Migrate Samba 4 Active Directory to Windows Server 2019

Question

I'm currently running a Samba 4 (https://www.univention.com/) Domain Controller within my Network. We now have a new Windows Server Essential 2019, unfortunately the License requires that the Domain Controller (all FSMO Roles) will run on the Server it self.

I have tried to add the server as a normal domain controller to the Samba forest. This does not work because the Window Server says the the SYSVOL replication is not working.

Is there any other way to migrate the AD from Samba to Windows?

Unfortunately the clients are very complex to setup, so i do not want to loose their Settings. That is why I want to migrate the domain instead of replacing it.

Answer 1

You cannot join a Windows Server 2019 to a Samba AD-domain. You must first join with a Server 2008:

Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 requires the Windows management instrumentation (WMI) protocol during the join, and for the forest and domain preparation. Samba currently does not support this protocol. Therefore you must run a Windows domain controller (DC) with WMI support in your domain. For example, you can a Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2 DC as replication partner during the join.

Make sure you have good backups of your Samba-server. Joining with a Windows Server newer that that breaks the domain. So you must first join with a 2008 server. After that you will be able to join a newer server to the 2008. (haven't tried with 2019, but it worked with a 2016 server).

There's a very decent guide on the Samba wiki regarding exactly this, it has helped me a lot: https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Joining_a_Windows_Server_2012_/_2012_R2_DC_to_a_Samba_AD

It's quite a process, and you will also need to seize FSMO roles and clean up metadata.