Samba is amazing, Windows server is a lot less so. The problem with Windows server is that it takes tons of steps to do basic things. On Samba I had Samba tool and it was very nice and friendly. On Windows server you have a ton of different management panels.
If there was a way I could hold off I would but due to changing requirements I didn’t have much of a choice. (We needed Windows Server bare metal and I was not about to go and buy another machine.)
Why not OpenLDAP? I’ve refused to run a Windows server at home for years and I’ve OpenLDAP running nicely in a lightweight container.
That’s not Windows Server. We needed more simplicity and having everything on one system was the simplest.
I don’t like it as much but at the end of the day it was easier