.168.10.5/24`	On `br0`; free in the `.2–.9` range. Must stay static.
Gateway	`192.168.10.1`
Domain admin	`Administrator`	password from the vault
Forwarder DNS	`192.168.10.1`	where the DC forwards non-AD lookups
Windows admin box	`192.168.10.6`	RSAT/GPMC station

The example shell in §1–§2 still shows example.com-style placeholders for readability; the live values above are what group_vars/all.yml actually sets.

1. Provision the DC VM

Automated by roles/samba_ad_dc. The commands below are what each task does.

Base: Debian 12 (or Ubuntu 24.04 LTS) VM — a full VM, not LXC. The DC is a stateful pet; a VM avoids LXC keyring/namespace quirks with Kerberos. (The VM must already exist and be reachable over SSH; this role configures the OS, it does not create the VM — see "VM lifecycle" below.)

1.1 Host prerequisites

# Static IP, correct hostname, and time sync are non-negotiable.
hostnamectl set-hostname dc1.ad.example.com
timedatectl set-ntp true          # or install chrony; Kerberos dies on >5min skew
apt update && apt install -y chrony

/etc/hosts — the DC must resolve its own FQDN to its real IP (not 127.0.1.1):

10.10.10.10   dc1.ad.example.com   dc1

1.2 Free up port 53

Samba's internal DNS must bind :53. Disable the systemd-resolved stub listener:

mkdir -p /etc/systemd/resolved.conf.d
printf '[Resolve]\nDNSStubListener=no\n' > /etc/systemd/resolved.conf.d/no-stub.conf
systemctl restart systemd-resolved
# Point the DC at itself for DNS:
ln -sf /run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf /dev/null 2>/dev/null || true
printf 'nameserver 10.10.10.10\nsearch ad.example.com\n' > /etc/resolv.conf
chattr +i /etc/resolv.conf   # stop NM/cloud-init from clobbering it

1.3 Install and provision

apt install -y samba krb5-config winbind smbclient ldb-tools

# Stop distro auto-started daemons; the AD DC runs the unified `samba` service only.
systemctl disable --now smbd nmbd winbind 2>/dev/null || true
systemctl unmask samba-ad-dc

# Clean any stock config so provision writes fresh
mv /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.orig 2>/dev/null || true

samba-tool domain provision \
  --use-rfc2307 \
  --realm=AD.EXAMPLE.COM \
  --domain=EXAMPLE \
  --server-role=dc \
  --dns-backend=SAMBA_INTERNAL \
  --adminpass='CHANGE-ME-Strong.Passw0rd' \
  --option="dns forwarder = 10.10.10.1"

systemctl enable --now samba-ad-dc

--use-rfc2307 is mandatory and cannot be cleanly added later. It stores POSIX uid/gid in the directory so Linux clients get stable IDs.

1.4 Wire Kerberos

cp /var/lib/samba/private/krb5.conf /etc/krb5.conf

1.5 Smoke tests

# LDAP / domain sanity
samba-tool domain level show

# Kerberos ticket for the admin
kinit [email protected] && klist

# DNS: the DC must resolve its own SRV records
host -t SRV _ldap._tcp.ad.example.com.
host -t SRV _kerberos._udp.ad.example.com.
host -t A   dc1.ad.example.com.

# SMB: default shares present
smbclient -L localhost -U administrator

All four must succeed before moving on. If anything AD-related "doesn't work" later, it is almost always DNS — every member must use the DC as its resolver, and the DC must resolve itself.

2. Windows admin box (your one long-lived Windows VM)

You need exactly one Windows VM as the GPO authoring / AD management station. Samba stores GPOs but you edit them with the Windows GPMC; samba-tool gpo only covers basic operations.

2.0 Build it as code — `create-windows-vm.yml` (role `windows_vm`)

Fully unattended install of Windows Server 2025 Standard (Desktop Experience) from your ISO, the Windows analogue of the DC's cloud-init:

ansible-playbook create-windows-vm.yml    # ~30-45 min: install + reboots + WinRM setup

What it does:

Creates zvol data/vm/winadmin, UEFI/GPT, virtio disk + virtio NIC.
Renders autounattend.xml (edition index 2, locale zh-CN, GVLK, admin pw from vault), packs it on a seed ISO. Injects virtio drivers (viostor/NetKVM, 2k25) during Setup via DriverPaths off the virtio-win ISO so Setup sees the virtio disk.
FirstLogonCommands: static IP 192.168.10.6 → DC DNS, WinRM-over-HTTPS listener (self-signed), open 5986, enable RDP, and run virtio-win guest tools (QEMU guest agent + balloon).
Gets past "Press any key to boot from CD" with virsh send-key, waits for WinRM, then ejects install media and deletes the password-bearing seed ISO.

