Samba vs NAS vs NFSv4

[Fernando Lozano]

Hi there,

Here we have been using Samba (2 & 3) for yeas as the main file server 
and also as PDC (integrated with LDAP) so we have centralized account 
management for both Linux and Windows server and clients.

Now we intent to put most of our data on centralized storage, and are 
evaluating many entry-level SAN products lie HP P2000G3 and Dell MD3200. 
We are also intrigued with some ebtry-level NAS solutions from Iomega, 
EMC and IBM. Maybe someone on the list can share his/her experience 
about NAS servers vs Samba3:

- Will a NAS server provide SMB/CIFS shares, integrated with Samba 
domain security? Or will then need a Microsoft Active Domain Controller?
- Moving to Samba4 (or FreeIPA) would solve those issues, if I can't use 
the current Samba3 PDC and BDC with a NAS server?
- NFS access to the NAS server will be compatible with latest NFSv4 
security, or will it require the "trust-based" weak security model from 
NFSv3 and v2?


[]s, Fernando Lozano