1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
2 <!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//Samba-Team//DTD DocBook V4.2-Based Variant V1.0//EN" "http://www.samba.org/samba/DTD/samba-doc">
3 <chapter id="AdvancedNetworkManagement">
6 <pubdate>June 15 2005</pubdate>
9 <title>Advanced Network Management</title>
12 <indexterm><primary>access control</primary></indexterm>
13 This section documents peripheral issues that are of great importance to network
14 administrators who want to improve network resource access control, to automate the user
15 environment, and to make their lives a little easier.
19 <title>Features and Benefits</title>
22 Often the difference between a working network environment and a well-appreciated one can
23 best be measured by the <emphasis>little things</emphasis> that make everything work more
24 harmoniously. A key part of every network environment solution is the ability to remotely
25 manage MS Windows workstations, remotely access the Samba server, provide customized
26 logon scripts, as well as other housekeeping activities that help to sustain more reliable
31 This chapter presents information on each of these areas. They are placed here, and not in
32 other chapters, for ease of reference.
38 <title>Remote Server Administration</title>
41 <para><quote>How do I get User Manager and Server Manager?</quote></para>
44 <indexterm><primary>User Manager</primary></indexterm>
45 <indexterm><primary>Server Manager</primary></indexterm>
46 <indexterm><primary>Event Viewer</primary></indexterm>
47 Since I do not need to buy an <application>NT4 server</application>, how do I get the User Manager for Domains
48 and the Server Manager?
52 <indexterm><primary>Nexus.exe</primary></indexterm>
53 <indexterm><primary>Windows 9x/Me</primary></indexterm>
54 Microsoft distributes a version of these tools called <filename>Nexus.exe</filename> for installation
55 on <application>Windows 9x/Me</application> systems. The tools set includes:
59 <listitem><para>Server Manager</para></listitem>
60 <listitem><para>User Manager for Domains</para></listitem>
61 <listitem><para>Event Viewer</para></listitem>
65 Download the archived file at the Microsoft <ulink noescape="1"
66 url="ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/NEXUS.EXE">Nexus</ulink> link.
70 <indexterm><primary>SRVTOOLS.EXE</primary></indexterm>
71 <indexterm><primary>User Manager for Domains</primary></indexterm>
72 <indexterm><primary>Server Manager</primary></indexterm>
73 The <application>Windows NT 4.0</application> version of the User Manager for
74 Domains and Server Manager are available from Microsoft
75 <ulink url="ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/SRVTOOLS.EXE">via ftp</ulink>.
81 <title>Remote Desktop Management</title>
84 <indexterm><primary>remote desktop management</primary></indexterm>
85 <indexterm><primary>network environment</primary></indexterm>
86 There are a number of possible remote desktop management solutions that range from free
87 through costly. Do not let that put you off. Sometimes the most costly solution is the
88 most cost effective. In any case, you will need to draw your own conclusions as to which
89 is the best tool in your network environment.
93 <title>Remote Management from NoMachine.Com</title>
96 <indexterm><primary>NoMachine.Com</primary></indexterm>
97 The following information was posted to the Samba mailing list at Apr 3 23:33:50 GMT 2003.
98 It is presented in slightly edited form (with author details omitted for privacy reasons).
99 The entire answer is reproduced below with some comments removed.
103 <indexterm><primary>remote desktop capabilities</primary></indexterm>
104 I have a wonderful Linux/Samba server running as PDC for a network. Now I would like to add remote
105 desktop capabilities so users outside could login to the system and get their desktop up from home or
110 <indexterm><primary>Windows Terminal server</primary></indexterm>
111 <indexterm><primary>BDC</primary></indexterm>
112 <indexterm><primary>PDC</primary></indexterm>
113 <indexterm><primary>remote login</primary></indexterm>
114 Is there a way to accomplish this? Do I need a Windows Terminal server? Do I need to configure it so
115 it is a member of the domain or a BDC or PDC? Are there any hacks for MS Windows XP to enable remote login
116 even if the computer is in a domain?
120 Answer provided: Check out the new offer of <quote>NX</quote> software from
121 <ulink noescape="1" url="http://www.nomachine.com/">NoMachine</ulink>.
