I'm trying to help a friend who runs a small engineering firm with around 5 users. They've got a Synology NAS and want a cost-effective way to manage authentication and possibly DNS. The business isn't growing and their IT needs are pretty static. I'm curious about the feasibility of using Samba for these functions instead of setting up a Windows server. What do you all think?
5 Answers
Honestly, for just 5 users, it might be simpler to set up local user accounts on the Synology NAS. You won’t need Samba as a domain controller unless you're really looking for group policies or centralized authentication for shared folders. Otherwise, keeping it local could save you some trouble!
If you're using Microsoft 365, perhaps consider Entra. It could deliver similar features with less complexity. We've dealt with Samba in the past, and the integration process into more extensive systems can be quite a challenge.
Great point! I looked into Entra too, and it appears to have some user-friendly setups compared to the Samba route. Definitely worth considering especially if you're avoiding a Windows-based solution.
Samba can be a decent choice if you're looking to save some cash and aren’t after complex features. But if you think you might need advanced features down the line, better to keep a Windows box handy for management tasks, since Samba doesn't quite fill that gap.
I've had my share of headaches with Samba as an Active Directory replacement. It often has compatibility issues sticking to older functional levels. At my last job, we found ourselves ditching the "Synology AD" for a Windows VM after wrestling with various problems for weeks.
Samba's pretty effective for basic setups, but be cautious about stability issues. If you opt for multiple domain controllers down the line, managing group policies could get messy since Samba lacks features like DFS. A Windows system could really smooth things over, especially for future integrations.
True, but remember that if you skip out on Samba, you could miss out on conveniences like login scripts for mapping shares. It could get tricky if users need to change passwords often too!