1 <!doctype linuxdoc system
> <!-- -*- SGML -*- -->
3 v 0.1 23 Aug 1997 Dan Shearer
4 Original Samba-meta-FAQ.sgml from Paul's sambafaq.sgml
7 Changed samba.canberra refs to samba.anu.../samba/
12 <title> Samba meta FAQ
14 <author>Dan Shearer & Paul Blackman,
<tt>ictinus@samba.org
</tt>
16 <date>v
0.3,
7 Oct '
97
18 <abstract> This is the meta-Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document
19 for Samba, the free and very popular SMB and CIFS server product. It
20 contains overview information for the Samba suite of programs, a
21 quick-start guide, and pointers to all other Samba documentation. Other
22 FAQs exist for specific client and server issues, and HOWTO documents
23 for more extended topics to do with Samba software. Current to version
24 Samba
1.9.17. Please send any corrections to the author.
29 <sect> Quick Reference Guides to Samba Documentation
<p><label id=quickref
>
31 We are endeavouring to provide links here to every major class of
32 information about Samba or things related to Samba. We cannot list every
33 document, but we are aiming for all documents to be at most two
34 referrals from those listed here. This needs constant maintaining, so
35 please send the author your feedback.
37 <sect1> Samba for the Impatient
<p><label id=
"impatient">
39 You know you should read the documentation but can't wait to start? What
40 you need to do then is follow the instructions in the following
41 documents in the order given. This should be enough to get a fairly
42 simple site going quickly. If you have any problems, refer back to this
43 meta-FAQ and follow the links to find more reading material.
47 <label id=
"ImpGet"><tag/Getting Samba:/ The fastest way to get Samba
48 going is and install it is to have an operating system for which the
49 Samba team has put together an installation package. To see if your OS
50 is included have a look at the directory
51 /pub/samba/Binary_Packages/
"OS_Vendor" on your nearest
<url
52 url=
"../MIRRORS" name=
"mirror site">. If it is included follow the
53 installation instructions in the README file there and then do some
<ref id=
"ImpTest"
54 name=
"basic testing">. If you are not so fortunate, follow the normal
<ref
55 id=
"WhereFrom" name=
"download instructions"> and then continue with
<ref
56 id=
"ImpInst" name=
"building and installing Samba">.
58 <label id=
"ImpInst"><tag/Building and Installing Samba:/ At the moment
59 there are two kinds of Samba server installs besides the prepackaged
60 binaries mentioned in the previous step. You need to decide if you have a
<url url=
"../UNIX_INSTALL.txt"
61 name=
"Unix or close relative"> or
<url
62 url=
"Samba-Server-FAQ.html#PortInfo" name=
"other supported operating system">.
64 <label id=
"ImpTest"><tag/Basic Testing:/ Try to connect using the
65 supplied smbclient command-line program. You need to know the IP
66 hostname of your server. A service name must be defined in smb.conf, as
67 given in the examples (under many operating systems if there is a
68 [homes] service you can just use a valid username.) Then type
70 smbclient \\hostname\servicename
72 Under most Unixes you will need to put the parameters within quotation
73 marks. If this works, try connecting from one of the SMB clients you
74 were planning to use with Samba.
76 <label id=
"ImpDebug"><tag/Debug sequence:/ If you think you have completed the
77 previous step and things aren't working properly work through
78 <url url=
"../DIAGNOSIS.txt" name=
"the diagnosis recipe.">
80 <label id=
"ImpExp"><tag/Exporting files to SMB clients:/ You should read the manual pages
81 for smb.conf, but here is a
<url url=
"Samba-Server-FAQ.html#Exporting"
82 name=
"quick answer guide.">
84 <label id=
"ImpControl"><tag/Controlling user access:/ the quickest and dirtiest way of sharing
85 resources is to use
<ref id=
"ShareModeSecurity" name=
"share level
86 security."> If you want to spend more time and have a proper username
87 and password database you must read the paragraph on
<ref
88 id=
"DomainModeSecurity" name=
"domain mode security."> If you want
89 encryption (eg you are using Windows NT clients) follow the
<url
90 url=
"Samba-Server-FAQ.html#SMBEncryptionSteps" name=
"SMB encryption
93 <label id=
"ImpBrowse"><tag/Browsing:/ if you are happy to type in
"\\samba-server\sharename"
94 at the client end then do not read any further. Otherwise you need to
95 understand the
<ref id=
"BrowsingDefinitions" name=
"browsing terminology">
96 and read
<url url=
"Samba-Server-FAQ.html#NameBrowsing">.
