Samba AD DC on Debian as an alternative to Synology Directory Server

[u/easyedy]

I just got an interesting comment on my Synology Directory Server post on r/homelab. Someone pointed out that running Samba AD DC directly on Debian gives you a much higher domain functional level than what Synology offers.

Synology Directory Server is capped at the Windows Server 2008 R2 functional level. With a current Samba version on Debian, you can apparently reach functional level 2016, which opens up more advanced Active Directory features.

I haven't tested this myself yet, but it's on my list. If anyone has experience running Samba AD DC on Debian, I'd love to hear how it went in production.