What is the difference between samba and sssd?

Question

In my ubuntu workstation I use /etc/samba/smb.conf and /etc/sssd/sssd.conf with /etc/krb5.conf in order to join active directory on a corporate network.

sudo service samba-ad-dc status
# inactive

sudo service sssd status
# active (running)

However I cannot yet tell what is the difference between samba and sssd. Can someone explain what are the differences between these two services and where do they overlap?

• Can sssd work even without samba. Does it directly read smb.conf?
• How do they depend to each other?

I have read the documentation, but I need a simpler explanation.

Answer 1

I am presuming you are trying to log in your workstation using the domain credentials. For that, you do not need samba. You just need set up the sssd.

I don't know which packages are necessary in an ubuntu box, but the packages needed for a Red Hat Enterprise Linux based are these:

realmd samba-common-tools krb5-workstation oddjob oddjob-mkhomedir adcli

To join in the domain the command is this one:

realm join --user=user_with_permission_to_add_computers_in_the_domain --computer-ou=OU="OU_to_add" domain_name.com

The configuration file, as you mentioned, is this:

/etc/sssd/sssd.conf

I find useful to add this options in the configuration file:

• access_provider = simple # This will allow you to control who can log in the computer using the simple_allow_groups below.
• use_fully_qualified_names = False # Allow you to log on using just the username, not the standard option username@domainname
• fallback_homedir = /home/%d/%u # Change the home directory to /home/domainname/username
• simple_allow_groups = groupname1, groupname2 # Domain groupnames allow you to limit the log on permission for just the members of the groups in this option.

To enable the service:

systemctl enable sssd
systemctl start sssd

Some useful commands:

To clear the cache:

sss_cache -E 

To check if the workstation is member of a domain:

realm list 

To check the status of the domain:

sssctl domain-status domainname

To leave the domain:

realm leave -U user_with_permission_to_add_computers_in_the_domain domainname

I hope you find this explanation useful.