98 <label id=
"ImpPrint"><tag/Printing:/ See the
<url url=
"Samba-Server-FAQ.html#Printing"
99 name=
"printing quick answer guide.">
103 If you have got everything working to this point, you can expect Samba
104 to be stable and secure: these are its greatest strengths. However Samba
105 has a great deal to offer and to go further you must do some more
106 reading. Speed and security optimisations, printer accounting, network
107 logons, roving profiles, browsing across multiple subnets and so on are
108 all covered either in this document or in those it refers to.
110 <sect1> All Samba Documentation
<p><label id=AllDocs
>
114 <item> Meta-FAQ. This is the mother of all documents, and is the one you
115 are reading now. The latest version is always at
<url
116 url=
"http://samba.org/[.....]"> but there is probably a much
117 nearer
<url url=
"../MIRRORS" name=
"mirror site"> which you should use
120 <item> <url url=
"Samba-Server-FAQ.html"> is the best starting point for
121 information about server-side issues. Includes configuration tips and
122 pointers for Samba on particular operating systems (with
40 to choose
125 <item> <url url=
"Samba-Client-FAQ.html"> is the best starting point for
126 information about client-side issues, includes a list of all clients
127 that are known to work with Samba.
129 <item> <url url=
"samba-man-index.html" name=
"manual pages"> contains
130 descriptions of and links to all the Samba manual pages, in Unix man and
133 <item> <url url=
"samba-txt-index.html"> has descriptions of and links to
134 a large number of text files have been contributed to samba covering
135 many topics. These are gradually being absorbed into the FAQs and HOWTOs
136 but in the meantime you might find helpful answers here.
142 <sect> General Information
<p><label id=
"general_info">
144 All about Samba - what it is, how to get it, related sources of
145 information, how to understand the numbering scheme, pizza
148 <sect1> What is Samba?
<p><label id=
"introduction">
150 Samba is a suite of programs which work together to allow clients to
151 access to a server's filespace and printers via the SMB (Server Message
152 Block) and CIFS (Common Internet Filesystem) protocols. Initially
153 written for Unix, Samba now also runs on Netware, OS/
2, VMS, StratOS and
154 Amigas. Ports to BeOS and other operating systems are underway. Samba
155 gives the capability for these operating systems to behave much like a
156 LAN Server, Windows NT Server or Pathworks machine, only with added
157 functionality and flexibility designed to make life easier for
160 This means that using Samba you can share a server's disks and printers
161 to many sorts of network clients, including Lan Manager, Windows for
162 Workgroups, Windows NT, Linux, OS/
2, and AIX. There is also a generic
163 client program supplied as part of the Samba suite which gives a user on
164 the server an ftp-like interface to access filespace and printers on any
165 other SMB/CIFS servers.
167 SMB has been implemented over many protocols, including XNS, NBT, IPX,
168 NetBEUI and TCP/IP. Samba only uses TCP/IP. This is not likely to change
169 although there have been some requests for NetBEUI support.
171 Many users report that compared to other SMB implementations Samba is
172 more stable, faster, and compatible with more clients. Administrators of
173 some large installations say that Samba is the only SMB server available
174 which will scale to many tens of thousands of users without crashing.
175 The easy way to test these claims is to download it and try it for
178 The suite is supplied with full source code under the
<url
179 url=
"../COPYING" name=
"GNU Public License">. The GPL means that you can
180 use Samba for whatever purpose you wish (including changing the source
181 or selling it for money) but under all circumstances the source code
182 must be made freely available. A copy of the GPL must always be included
183 in any copy of the package.
185 The primary creator of the Samba suite is Andrew Tridgell. Later
186 versions incorporate much effort by many net.helpers. The man pages
187 and this FAQ were originally written by Karl Auer.
189 <sect1> What is the current version of Samba?
<p><label id=
"current_version">
191 At time of writing, the current version was
1.9.17. If you want to be
192 sure check the bottom of the change-log file.
<url url=
"ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/alpha/change-log">
194 For more information see
<ref id=
"version_nums" name=
"What do the version numbers mean?">
196 <sect1> Where can I get it?
