linux Domains for Linux systems

[Husky]

Hello,

 

I would like to know how domains (or similar things) are done on the Linux/Unix side of things as compared to Windows systems. I am talking about domains as in what Active Directory is to Windows.

 

I have been working with Active Directory for quite a while and I understand how it works, but I have always wondered how a similar thing is handled when using Linux. When I search about this, people say that Samba can act as a domain controller but that looks like something you would use if you need to mix Windows and Linux systems together and does not sound native at all.

 

How are domains done in Linux, are domains even a thing on Linux that many people use, or is there a completely different way or concept of doing things on Linux (scripts and management software?)

 

For example: With my Windows systems I have 2 DCs, a WSUS server, Exchange server, IIS server, SCVMM server, SCCM server, SCOM server, etc... and they are all part of a domain and everything is configured through group policies. Now lets say I replace all of that with Debian or CentOS or something and have a Postfix server, Apache/NGINX server, etc... then how do companies usually manage all of that? Through a control panel or is there a domain equivalent that everyone uses?

 

Sorry if this sounds dumb, I haven't been exposed that much to Linux systems, mostly Windows Server, so I was a little confused when I found a bunch of search results about Samba emulating a Windows domain controller, and thinking what the "native" Linux way is, and wondering if domains are even a thing in Linux or if there is some other completely different way of doing it.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Have you looked at lDAP?  Thats the most native way, I think there are a few more standards for a centralized login server.

 

You can also just use AD for login on linux.

 

There is no group policy on linux, but you can manage by pushing scrips

[Sauron]

There is Red Hat's Directory Server, though since I've never used it personally (not AD for that matter) I can't really say how close it is to what you're used to. If you're asking on behalf of a company you should try and hit up RH directly and ask them how they would recommend you set something like this up.

[Eigenvektor]

32 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Have you looked at lDAP?  Thats the most native way, I think there are a few more standards for a centralized login server.

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a protocol (duh), which incidentally is the one that's also used by AD. There are several Linux services the implement it, e.g. Apache Directory and OpenLDAP. The Red Hat Directory Server mentioned by @Sauron also makes use of LDAP.

 

As long as the software you're using uses LDAP to talk to AD it should be able to talk to other directory services that use the same standard.

[Chunchunmaru_]

Don't use OpenLDAP, Samba 4 as AD DC is probably the best alternative out there.
As for exchange, there are a couple of groupware software compatible with Samba domains, some of them have even their own ldap implementation

 

There is no such "centralized" thing, you just configure each software manually, what are you trying to accomplish?