Stratus Technologies : Products : Operating Systems : OpenVOS : Samba for VOS

SAMBA is a suite of open-source programs that provide file and print server functionality. SAMBA contains a server program and several utility programs that taken together, enable a POSIX-compliant operating system to be a file or print server to a Microsoft^® Windows^® client or a UNIX^®/Linux client.

Key features and benefits
Product description

Samba for VOS: Key features and benefits

Samba for VOS: Key Features and Benefits
Features	Benefits
Enables VOS to act as a file server to a network of Windows^® clients running Windows 9x, NT 4.x, 2000 and XP. The file directories on VOS appear to the Windows user like any other Windows file server. After mapping the appropriate drive and/or directory in Windows, the user can manipulate VOS and other files from Windows Explorer, provided they have appropriate permissions configured in SAMBA.	Supplies a fault-tolerant file server for Windows desktops and Windows programs. Users can more efficiently and easily access files on VOS directly from Windows and Windows programs. Enables coexistence between Windows and VOS so that customers can have control of their choices during a period of adoption of the Stratus^® ftServer^® W Series system.
Allows users read/write access to VOS stream files stored in text format. Users are able to open, edit and save text files from their Windows environment, using Windows-based desktop tools, such as word processors, spreadsheets, databases and e-mail programs. As long as the VOS files are stored and maintained as text files, and the desktop programs understand the UNIX-style EOL (0x0A), they can be accessed and handled in the Windows environment.	Users can manipulate VOS text files using the familiar programs on their PCs.
Allows users read-only access to VOS sequential files stored in text format. This means that they can only read VOS sequential files, regardless of specific user security restrictions. Once read, however, the files can be stored on a local Windows system and manipulated there.	Users can retrieve, view and use VOS sequential files on their desktop PCs.
Allows users to share access to files more easily. First, a user can share his or her files with specific other users by placing them in public directories. Second, VOS text files can be included as attachments in Windows mail programs, or included in documents generated by Windows programs such as Microsoft Word.	Users gain higher personal productivity and easier communication of information with others.
Provides mapping between Windows domain user names and passwords and VOS user names and passwords. This allows access to files stored on the VOS system without the need to enter VOS user names and passwords. Logging into the authentication domain controlling the Windows network, a user can access VOS files, assuming, of course, that the appropriate permissions exist on VOS.	Users can access VOS files easily and quickly, via an interface that is familiar to them, without having to log in to both systems.

Product description:

SAMBA is a suite of open source programs that provide file and print server functionality. SAMBA contains a server program and several utility programs that taken together, enable a POSIX-compliant operating system to be a file or print server to a Microsoft^® Windows^® client or a UNIX^®/Linux client.

Note: As implemented on VOS, SAMBA provides file services, but not print services. In practice, this means that SAMBA on VOS provides access to VOS disks from Microsoft Windows and UNIX/Linux clients.

A large percentage of VOS customers also have an interest in Windows 2000/2003 and the Stratus^® ftServer^® W Series family. For this reason, SAMBA should prove to be an important coexistence product for these customers.

Samba for VOS is a port of SAMBA version 2.0.7.

SAMBA uses SMB (Server Message Block), an X/Open protocol for sharing files and lists of files. CIFS (Common Internet File System) is another, newer term for the SMB specification. The terms 'SMB' and 'CIFS' are interchangeable. SMB is also sometimes referred to as the NetBIOS or LANManager protocol.

In the configuration which follows, the client workstations will see essentially no difference between the files that are available via the Windows client and the VOS-based server.

SAMBA Server in a Windows Environment:

SAMBA configuration

The components of the SAMBA suite as implemented on VOS are:

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smbd - the server daemon that provides filesharing services to Windows clients.

The server provides filespace to clients using the SMB (or CIFS) protocol. This is compatible with the LanManager protocol, and can service LanManager clients.

A session is created whenever a client requests one. Each client gets a copy of the server for each session. This copy then services all connections made by the client during that session. When all connections from its client are closed, the copy of the server for that client terminates.

The configuration file, and any files that it includes, are automatically reloaded every minute, if they change. Some changes to the Samba configuration require a stop and start of the smbd and nmbd Samba daemons. This may be disruptive to users who are actively using the serivice.

There are significant security implications to running this server, and the smb.conf documentation should be regarded as mandatory reading before installing SAMBA.
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nmbd - a server that understands and can reply to NetBIOS over IP name service requests, like those produced by SMB/CIFS clients such as Microsoft Windows, LanManager and UNIX/Linux clients. It also participates in the browsing protocols which make up the Windows "Network Neighborhood" view.

SMB/CIFS clients, when they start up, may wish to locate an SMB/CIFS server. That is, they wish to know what IP number a specified host is using.

Among other services, nmbd will listen for such requests, and if its own NetBIOS name is specified it will respond with the IP number of the host it is running on. Its "own NetBIOS name" is by default the primary DNS name of the host it is running on, but this can be overridden Thus nmbd will reply to broadcast queries for its own name(s). Additional names for nmbd to respond on can be set via parameters in the smb.conf configuration file.

Although nmbd can also be used as a WINS (Windows Internet Name Server) server or proxy server in other environments, these features are not currently supported on VOS.
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smb.conf - the SAMBA configuration file

smb.conf contains runtime configuration information for the SAMBA programs.

The file consists of sections and parameters. Each section in the configuration file, except for the global section, describes a shared resource known as a "share". The section name is the name of the shared resource and the parameters within the section define the share's attributes.

On VOS, a share is a directory service to which access is being given, plus a description of the access rights which are granted to the user of the service.

Sections may be designated guest services, in which case no password is required to access them. A specified guest account is used to define access privileges in this case.

Sections other than guest services will require a password to access them. Note that the access rights granted by the server are masked by the access rights granted to the specified or guest user by the host system. The SAMBA server does not grant more access than the host system grants.

Note: Many of the configuration options in a generic smb.conf file are inapplicable in a VOS environment. Customers should be advised not to experiment with them because they can cause SAMBA to operate incorrectly if misused. Users should implement SAMBA on VOS only by using or modifying the sample .conf files that are delivered with Samba for VOS. These should suffice in most situations.
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testparms, a program to test the SAMBA configuration file for correctness

testparms is a simple test program to check an smb.conf configuration file for internal correctness. If this program reports no problems, the configuration file can be used with confidence that smbd will successfully load the configuration file.

Note that this is not a guarantee that the services specified in the configuration file will be available or will operate as expected.

If the optional host name and host IP address are specified on the command line, this test program will run through the service entries reporting whether the specified host has access to each service.

If testparms finds an error in the smbd.conf file it returns an exit code of 1 to the calling program; otherwise it returns an exit code of 0. This allows shell scripts to test the output from testparms.

For more information, please consult the appropriate chapter in the OpenVOS Technologies and Complementary Hardware Manual