<p><label id=
"WhereFrom">
198 The Samba suite is available via anonymous ftp from samba.org and
199 many
<url url=
"../MIRRORS" name=
"mirror"> sites. You will get much
200 faster performance if you use a mirror site. The latest and greatest
201 versions of the suite are in the directory:
205 Development (read
"alpha") versions, which are NOT necessarily stable
206 and which do NOT necessarily have accurate documentation, are available
211 Note that binaries are NOT included in any of the above. Samba is
212 distributed ONLY in source form, though binaries may be available from
213 other sites. Most Linux distributions, for example, do contain Samba
214 binaries for that platform. The VMS, OS/
2, Netware and Amiga and other
215 ports typically have binaries made available.
217 A special case is vendor-provided binary packages. Samba binaries and
218 default configuration files are put into packages for a specific
219 operating system. RedHat Linux and Sun Solaris (Sparc and x86) is
220 already included, and others such as OS/
2 may follow. All packages are
223 /pub/samba/Binary_Packages/
"OS_Vendor"
225 <sect1>What do the version numbers mean?
<p><label id=
"version_nums">
227 It is not recommended that you run a version of Samba with the word
228 "alpha" in its name unless you know what you are doing and are willing
229 to do some debugging. Many, many people just get the latest
230 recommended stable release version and are happy. If you are brave, by
231 all means take the plunge and help with the testing and development -
232 but don't install it on your departmental server. Samba is typically
233 very stable and safe, and this is mostly due to the policy of many
236 How the scheme works:
240 <item>When major changes are made the version number is increased. For
241 example, the transition from
1.9.16 to
1.9.17. However, this version
242 number will not appear immediately and people should continue to use
243 1.9.15 for production systems (see next point.)
245 <item>Just after major changes are made the software is considered
246 unstable, and a series of alpha releases are distributed, for example
247 1.9.16alpha1. These are for testing by those who know what they are
248 doing. The
"alpha" in the filename will hopefully scare off those who
249 are just looking for the latest version to install.
251 <item>When Andrew thinks that the alphas have stabilised to the point
252 where he would recommend new users install it, he renames it to the
253 same version number without the alpha, for example
1.9.17.
255 <item>Inevitably bugs are found in the
"stable" releases and minor patch
256 levels are released which give us the pXX series, for example
1.9.17p2.
260 So the progression goes:
263 1.9.16p10 (production)
264 1.9.16p11 (production)
265 1.9.17alpha1 (test sites only)
267 1.9.17alpha20 (test sites only)
269 1.9.17p1 (production)
272 The above system means that whenever someone looks at the samba ftp
273 site they will be able to grab the highest numbered release without an
274 alpha in the name and be sure of getting the current recommended
277 <sect1> Where can I go for further information?
<p><label id=
"more">
279 There are a number of places to look for more information on Samba,
284 <item>Two mailing lists devoted to discussion of Samba-related matters.
285 See below for subscription information.
287 <item>The newsgroup comp.protocols.smb, which has a great deal of
288 discussion about Samba.
290 <item>The WWW site 'SAMBA Web Pages' at
<url
291 url=
"http://samba.org/samba/"> includes:
294 <item>Links to man pages and documentation, including this FAQ
295 <item>A comprehensive survey of Samba users
296 <item>A searchable hypertext archive of the Samba mailing list
297 <item>Links to Samba source code, binaries, and mirrors of both
298 <item>This FAQ and the rest in its family
303 <sect1>How do I subscribe to the Samba Mailing Lists?
<p><label id=
"mailinglist">
305 Send email to
<htmlurl url=
"mailto:listproc@samba.org"
306 name=
"listproc@samba.org">. Make sure the subject line is blank,
307 and include the following two lines in the body of the message:
310 subscribe samba Firstname Lastname
311 subscribe samba-announce Firstname Lastname
314 Obviously you should substitute YOUR first name for
"Firstname" and
315 YOUR last name for
"Lastname"! Try not to send any signature, it
316 sometimes confuses the list processor.
318 The samba list is a digest list - every eight hours or so it sends a
319 single message containing all the messages that have been received by
320 the list since the last time and sends a copy of this message to all
321 subscribers. There are thousands of people on this list.
