[ Thanks to Paul
Thornfeldt for this link. ]
“Integration of UNIX and Microsoft Windows NT through a
unified logon has been considered a “holy grail” in heterogeneous
computing environments for a long time. We present winbind, a
component of the Samba suite of programs as a solution to the
uni.ed logon problem. Winbind uses a UNIX implementation of
Microsoft RPC calls, Pluggable Authentication Modules, and the Name
Service Switch to allow Windows NT domain users to appear and
operate as UNIX users on a UNIX machine. This paper describes the
winbind system, explaining the functionality it provides, how it is
configured and how it works internally.”
“It is well known that UNIX and Microsoft Windows NT have
different models for representing user and group information and
use different technologies for implementing them. This fact has
made it diffcult to integrate the two systems in a satisfactory
manner.”
“One common solution in use today has been to create identically
named user accounts on both the UNIX and Windows systems and use
the Samba suite of programs to provide file and print services
between the two. This solution is far from perfect however, as
adding and deleting users on both sets of machines becomes a chore
and two sets of passwords are required both of which which can lead
to synchronization problems between the UNIX and Windows systems
and confusion for users.”