Synchronize SAM's between stand-alone servers

[Adam O]

Due to a restriction, AD can't be used in this scenario.
Is there any creative way to synchronize accounts and
passwords between stand-alone Win2k servers? Any help
would be very appreciated.

 

[Steven L Umbach]

Not that I know of. In NT4.0 some reported success in copying the sam file
from one server to the other but I don't believe that will work in W2K
because of syskey being enforced by default and other protection features.
If you try that make sure you have a full backup before trying. Users can be
trained to change their password on multiple servers via ctrl-alt-delete
change password by entering the names of the servers in logon to box.---
Steve

 

[Roger Abell [MVP]]

Other than reinventing a Windows domain you could look at
using those Windows boxen as clients in a Kerberos realm,
or at handing of NT4ish domain work to Samba.

Sync'ing usernames and passwords through user initiated
changes between stand-alones can be more work than you
might think, at least if it is done well, fault tolerant and failsafe.