323 If you stop being interested in Samba, please send another email to
324 <htmlurl url=
"mailto:listproc@samba.org" name=
"listproc@samba.org">. Make sure the subject line is blank, and
325 include the following two lines in the body of the message:
329 unsubscribe samba-announce
332 The
<bf>From:
</bf> line in your message
<em>MUST
</em> be the same
333 address you used when you subscribed.
335 <sect1> Something's gone wrong - what should I do?
<p><label id=
"wrong">
337 <bf>[#] *** IMPORTANT! *** [#]
</bf>
340 DO NOT post messages on mailing lists or in newsgroups until you have
341 carried out the first three steps given here!
343 <enum> <item> See if there are any likely looking entries in this FAQ!
344 If you have just installed Samba, have you run through the checklist in
345 <url url=
"ftp://samba.org/pub/samba/DIAGNOSIS.txt"
346 name=
"DIAGNOSIS.txt">? It can save you a lot of time and effort.
347 DIAGNOSIS.txt can also be found in the docs directory of the Samba
350 <item> Read the man pages for smbd, nmbd and smb.conf, looking for
351 topics that relate to what you are trying to do.
353 <item> If there is no obvious solution to hand, try to get a look at
354 the log files for smbd and/or nmbd for the period during which you
355 were having problems. You may need to reconfigure the servers to
356 provide more extensive debugging information - usually level
2 or
357 level
3 provide ample debugging info. Inspect these logs closely,
358 looking particularly for the string
"Error:".
360 <item> If you need urgent help and are willing to pay for it see
361 <ref id=
"PaidSupport" name=
"Paid Support">.
365 If you still haven't got anywhere, ask the mailing list or newsgroup. In
366 general nobody minds answering questions provided you have followed the
367 preceding steps. It might be a good idea to scan the archives of the
368 mailing list, which are available through the Samba web site described
369 in the previous section. When you post be sure to include a good
370 description of your environment and your problem.
372 If you successfully solve a problem, please mail the FAQ maintainer a
373 succinct description of the symptom, the problem and the solution, so
374 that an explanation can be incorporated into the next version.
376 <sect1> How do I submit patches or bug reports?
<p>
378 If you make changes to the source code,
<em>please
</em> submit these patches
379 so that everyone else gets the benefit of your work. This is one of
380 the most important aspects to the maintainence of Samba. Send all
381 patches to
<htmlurl url=
"mailto:samba@samba.org" name=
"samba@samba.org">. Do not send patches to Andrew Tridgell or any
382 other individual, they may be lost if you do.
387 If you are sending a patch to fix a problem then please don't just use
388 standard diff format. As an example, samba@samba.org received this patch from
397 How are we supposed to work out what this does and where it goes? These
398 sort of patches only work if we both have identical files in the first
399 place. The Samba sources are constantly changing at the hands of multiple
400 developers, so it doesn't work.
402 Please use either context diffs or (even better) unified diffs. You
403 get these using
"diff -c4" or
"diff -u". If you don't have a diff that
404 can generate these then please send manualy commented patches to I
405 know what is being changed and where. Most patches are applied by hand so
406 the info must be clear.
408 This is a basic guideline that will assist us with assessing your problem
421 Network Layout (description):
423 What else is on machine (services, etc):
429 <item> what you did and what happened
431 <item> relevant parts of a debugging output file with debuglevel higher.
432 If you can't find the relevant parts, please ask before mailing
435 <item> anything else you think is useful to trace down the bug
439 <sect1> What if I have an URGENT message for the developers?
<p>
441 If you have spotted something very serious and believe that it is
442 important to contact the developers quickly send a message to
443 samba-urgent@samba.org. This will be processed more quickly than
444 mail to samba@samba.org. Please think carefully before using this address. An
445 example of its use might be to report a security hole.
447 Examples of things
<em>not
</em> to send to samba-urgent include problems
448 getting Samba to work at all and bugs that cannot potentially cause damage.
450 <sect1> What if I need paid-for support?
<p><label id=PaidSupport
>
452 Samba has a large network of consultants who provide Samba support on a
453 commercial basis. The list is included in the package in
<url
454 url=
"../Support.txt">, and the latest version will always be on the main
455 samba ftp site. Any company in the world can request that the samba team
456 include their details in Support.txt so we can give no guarantee of
459 <sect1> Pizza supply details
<p><label id=
"pizza">
460 Those who have registered in the Samba survey as
"Pizza Factory" will
461 already know this, but the rest may need some help. Andrew doesn't ask
462 for payment, but he does appreciate it when people give him
463 pizza. This calls for a little organisation when the pizza donor is
464 twenty thousand kilometres away, but it has been done.
