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Hello,

I had to join a Ubuntu server to a Window Domain recently, here’s what I did, the # are just annotated notes:

#Update the \etc\hosts file for 127.0.0.1 to be the hostname
sudo vi /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 UbuntuServer.domain.com UbuntuServer


#Install the packages
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install krb5-user samba sssd sssd-tools libnss-sss libpam-sss ntp ntpdate realmd adcli

#Update NTP for domain time
sudo vi /etc/ntp.conf

#In the ntp.conf file, create a line an add the following:
server domain.com
# I also removed out all the other NTPs


#stop and start ntp and we are golden
sudo systemctl stop ntp
sudo ntpdate domain.com
sudo systemctl start ntp


#Dicover the fookin domain (Case SeNsAtIvE)
sudo realm discover DOMAIN.COM
#should see the domain


#Initialise Kerberos (Case SeNsAtIvE) use yor own frickin username
kinit -V admin@DOMAIN.COM
#chuck in your password


#join the muther fuzin domain baby, you have a choice here, if your server can reach all your DCs in your domain then use the first command, if it cant then you have to specify one:
#1
#sudo realm join --verbose DOMAIN.COM -U admin@DOMAIN.COM --install=/
#2
sudo realm join --verbose -U admin@DOMAIN.COM dc01.DOMAIN.COM --install=/


#comment out the use fully qualified thing
sudo vi /etc/sssd/sssd.conf
# use_fully_qualified_names = True

#restart ssssd
sudo systemctl restart sssd

#enable the user to vcreate home dirve
sudo vi /etc/pam.d/common-session
#place the following under the line that contains session optional pam_sss.so
session required pam_mkhomedir.so skel=/etc/skel/ umask=0077

#test
id admin@DOMAIN.COM

#visudo bitches
sudo visudo -f /etc/sudoers
%Domain\ Admins ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL


#change the domains so we can login
sudo vi /etc/krb5.conf

        DOMAIN.COM = {
                kdc = dc01.domain.com
                kdc = dc02.domain.com
                admin_server = admin.domain.com
        }

.domain.com = DOMAIN.COM

#allows these to ssh
sudo realm permit -g 'Domain Admins'
sudo realm permit -g 'Tronstride Servers Local Admins'


#toublshoot
tail -f /var/log/auth.log

As you may have seen we have a Linux server in Azure running some weird stuff, anyhow the time was off screwing with reports and what not, so had to fix it.  Here’s what I did:

First, SSH onto the server and logon.

Check the time:

timedatectl

Find the timezone you would like:

ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/

Now change it:

sudo timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Dubai

Check it again:

timedatectl

Example:

I’m no expert with Linux but I’m trying hard to improve my knowledge, I recently ran through some great CentOS videos on Pluralsight and after that tried to install Guacamole which is a clientless remote desktop gateway.  The long and the short of it is I didn’t get it fully working but really enjoyed the process.

Anyhow as I mentioned in a previous post, I decided to install Plex on a Ubuntu server as I think my problem with Linux is the lack of visual prompts i.e. If I can see or draw something then I often understand the process better.

So after my initial vmware issues, I downloaded and installed Ubuntu and installed VMware tools:

Open the VMware Tools CD mounted on the Ubuntu desktop.
Right-click the file name that is similar to VMwareTools.x.x.x-xxxx.tar.gz, click Extract to, and select Ubuntu Desktop to save the extracted contents.

The vmware-tools-distrib folder is extracted to the Ubuntu Desktop.
To install VMware Tools in Ubuntu:
Open a Terminal window. For more information.
In the Terminal, run this command to navigate to the vmware-tools-distrib folder:

cd Desktop/vmware-tools-distrib

Run this command to install VMware Tools:

sudo ./vmware-install.pl -d

Note: The -d switch assumes that you want to accept the defaults. If you do not use -d, press Return to accept the defaults or supply your own answers.

Enter your Ubuntu password.
Restart the Ubuntu virtual machine after the VMware Tools installation completes.

Then I updated Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Next download the Plex Media server package

run from a terminal:

sudo dpkg -i plexmediaserver_1.10.0.4523-648bc61d4_amd64.deb

(replace the filename with the name of the package you downloaded)

To setup Plex Media Server, on the same machine you installed the server on, open a browser window, and go to http://127.0.0.1:32400/web.

Then I decided it best to run Plex as a service so if the server rebooted I wouldn’t have to logon:

sudo systemctl enable plexmediaserver.service
sudo systemctl start plexmediaserver.service

Finally I need to map a drive so I could access the media (photos etc) on my windows server again in a fashion where if the server rebooted it would map.

To do this you need cifs utils to connect to windows shares:

sudo apt-get install cifs-utils

Then you need to create a directory to mount the share too like so:

sudo mkdir /media/windowsshare

Then add the the share and add the Windows credentials that have permission to the share via the config file /etc/fstab, to add this line:

Sudo nano /etc/fstab
//192.168.1.2/share /media/windowsshare cifs username=BohemianUser,password=BohemianPassword,iocharset=utf8,sec=ntlm 0 0

Finally, test the fstab entry by issuing:

sudo mount -a

If there are no errors, you should test how it works after a reboot. Your remote share should mount automatically.

See if you have access via Plex.

I run a HP G7 N54L which has ESXi 6.5 installed, its getting old but its brilliant.

Anyhow, I ran a Windows 10 VM which I had Plex installed on, for some reason Plex gave up the ghost so I decided to install Ubuntu and was planning on installing Plex on there.

Grabbed the ISO and installed and 5 minutes after install the Ubuntu server froze, so rebooted, froze again.

After some digging I post a post that mentioned its a hardware issue sorted in ESXi 6.5 update 1.

So downloaded and update my server (note there was a warning that future releases of ESXi wont be supported on this CPU) and ran Ubuntu and it worked flawlessly.