I help with a small school network. ClearOS 7.2 DC. I have no problem with XP, W7 or W10 as members of the domain.

Is there any linux distro that can reliably cooperate on a samba domain? I have tried Suse, Ubuntu, Ubermix.... I have followed the instructions from the respective documentation with no success. I have looked the web and tried filling in the blanks...no joy.
I am primarily try to get linux clients to use domain logins and access to shared domain resources.

Any thoughts?

People run Samba on most systems, and no-can-do problems are unusual with samba. Stick to a main distro you are comfortable with, try it, and when it pukes, leave everything there and post a fresh thread with your tale of woe, logs, & config files to hand. You may also find this helpful
Basic_Samba_Network_File_Sharing

OpenLDAP may need to be set up?

Samba has little to do with domain membership in normal terms. CIFS is a typical linux phrase to get that working.

Negative on that. CIFS is the Windows shared file system or drive standard that replaced SMB on Microsoft systems. The SAMBA suite supports authentication, domain membership, drive shares, printer shares, and a few other little pieces needed to make Windows domain and Linux talk together.

To set up SAMBA to authenticate onto your domain (at the machine level first, then for the user) requires some setup. To do that setup you need to know the proper settings and configuration of your domain. You may also be required to use a domain administrator account and password at one or two points.

Other factors: The domain is very clock sensitive. It helps a lot if all of your machines (Windows and Linux) sync time/clocks from a single standard source. If they drift far apart it can break domain membership until they match again.

I have used several versions of SAMBA, but not the latest. The first used different tools than we use now to make the authentication work. The most recent used (if I recall correctly) sss. What YOU want to use is the documentation for your distribution AND version of SAMBA.
It also makes a difference if your domain is using only the current authentication protocol, or if it is using the one that is compatible with older Windows clients. You must use the tools set to match the protocol that is in use at your site.

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I read that backwards.

You want to authenticate a linux distro as a member of an Active Directory correct? Specifically a samba AD?

1. I have setup NTP to sync the time.
2. I have followed the distribution specific directions with Ubuntu and Suse. I suspect that the instructions maybe based on previous versions of the distributions.
3. DNS is pointed to the DC. The DC is in the hosts file. Firewall is opened. WORGROUP in the config file is set to the domain name....
4. I am using the correct admin username and password...

What is the domain controller?