Creating users by "importing" from LDAP?

[seanm]

The docs here:
https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.2/accounts.html

say: "If the network uses a directory service, import the existing account information using the instructions in Directory Services."

I'm unclear on the meaning of "import" there. I do have an LDAP server (actually macOS Open Directory), and while my test FreeNAS can talk to it, getting OD to work with smbldap-tools seems way too hard, so I don't think I'll use FreeNAS + OD at all.

Still, *importing* my users would be useful, to preserve user name, uid, etc. But as best as I can tell, the use of "importing" here doesn't mean a one-time copying in of user names, but rather they are actually talking about binding to LDAP.

Or is there an actual one-time import I'm missing?

 

[dlavigne]

Once imported, those users show up in the drop-down menu for https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11.2/storage.html#setting-permissions.

 

[seanm]

So even if my LDAP server has *not* been "configured for and populated with Samba attributes" (as per the note in the docs), there's still value in hooking up my FreeNAS to my LDAP? I was under the impression that without the "Samba attributes" part, using LDAP was pointless (for my scenario of only doing SMB shares).

 

[dlavigne]

You'll definitely need the Samba attributes for using with SMB shares.

 

[seanm]

So is there a way to do a one-time 'import' of my users from LDAP to create local users on the FreeNAS? Or I basically have to type them all in by hand? (Not so bad, we are only 25 people here). This is my confusion about the use of the word "import".

 

[dlavigne]

What did you end up doing?

 

[seanm]

For the moment, I have only a test VM so I've only created 1 test user. Once my order from iX arrives, I'll have to type in all the users manually, as it seems my only choice. I previously spent quite some time on Open Directory + FreeNAS, but the smbldap-tools part makes it near impossible from what I can tell...