Samba version 1.9.17

What is the Samba?

• Samba is a suite of programs which work together to allow clients to access to a server's filespace and printers via the SMB (Server Message Block) and CIFS (Common Internet Filesystem) protocols.

WHAT IS SMB?

• The very short answer is that it is the protocol by which a lot of PC-related machines share files and printers and other informatiuon such as lists of available files and printers. Operating systems that support this natively include Windows NT, OS/2, and Linux and add on packages that achieve the same thing are available for DOS, Windows, VMS, Unix of all kinds, MVS, and more

WHY DO PEOPLE WANT TO USE SMB ?

• Many people want to integrate their Microsoft or IBM style desktop machines with their Unix or VMS (etc) servers.

• Others want to integrate their Microsoft (etc) servers with Unix or VMS (etc) servers. This is a different problem to integrating desktop clients.

• Others want to replace protocols like NFS, DecNet and Novell NCP, especially when used with PCs.

Samba

• Initially written for Unix, Samba now also runs on Netware, OS/2, VMS, StratOS and Amigas. Samba gives the capability for these operating systems to behave much like a LAN Server, Windows NT Server or Pathworks machine, only with added functionality and flexibility designed to make life easier for administrators.

Samba

• With Samba you can share a server's disks and printers to many sorts of network clients, including Lan Manager, Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT, Linux, OS/2, and AIX. There is also a generic client program supplied as part of the Samba suite which gives a user on the server an ftp-like interface to access filespace and printers on any other SMB/CIFS servers.

Samba

• SMB has been implemented over many protocols, including XNS, NBT, IPX, NetBEUI and TCP/IP. Samba only uses TCP/IP.

• Many users report that compared to other SMB implementations Samba is more stable, faster, and compatible with more clients

WHAT CAN SAMBA DO?

• For many networks this can be simply summarised by "Samba provides a complete replacement for Windows NT, Warp, NFS or Netware servers."

What Samba includes

• a SMB server, to provide Windows NT and LAN Manager-style file and print services to SMB clients such as Windows 95, Warp Server, smbfs and others

• a NetBIOS (rfc1001/1002) nameserver, which amongst other things gives browsing support. Samba can be the master browser on your LAN if you wish

What samba includes• a ftp-like SMB client so you can access PC

resources (disks and printers) from unix, Netware and other operating systems

• a tar extension to the client for backing up PCs

• limited command-line tool that supports some of the NT administrative functionality, which can be used on Samba, NT workstation and NT server.

Whats are the Components of Samba?

• Smbd• smbclient• smbstatus• make_smbcodepage

• nmbd• testparm• testprns• nmblookup• smbpasswd

The Samba suite is made up of several components.

smbd

• smbd is the server daemon that provides filesharing and printing services to Windows clients. The server provides filespace and printer services to clients using the SMB (or CIFS) protocol. This is compatible with the LanManager protocol, and can service LanManager clients. These include MSCLIENT 3.0 for DOS, Windows for Workgroups, Windows 95, Windows NT, OS/2, DAVE for Macintosh, and smbfs for Linux.

nmbd

• nmbd is a server that understands and can reply to NetBIOS over IP name service requests, like those produced by SMBD/CIFS clients such as Windows 95/98, Windows NT and LanManager clients. It also participates in the browsing protocols which make up the Windows “Network Neighborhood” view.

nmbd

• nmbd can also be used as a WINS (Windows Internet Name Server) server. What this basically means is that it will act as a WINS database server, creating a database from name registration requests that it receives and replying to queries from clients for these names. In addition, nmbd can act as a WINS proxy, relaying broadcast queries from clients that do not understand how to talk the WINS protocol to a WIN server.

smbclient

• smbclient is a client that can ‘talk’ to an SMB/CIFS server. It offers an interface similar to that of the ftp program (see ftp (1)). Operations include things like getting files from the server to the local machine, putting files from the local machine to the server, retrieving directory information from the server and so on.

testparm

• testparm is a very simple test program to check an smbd configuration file for internal correctness. If this program reports no problems, you can use the configuration file with confidence that smbd will successfully load the configuration file. If testparm finds an error in the smb.conf file it returns an exit code of 1 to the calling program, else it returns an exit code of 0. This allows shell scripts to test the output from testparm

testprns

• testprns is a very simple test program to determine whether a given printer name is valid for use in a service to be provided by smbd

smbstatus

• smbstatus is a very simple program to list the current Samba connections

nmblookup

• nmblookup is used to query NetBIOS names and map them to IP addresses in a network using NetBIOS over TCP/IP queries. The options allow the name queries to be directed at a particular IP broadcast area or to a particular machine. All queries are done over UDP

make_smbcodepage

• make_smbcodepage compiles or de-compiles codepage files for use with the internationalization features of Samba 2.0

smbpasswd

• The smbpasswd utility allows you to change SMB encrypted passwords on Samba and Windows NT™ servers.

Where can I get it? • The Samba suite is available via anonymous ftp from

samba.org and many mirror sites. The latest and greatest versions of the suite are in the directory: /pub/samba/

• Development (read "alpha") versions, which are NOT necessarily stable and which do NOT necessarily have accurate documentation, are available in the directory: /pub/samba/alpha

• Note that binaries are NOT included in any of the above. Samba is distributed ONLY in source form.