Purpose

This article provides step by step instructions for joining your SoftNAS instance to Active Directory from within a CLI.

If an HA pairing, this process MUST be run twice, once on each node, or failover would break domain trusts.

Symptoms

For those who prefer to let their keyboards do the work, rather than their mouse, or are running into problems joining AD via the SoftNAS GUI, ('Ajax Timeout' errors have been known to occur), it is possible to join your SoftNAS instance/VM to Active Directory via your command line interface.

Resolution

SSH into the SoftNAS instance in question.
You can also access the command shell from within your SoftNAS GUI by navigating to Settings > General System Settings in the Storage Administration pane. In the Webmin panel that opens, navigate to Others > Command Shell.

Once connected, run the following commands to stop Samba and Winbindd services:
```
service sernet-samba-nmbd stop
service sernet-samba-winbindd stop
```

These services MUST be stopped to prevent changes from being overwritten.

Once services have been stopped, add a new Kerberos ticket-granting ticket using the following command:
```
kinit
```

Confirm the Active Directory information by running the following command:
```
klist
```

Join your instance to Active Directory using the following command:
```
net ads join -U <username>
```
The username in question must have rights to create objects in Active Directory and join objects to the domain. IF the above command fails, try the following command:
```
net rpc join -U <username>
```

Once your instance has successfully joined Active Directory, start the Samba and Winbindd services using the following commands:
```
service sernet-samba-nmbd start
service sernet-samba-winbindd start
```

Various connections will need to be listed at least once so that the GUI can read them later. Issue the following commands:
```
# To see trust:
wbinfo -t
# To see all trust domains:
wbinfo -m
# To sync users:
wbinfo -u
# To sync group OS:
wbinfo -g
```

Remember to join both nodes of an HA cluster to Active Directory if they are to work in unison.

Check the Samba.conf file for any information pertaining to the Active Directory join process.

Additional Information

Active Directory Configuration

SoftNAS Documentation

Connecting a SoftNAS Instance/VM to Active Directory from CLI

Purpose

Symptoms

Resolution

Additional Information