125 <indexterm><primary>Remote X protocol</primary></indexterm>
126 <indexterm><primary>VNC/RFB</primary></indexterm>
127 <indexterm><primary>rdesktop/RDP</primary></indexterm>
128 It implements an easy-to-use interface to the Remote X protocol as
129 well as incorporating VNC/RFB and rdesktop/RDP into it, but at a speed
130 performance much better than anything you may have ever seen.
134 <indexterm><primary>modem/ISDN</primary></indexterm>
135 Remote X is not new at all, but what they did achieve successfully is
136 a new way of compression and caching technologies that makes the thing
137 fast enough to run even over slow modem/ISDN connections.
141 <indexterm><primary>KDE konqueror</primary></indexterm>
142 <indexterm><primary>mouse-over</primary></indexterm>
143 <indexterm><primary>rdesktop</primary></indexterm>
144 <indexterm><primary></primary></indexterm>
145 I test drove their (public) Red Hat machine in Italy, over a loaded
146 Internet connection, with enabled thumbnail previews in KDE konqueror,
147 which popped up immediately on <quote>mouse-over</quote>. From inside that (remote X)
148 session I started a rdesktop session on another, a Windows XP machine.
149 To test the performance, I played Pinball. I am proud to announce
150 that my score was 631,750 points at first try.
154 <indexterm><primary>NX</primary></indexterm>
155 <indexterm><primary>TightVNC</primary></indexterm>
156 <indexterm><primary>rdesktop</primary></indexterm>
157 <indexterm><primary>Remote X</primary></indexterm>
158 NX performs better on my local LAN than any of the other <quote>pure</quote>
159 connection methods I use from time to time: TightVNC, rdesktop or
160 Remote X. It is even faster than a direct crosslink connection between
165 <indexterm><primary>Remote X</primary></indexterm>
166 <indexterm><primary>KDE session</primary></indexterm>
167 <indexterm><primary>copy'n'paste</primary></indexterm>
168 I even got sound playing from the Remote X app to my local boxes, and
169 had a working <quote>copy'n'paste</quote> from an NX window (running a KDE session
170 in Italy) to my Mozilla mailing agent. These guys are certainly doing
175 I recommend test driving NX to anybody with a only a passing interest in remote computing
176 the <ulink noescape="1" url="http://www.nomachine.com/testdrive.php">NX</ulink> utility.
180 Just download the free-of-charge client software (available for Red Hat,
181 SuSE, Debian and Windows) and be up and running within 5 minutes (they
182 need to send you your account data, though, because you are assigned
183 a real UNIX account on their testdrive.nomachine.com box).
187 They plan to get to the point were you can have NX application servers
188 running as a cluster of nodes, and users simply start an NX session locally
189 and can select applications to run transparently (apps may even run on
190 another NX node, but pretend to be on the same as used for initial login,
191 because it displays in the same window. You also can run it
192 full-screen, and after a short time you forget that it is a remote session
197 <indexterm><primary>GPL</primary></indexterm>
198 Now the best thing for last: All the core compression and caching
199 technologies are released under the GPL and available as source code
200 to anybody who wants to build on it! These technologies are working,
201 albeit started from the command line only (and very inconvenient to
202 use in order to get a fully running remote X session up and running).
206 To answer your questions:
211 You do not need to install a terminal server; XP has RDP support built in.
215 NX is much cheaper than Citrix &smbmdash; and comparable in performance, probably faster.
219 You do not need to hack XP &smbmdash; it just works.
223 You log into the XP box from remote transparently (and I think there is no
224 need to change anything to get a connection, even if authentication is against a domain).
228 The NX core technologies are all Open Source and released under the GPL &smbmdash;
229 you can now use a (very inconvenient) command line at no cost,
230 but you can buy a comfortable (proprietary) NX GUI front end for money.