467 <item> Ring up your local branch of an international pizza chain
468 and see if they honour their vouchers internationally. Pizza Hut do,
469 which is how the entire Canberra Linux Users Group got to eat pizza
470 one night, courtesy of someone in the US.
472 <item>Ring up a local pizza shop in Canberra and quote a credit
473 card number for a certain amount, and tell them that Andrew will be
474 collecting it (don't forget to tell him.) One kind soul from Germany
477 <item>Purchase a pizza voucher from your local pizza shop that has
478 no international affiliations and send it to Andrew. It is completely
479 useless but he can hang it on the wall next to the one he already has
482 <item>Air freight him a pizza with your favourite regional
483 flavours. It will probably get stuck in customs or torn apart by
484 hungry sniffer dogs but it will have been a noble gesture.
488 <sect>About the CIFS and SMB Protocols
<p><label id=
"CifsSmb">
490 <sect1> What is the Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol?
<p>
491 SMB is a filesharing protocol that has had several maintainers and
492 contributors over the years including Xerox,
3Com and most recently
493 Microsoft. Names for this protocol include LAN Manager and Microsoft
494 Networking. Parts of the specification has been made public at several
495 versions including in an X/Open document, as listed at
496 <url url=
"ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/developr/drg/CIFS/">. No specification
497 releases were made between
1992 and
1996, and during that period
498 Microsoft became the SMB implementor with the largest market share.
499 Microsoft developed the specification further for its products but for
500 various reasons connected with developer's workload rather than market
501 strategy did not make the changes public. This culminated with the
502 "Windows NT 0.12" version released with NT
3.5 in
1995 which had significant
503 improvements and bugs. Because Microsoft client systems are so popular,
504 it is fair to say that what Microsoft with Windows affects all suppliers
505 of SMB server products.
507 From
1994 Andrew Tridgell began doing some serious work on his
508 Smbserver (now Samba) product and with some helpers started to
509 implement more and more of these protocols. Samba began to take
510 a significant share of the SMB server market.
512 <sect1> What is the Common Internet Filesystem (CIFS)?
<p>
513 The initial pressure for Microsoft to document their current SMB
514 implementation came from the Samba team, who kept coming across things
515 on the wire that Microsoft either didn't know about or hadn't documented
516 anywhere (even in the sourcecode to Windows NT.) Then Sun Microsystems
517 came out with their WebNFS initiative, designed to replace FTP for file
518 transfers on the Internet. There are many drawbacks to WebNFS (including
519 its scope - it aims to replace HTTP as well!) but the concept was
520 attractive. FTP is not very clever, and why should it be harder to get
521 files from across the world than across the room?
523 Some hasty revisions were made and an Internet Draft for the Common
524 Internet Filesystem (CIFS) was released. Note that CIFS is not an
525 Internet standard and is a very long way from becoming one, BUT the
526 protocol specification is in the public domain and ongoing discussions
527 concerning the spec take place on a public mailing list according to the
528 rules of the Internet Engineering Task Force. For more information and
529 pointers see
<url url=
"http://samba.org/cifs/">
531 The following is taken from
<url url=
"http://www.microsoft.com/intdev/cifs/">
534 CIFS defines a standard remote file system access protocol for use
535 over the Internet, enabling groups of users to work together and
536 share documents across the Internet or within their corporate
537 intranets. CIFS is an open, cross-platform technology based on the
538 native file-sharing protocols built into Microsoft® Windows® and
539 other popular PC operating systems, and supported on dozens of
540 other platforms, including UNIX®. With CIFS, millions of computer
541 users can open and share remote files on the Internet without having
542 to install new software or change the way they work.
"
545 If you consider CIFS as a backwardsly-compatible refinement of SMB that
546 will work reasonably efficiently over the Internet you won't be too far
549 The net effect is that Microsoft is now documenting large parts of their
550 Windows NT fileserver protocols. The security concepts embodied in
551 Windows NT are part of the specification, which is why Samba
552 documentation often talks in terms of Windows NT. However there is no
553 reason why a site shouldn't conduct all its file and printer sharing
554 with CIFS and yet have no Microsoft products at all.
