Windows 7 on a Samba domain

After years of happily running Samba domains controlling Windows XP machines, I've had to investigate how Windows 7 integrates into that environment.

I usually use Debian as the server platform of choice. This has the benefit of a stable software platform at the detriment of not always being up to date. And in this instance that is a problem. Some of the bits that are required in Samba to support 7 in a domain environment don't appear until later versions of Samba than the one currently shipped with Debian "lenny" - the current stable release.

Fortunately the very nice people at SerNet provide Debian packages for the latest Samba release (http://enterprisesamba.com/index.php?id=148) - so by simply adding the relevant repository and installing sernet-samba in place of the normal samba, we can get these extra features.

There are still a couple of registry hacks needed to make 7 work:

HKLM\System\CCS\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters
DWORD DomainCompatibilityMode = 1
DWORD DNSNameResolutionRequired = 0

And then it will join the domain. There is a warning that pops up about dns issues, but that is fine to ignore and it will work.

Now, the next fun part is that due to the drastic changes in profile data between XP and 7, the two won't share a profile - so you end up with two for each user if you are in a mixed environment. This is not a problem as such, but you will want to consider some folder redirection, particularly of My Documents to a location that both can see, otherwise you'll have a different copy of documents for each operating systems.

If you set that to be a network location - which would be the most sensible - then on desktop PCs you'll probably also want to disable offline files. While they're great for laptop users, there is no point in syncing each users files to the desktop in an environment where the machines never leave the network, plus the system tends to get rather confused as it keeps trying to connect to sync other users files without the appropriate permissions to do so.