234 <indexterm><primary>OSS/Free Software</primary></indexterm>
235 <indexterm><primary>LTSP</primary></indexterm>
236 <indexterm><primary>KDE</primary></indexterm>
237 <indexterm><primary>GNOME</primary></indexterm>
238 <indexterm><primary>NoMachine</primary></indexterm>
239 NoMachine is encouraging and offering help to OSS/Free Software implementations
240 for such a front-end too, even if it means competition to them (they have written
241 to this effect even to the LTSP, KDE, and GNOME developer mailing lists).
247 <title>Remote Management with ThinLinc</title>
249 Another alternative for remote access is <emphasis>ThinLinc</emphasis> from Cendio.
253 <indexterm><primary>ThinLinc</primary></indexterm>
254 <indexterm><primary>terminal server</primary></indexterm>
255 <indexterm><primary>Linux</primary></indexterm>
256 <indexterm><primary>Solaris</primary></indexterm>
257 <indexterm><primary>TightVNC</primary></indexterm>
258 <indexterm><primary>SSH</primary></indexterm>
259 <indexterm><primary>NFS</primary></indexterm>
260 <indexterm><primary>PulseAudio</primary></indexterm>
261 ThinLinc is a terminal server solution that is available for Linux and Solaris based on standard
262 protocols such as SSH, TightVNC, NFS and PulseAudio.
266 <indexterm><primary>LAN</primary></indexterm>
267 <indexterm><primary>thin client</primary></indexterm>
268 ThinLinc an be used both in the LAN environment to implement a Thin Client strategy for an organization, and as
269 secure remote access solution for people working from remote locations, even over smallband connections.
270 ThinLinc is free to use for a single concurrent user.
274 <indexterm><primary>Citrix</primary></indexterm>
275 <indexterm><primary>Windows Terminal Server</primary></indexterm>
276 <indexterm><primary>Java</primary></indexterm>
277 The product can also be used as a frontend to access Windows Terminal Server or Citrix farms, or even Windows
278 XP machines, securing the connection via the ssh protocol. The client is available both for Linux (supporting
279 all Linux distributions as well as numerous thin terminals) and for Windows. A Java-based Web client is also
284 ThinLinc may be evaluated by connecting to Cendio's demo system, see
285 <ulink noescape="1" url="http://www.cendio.com">Cendio's</ulink> web site
286 <ulink noescape="1" url="http://www.cendio.com/testdrive">testdrive</ulink> center.
290 Cendio is a major contributor to several open source projects including
291 <ulink noescape="1" url="http://www.tightvnc.com">TightVNC</ulink>,
292 <ulink noescape="1" url="http://pulseaudio.org">PulseAudio</ulink> , unfsd,
293 <ulink noescape="1" url="http://www.python.org">Python</ulink> and
294 <ulink noescape="1" url="http://www.rdesktop.org">rdesktop</ulink>.
301 <title>Network Logon Script Magic</title>
304 There are several opportunities for creating a custom network startup configuration environment.
308 <listitem><para>No Logon Script.</para></listitem>
309 <listitem><para>Simple universal Logon Script that applies to all users.</para></listitem>
310 <listitem><para>Use of a conditional Logon Script that applies per-user or per-group attributes.</para></listitem>
311 <listitem><para>Use of Samba's preexec and postexec functions on access to the NETLOGON share to create
312 a custom logon script and then execute it.</para></listitem>
313 <listitem><para>User of a tool such as KixStart.</para></listitem>
317 The Samba source code tree includes two logon script generation/execution tools.
318 See <filename>examples</filename> directory <filename>genlogon</filename> and
319 <filename>ntlogon</filename> subdirectories.
323 The following listings are from the genlogon directory.
328 <indexterm><primary>genlogon.pl</primary></indexterm>
329 This is the <filename>genlogon.pl</filename> file:
336 # Perl script to generate user logon scripts on the fly, when users
337 # connect from a Windows client. This script should be called from
338 # smb.conf with the %U, %G and %L parameters. I.e:
340 # root preexec = genlogon.pl %U %G %L
342 # The script generated will perform
345 # 1. Log the user connection to /var/log/samba/netlogon.log
346 # 2. Set the PC's time to the Linux server time (which is maintained
347 # daily to the National Institute of Standards Atomic clock on the
349 # 3. Connect the user's home drive to H: (H for Home).