556 <sect1> What is Browsing? <p>
557 The term "Browsing
" causes a lot of confusion. It is the part of the
558 SMB/CIFS protocol which allows for resource discovery. For example, in
559 the Windows NT Explorer it is possible to see a "Network Neighbourhood
"
560 of computers in the same SMB workgroup. Clicking on the name of one of
561 these machines brings up a list of file and printer resources for
562 connecting to. In this way you can cruise the network, seeing what
563 things are available. How this scales to the Internet is a subject for
564 debate. Look at the CIFS list archives to see what the experts think.
566 <sect>Designing A SMB and CIFS Network<p>
568 The big issues for installing any network of LAN or WAN file and print
573 <item>How and where usernames, passwords and other security information
576 <item>What method can be used for locating the resources that users have
579 <item>What protocols the clients can converse with
583 If you buy Netware, Windows NT or just about any other LAN fileserver
584 product you are expected to lock yourself into the product's preferred
585 answers to these questions. This tendancy is restrictive and often very
586 expensive for a site where there is only one kind of client or server,
587 and for sites with a mixture of operating systems it often makes it
588 impossible to share resources between some sets of users.
590 The Samba philosophy is to make things as easy as possible for
591 administators, which means allowing as many combinations of clients,
592 servers, operating systems and protocols as possible.
594 <sect1>Workgroups, Domains, Authentication and Browsing<p>
596 From the point of view of networking implementation, Domains and
597 Workgroups are <em>exactly</em> the same, except for the client logon
598 sequence. Some kind of distributed authentication database is associated
599 with a domain (there are quite a few choices) and this adds so much
600 flexibility that many people think of a domain as a completely different
601 entity to a workgroup. From Samba's point of view a client connecting to
602 a service presents an authentication token, and it if it is valid they
603 have access. Samba does not care what mechanism was used to generate
604 that token in the first place.
606 The SMB client logging on to a domain has an expectation that every other
607 server in the domain should accept the same authentication information.
608 However the network browsing functionality of domains and workgroups is
609 identical and is explained in <url url="../BROWSING.txt
">.
611 There are some implementation differences: Windows 95 can be a member of
612 both a workgroup and a domain, but Windows NT cannot. Windows 95 also
613 has the concept of an "alternative workgroup
". Samba can only be a
614 member of a single workgroup or domain, although this is due to change
615 with a future version when nmbd will be split into two daemons, one for
616 WINS and the other for browsing (<url url="../NetBIOS.txt
"> explains
619 <sect2> Defining the Terms<p><label id="BrowseAndDomainDefs
">
623 <tag/Workgroup/ means a collection of machines that maintain a common
624 browsing database containing information about their shared resources.
625 They do not necessarily have any security information in common (if they
626 do, it gets called a Domain.) The browsing database is dynamic, modified
627 as servers come and go on the network and as resources are added or
628 deleted. The term "browsing
" refers to a user accessing the database via
629 whatever interface the client provides, eg the OS/2 Workplace Shell or
630 Windows 95 Explorer. SMB servers agree between themselves as to which
631 ones will maintain the browsing database. Workgroups can be anywhere on
632 a connected TCP/IP network, including on different subnets or even on
633 the Interet. This is a very tricky part of SMB to implement.
635 <tag/Master Browsers/ are machines which holds the master browsing
636 database for a workgroup or domain. There are two kinds of Master Browser:
640 <item> Domain Master Browser, which holds the master browsing
641 information for an entire domain, which may well cross multiple TCP/IP
644 <item> Local Master Browser, which holds the master browsing database
645 for a particular subnet and communicates with the Domain Master Browser
646 to get information on other subnets.
650 Subnets are differentiated because browsing is based on broadcasts, and
651 broadcasts do not pass through routers. Subnets are not routed: while it
652 is possible to have more than one subnet on a single network segment
653 this is regarded as very bad practice.
655 Master Browsers (both Domain and Local) are elected dynamically
656 according to an algorithm which is supposed to take into account the
657 machine's ability to sustain the browsing load. Samba can be configured
658 to always act as a master browser, ie it always wins elections under all
659 circumstances, even against systems such as a Windows NT Primary Domain
660 Controller which themselves expect to win.
662 There are also Backup Browsers which are promoted to Master Browsers in
663 the event of a Master Browser disappearing from the network.