Then hand off to §2.1–2.4 below, automated by join-windows.yml (role win_domain_join) — domain join → RSAT → KMS activate. Needs WinRM reachable; the commands below are what those tasks do.

The seed ISO holds the local admin password in cleartext while Setup runs; the play removes it once WinRM is up. Edition index / GVLK / locale are role vars — verify the index against your ISO with wiminfo …\sources\install.wim.

2.1 Point it at the DC for DNS

On the Windows VM's NIC, set DNS server = 10.10.10.10 (the DC). This is the single most common failure point — a Windows box using any other resolver cannot find the domain.

2.2 Join the domain

System → Rename this PC (advanced) → Domain: ad.example.com → authenticate as EXAMPLE\Administrator → reboot.

2.3 Install RSAT (management tools)

On Windows 10/11:

Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name Rsat.ActiveDirectory.DS-LDS.Tools~~~~0.0.1.0
Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name Rsat.GroupPolicy.Management.Tools~~~~0.0.1.0
Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name Rsat.Dns.Tools~~~~0.0.1.0

This gives you AD Users & Computers, Group Policy Management (GPMC), and the DNS console — the graphical admin surface for the domain.

2.4 Activate against existing KMS

This repo already runs vlmcsd (KMS emulator). Activate the Windows VM against it so the admin box stays licensed:

slmgr /skms kms.example.com:1688     # your vlmcsd host
slmgr /ipk <GVLK-for-this-edition>   # public KMS client setup key for the edition
slmgr /ato

VM lifecycle (creating the box as code)

The VM itself is created by roles/dc_vm (create-dc-vm.yml), which runs against the local libvirt host:

Downloads the latest Ubuntu 24.04 LTS cloud image (.../noble/current/…) once into /var/lib/libvirt/images/base/.
Creates a ZFS zvol data/vm/dc1 (dc_vm_disk_gb, default 25 GB, 16K volblocksize — matching data/vm/win2k25) and writes the image into it raw with qemu-img convert. cloud-init growpart expands the rootfs to fill it on first boot.
Renders user-data / meta-data / network-config from templates and packs a NoCloud seed ISO (genisoimage, volid cidata). The seed sets a static IP (192.168.10.5/24, gw .1), the hostname, and injects your SSH public key.
virt-install --import attaches the zvol (/dev/zvol/data/vm/dc1, virtio) and the seed ISO, boots the domain on bridge br0, then waits for SSH.

It's idempotent — if the dc1 domain exists the block is skipped; the zvol write is separately guarded so a re-run never clobbers an existing disk.

Before running: you need an SSH keypair; the play injects dc_vm_ssh_pubkey_file (default ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub). Generate one with ssh-keygen -t ed25519 if absent — the play fails fast otherwise.

Tunables live in roles/dc_vm/defaults/main.yml (vCPU, RAM, disk, image URL, bridge, gateway, dc_vm_zvol_parent). Alternatives (PXE via your existing netboot/, or a Debian base) are still viable, but the contract is the same: hand samba_ad_dc a booted VM with a static IP matching samba_ad_dc_ip, SSH reachable as the ansible user.

3. Operations

Add users / groups (either UI or CLI)

samba-tool user create alice
samba-tool group add engineering
samba-tool group addmembers engineering alice

…or do it graphically from the Windows admin box via AD Users & Computers.

Backups — do this before the domain becomes load-bearing

samba-tool domain backup offline --targetdir=/var/backups/samba

Schedule it (cron/systemd timer) and ship the tarball off-box.

Second DC (resilience) — easy now, painful to retrofit after an outage

On a second freshly-provisioned member (DNS pointed at dc1):

samba-tool domain join ad.example.com DC \
  -U"EXAMPLE\administrator" --dns-backend=SAMBA_INTERNAL

4. Gotchas cheat-sheet

DNS is the whole ballgame. ~90% of "AD is broken" is a member not using the DC as its resolver, or the DC not resolving itself. Domain members point at 192.168.10.5 directly; non-domain LAN devices reach AD names via the router's conditional forward — see router-dns-nec-ix.md.
Time skew > 5 min → Kerberos silently fails. Keep chrony healthy on the DC and all members.
Don't containerize the DC in K8s — it fights K8s's DNS/networking model. VM only.
--use-rfc2307 at provision time or you lose stable Linux uid/gid mapping.
One share off the DC is fine for testing, but real shares belong on a member file server (next doc), not the DC.
GPO editing needs the Windows RSAT box; keep that one VM around.

Retro clients (Win9x / NT4 / Windows 2000 / XP)

Modern Samba disables the old protocols these machines need (SMB1, NTLMv1, LANMAN, DES Kerberos). Support is opt-in via samba_ad_legacy_clients: true in group_vars/all.yml, which runs roles/samba_ad_dc/tasks/legacy.yml to inject the insecure knobs and restart the DC.