350 # 4. Connect common drives that everyone uses.
351 # 5. Connect group-specific drives for certain user groups.
352 # 6. Connect user-specific drives for certain users.
353 # 7. Connect network printers.
355 # Log client connection
356 #($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst) = localtime(time);
357 ($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst) = localtime(time);
358 open LOG, ">>/var/log/samba/netlogon.log";
359 print LOG "$mon/$mday/$year $hour:$min:$sec";
360 print LOG " - User $ARGV[0] logged into $ARGV[1]\n";
363 # Start generating logon script
364 open LOGON, ">/shared/netlogon/$ARGV[0].bat";
365 print LOGON "\@ECHO OFF\r\n";
367 # Connect shares just use by Software Development group
368 if ($ARGV[1] eq "SOFTDEV" || $ARGV[0] eq "softdev")
370 print LOGON "NET USE M: \\\\$ARGV[2]\\SOURCE\r\n";
373 # Connect shares just use by Technical Support staff
374 if ($ARGV[1] eq "SUPPORT" || $ARGV[0] eq "support")
376 print LOGON "NET USE S: \\\\$ARGV[2]\\SUPPORT\r\n";
379 # Connect shares just used by Administration staff
380 If ($ARGV[1] eq "ADMIN" || $ARGV[0] eq "admin")
382 print LOGON "NET USE L: \\\\$ARGV[2]\\ADMIN\r\n";
383 print LOGON "NET USE K: \\\\$ARGV[2]\\MKTING\r\n";
386 # Now connect Printers. We handle just two or three users a little
387 # differently, because they are the exceptions that have desktop
388 # printers on LPT1: - all other user's go to the LaserJet on the
390 if ($ARGV[0] eq 'jim'
391 || $ARGV[0] eq 'yvonne')
393 print LOGON "NET USE LPT2: \\\\$ARGV[2]\\LJET3\r\n";
394 print LOGON "NET USE LPT3: \\\\$ARGV[2]\\FAXQ\r\n";
398 print LOGON "NET USE LPT1: \\\\$ARGV[2]\\LJET3\r\n";
399 print LOGON "NET USE LPT3: \\\\$ARGV[2]\\FAXQ\r\n";
402 # All done! Close the output file.
408 Those wishing to use a more elaborate or capable logon processing system should check out these sites:
412 <listitem><para><ulink noescape="1" url="http://www.craigelachie.org/rhacer/ntlogon">http://www.craigelachie.org/rhacer/ntlogon</ulink></para></listitem>
413 <listitem><para><ulink noescape="1" url="http://www.kixtart.org">http://www.kixtart.org</ulink></para></listitem>
417 <title>Adding Printers without User Intervention</title>
421 <indexterm><primary>rundll32</primary></indexterm>
422 Printers may be added automatically during logon script processing through the use of:
424 &dosprompt;<userinput>rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /?</userinput>
427 See the documentation in the <ulink url="http://support.microsoft.com/default.asp?scid=kb;en-us;189105">Microsoft Knowledge Base article 189105</ulink>.
432 <title>Limiting Logon Connections</title>
435 Sometimes it is necessary to limit the number of concurrent connections to a
436 Samba shared resource. For example, a site may wish to permit only one network
441 The Samba <parameter>preexec script</parameter> parameter can be used to permit only one
442 connection per user. Though this method is not foolproof and may have side effects,
443 the following contributed method may inspire someone to provide a better solution.
447 This is not a perfect solution because Windows clients can drop idle connections
448 with an auto-reconnect capability that could result in the appearance that a share
449 is no longer in use, while actually it is. Even so, it demonstrates the principle
450 of use of the <parameter>preexec script</parameter> parameter.
454 The following share configuration demonstrates use of the script shown in <link linkend="Tpees"/>.
458 preexec script = /sbin/PermitSingleLogon.sh
465 <title>Script to Enforce Single Resource Logon</title>
470 RESULT=$(smbstatus -S -u $1 2> /dev/null | awk 'NF \
471 > 6 {print $1}' | sort | uniq -d)
473 if [ "X${RESULT}" == X ]; then