665 Alternative terms include confusing variations such as "Browse Master
",
666 and "Master Browser
" which we are trying to eliminate from the Samba
669 <tag/Domain Controller/ is a term which comes from the Microsoft and IBM
670 etc implementation of the LAN Manager protocols. It is tied to
671 authentication. There are other ways of doing domain authentication, but
672 the Windows NT method has a large market share. The general issues are
673 discussed in <url url="../DOMAIN.txt
"> and a Windows NT-specific
674 discussion is in <url url="../DOMAIN_CONTROL.txt
">.
678 <sect2>Sharelevel (Workgroup) Security Services<p><label id="ShareModeSecurity
">
680 With the Samba setting "security = SHARE
", all shared resources
681 information about what password is associated with them but only hints
682 as to what usernames might be valid (the hint can be 'all users', in
683 which case any username will work. This is usually a bad idea, but
684 reflects both the initial implementations of SMB in the mid-80s and
685 its reincarnation with Windows for Workgroups in 1992. The idea behind
686 workgroup security was that small independant groups of people could
687 share information on an ad-hoc basis without there being an
688 authentication infrastructure present or requiring them to do more than
689 fill in a dialogue box.
691 <sect2>Authentication Domain Mode Services<p><label id="DomainModeSecurity
">
693 With the Samba settings "security = USER
" or "security = SERVER
"
694 accesses to all resources are checked for username/password pair matches
695 in a more rigorous manner. To the client, this has the effect of
696 emulating a Microsoft Domain. The client is not concerned whether or not
697 Samba looks up a Windows NT SAM or does it in some other way.
699 <sect1>Authentication Schemes<p>
701 In the simple case authentication information is stored on a single
702 server and the user types a password on connecting for the first time.
703 However client operating systems often require a password before they
704 can be used at all, and in addition users usually want access to more
705 than one server. Asking users to remember many different passwords in
706 different contexts just does not work. Some kind of distributed
707 authentication database is needed. It must cope with password changes
708 and provide for assigning groups of users the same level of access
709 permissions. This is why Samba installations often choose to implement a
710 Domain model straight away.
712 Authentication decisions are some of the biggest in designing a network.
713 Are you going to use a scheme native to the client operating system,
714 native to the server operating system, or newly installed on both? A
715 list of options relevant to Samba (ie that make sense in the context of
716 the SMB protocol) follows. Any experiences with other setups would be
717 appreciated. [refer to server FAQ for "passwd chat
" passwd program
718 password server etc etc...]
722 For Windows 95, Windows for Workgroups and most other clients Samba can
723 be a domain controller and share the password database via NIS
724 transparently. Windows NT is different.
725 <url url="http://www.dcs.qmw.ac.uk/~williams
" name="Free NIS NT client
">
729 Kerberos for US users only:
730 <url url="http://www.cygnus.com/product/unifying-security.html
"
731 name="Kerberos overview
">
732 <url url="http://www.cygnus.com/product/kerbnet-download.html
"
733 name="Download Kerberos
">
737 Other NT w/s logon hack via NT
739 <sect2>Default Server Method<p>
741 <sect2>Client-side Database Only<p>
743 <sect1>Post-Authentication: Netlogon, Logon Scripts, Profiles<p>
745 See <url url="../DOMAIN.txt
">
747 <sect>Cross-Protocol File Sharing<p>
749 Samba is an important tool for...
753 File protocol gateways...
755 "Setting up a Linux File Server
" http://vetrec.mit.edu/people/narf/linux.html
757 Two free implementations of Appletalk for Unix are Netatalk, <url
758 url="http://www.umich.edu/~rsug/netatalk/
">, and CAP, <url
759 url="http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/appletalk/atalk.html
">. What Samba offers MS
760 Windows users, these packages offer to Macs. For more info on these
761 packages, Samba, and Linux (and other UNIX-based systems) see <url
762 url="http://www.eats.com/linux_mac_win.html
"> 3.5) Sniffing your nework
765 <sect>Miscellaneous<p><label id="miscellaneous
">
766 <sect1>Is Samba Year 2000 compliant?<p><label id="Year2000Compliant
">
767 The CIFS protocol that Samba implements
768 negotiates times in various formats, all of which
769 are able to cope with dates beyond 2000.