⚠️ This materially weakens the entire domain — LM/NTLMv1 hashes are trivially crackable and SMB1 is wormable. Only enable it on an isolated VLAN for the retro machines. Ideally, don't weaken the primary DC at all: stand up a dedicated legacy Samba member server for file access and keep the DC strict. For domain logon of 9x/NT4 (below) the DC itself must speak old crypto, so segment the network instead.

What each era can actually do:

Client	Domain join	Domain logon	SMB share access	What it needs
Windows XP / 2003 (NT 5.1/5.2)	✅ real AD join	✅ Kerberos/NTLMv2	✅	SMB1 (`server min protocol = NT1`). Mostly works with the toggle.
Windows 2000 (NT 5.0)	✅ real AD join	✅	✅	SMB1 + weak Kerberos crypto (DES) — `allow_weak_crypto`. Fiddly.
Windows NT4	❌ (no Kerberos)	✅ NT4-style (NTLM)	✅	NTLM + `allow nt4 crypto`. Joins as an NT4 domain, not AD.
Windows 9x / ME	❌ (not a domain member)	⚠️ NT-domain network logon only	✅	LANMAN auth + WINS. No Kerberos, ever. LM hashes only.

The toggle turns on (see legacy.yml):

server min protocol = NT1        # SMB1 for XP/2000/NT4/9x
ntlm auth = ntlmv1-permitted     # NTLMv1
lanman auth = yes                # LANMAN — required by 9x, insecure
client lanman auth = yes
allow nt4 crypto = yes           # NT4 member logon
wins support = yes               # NetBIOS name resolution for 9x/NT4

plus allow_weak_crypto = true in /etc/krb5.conf for Windows 2000's DES Kerberos.

Practical notes for the oldest clients:

Win9x needs WINS, not DNS — point the clients' WINS server at the DC's IP (or a legacy member running wins support = yes). Browsing relies on NetBIOS.
9x can't join — it does an NT-domain network logon to a logon server and then accesses \\server\share with domain credentials. Set the client's "Logon to Windows NT domain" to DDUPAN.
Passwords: after enabling weak crypto, accounts used by Win2000 may need a password reset so the DES/RC4 keys get regenerated with the new enctypes allowed.
Keep these clients on 192.168.10.x with the DC as WINS + gateway, firewalled off from anything you care about.

5. Linux Samba member fileserver (`join-member.yml`)

Joins a Linux host to the domain as a Samba member fileserver (security = ADS

winbind), so AD users/groups can authenticate to its SMB shares. Codified as the samba_member role; runs against the samba_members inventory group.

# Inventory already has `laptop` (the KVM host, 192.168.10.127) under samba_members.
ansible-playbook join-member.yml --check --diff     # preview (safe; no real join)
ansible-playbook join-member.yml                    # join for real → creates LAPTOP$ in AD
ansible-playbook join-member.yml --tags verify      # re-run smoke tests only

What the role does, in order: install winbind + libnss-winbind + krb5-user (no libpam-winbind — this is a fileserver join, not OS login) → write /etc/krb5.conf for the realm → add a split-DNS drop-in → rewrite smb.conf ([global] becomes an ADS member; existing shares preserved, original saved to smb.conf.pre-ads) → add winbind to NSS passwd/group → net ads join (guarded by net ads testjoin, so re-runs are no-ops) → start winbind → smoke tests.

Design choices:

RID idmap (idmap config DDUPAN : backend = rid, range 10000-999999) — algorithmic, deterministic, needs no RFC2307 attributes. The DC is --use-rfc2307, so switching to backend = ad for centrally-managed uidNumber/gidNumber is a later option (must be identical on every member). Administrator → uid 10500.
Split-DNS is mandatory here. The LAN router (192.168.10.1) does not answer realm SRV lookups, so the role drops /etc/systemd/resolved.conf.d/ad-realm.conf routing ad.ddupan.top → the DC (192.168.10.5), which is authoritative and fast.
apt update is OFF by default (samba_member_apt_update_cache: false). That host's upstream DNS forwarder is flaky and a full refresh touches every repo in sources.list.d; the member packages are already in the local cache. Pass -e samba_member_apt_update_cache=true to force a refresh when DNS is healthy.
Shares are data (samba_member_shares in the role defaults) — the guest [win] share and the Cockpit ZFS include are carried over verbatim.

Verify by hand: sudo net ads testjoin → Join is OK; wbinfo --online-status; getent group 'domain admins'; smbclient -L localhost -N.

Next docs

~~samba-fileserver — domain-member SMB shares.~~ Done — see §5 above.
linux-domain-join — realmd + sssd (OS login, distinct from this fileserver join).
../../apps/authelia/ — LDAP source → OIDC / forward-auth web SSO.

README.md Unescape Escape

Samba Active Directory Domain Controller