Is samba the "right" way? LOE?

[Coderifous]

At work I am tasked with setting up a "Unix Server that Windows Clients use". The requirements couldn't be more vague, but I've dug a little deeper and learned that they want authentication to be handled by the Unix server, they want shared resources on the unix server, and they also want to have certain COTS programs to be available to certain groups of users.

All this, according to my limited knowledge, pointed to samba.

Can I please get some advice as to whether samba is the right solution, and some notion of how long it typically takes to configure this kind of setup?

I have a Mandrake linux laptop I'm going to use as my test "server", and a Windows XP box I'm going to use as my test "client".

The production server will eventually be a Sun V240 running Solaris ... 10? and then a bunch of Windows XP laptops connecting to it randomly.

I'm interested in any experienced advice, including "no you idiot samba isn't for that" and especially "yes, using samba it should take you 10 minutes to install and configure".

Any advice as to good config tools (swat?) will also earn my everlasting appreciation.

Thanks in advance.

 

[bfitzmai]

There are several applications that can do what you want... ViewNow by Netmanage, Exceed by Hummingbird just to name a couple. Both applications allow the PC user to map NFS partitions on their PC. As does Samba. The great thing about Samba is it is FREE!!!

 

[Coderifous]

I'm definitely going to use Samba. I've got it installed on my test unix server. Any idea how long something like this generally takes to setup? I'm on a time-budget, and want to make sure I notify ahead of time if this is a typically time consuming process.

 

[cndcadams]

This is a procedure that I just used a week ago or so. Set this up on my E4500 running solaris 8, you will need to take your OS into consideration. This is just a basic setup, you may need to tweek a couple things here and their. Also I did not set up authentication on this.
This worked great for me. I mount an NFS share as a network drive to my Pc works great. Basic setup should not take that much time.

1) Gather all packages needed for installation of Samba.
a. gcc-3.2.3-sol8-sparc-local.gz
b. libiconv-1.8-sol8-sparc-local.gz
c. ncurses-5.4-sol8-sparc-local.gz
d. popt-1.7-sol8-sparc-local.gz
e. readline-5.0-sol8-sparc-local.gz
f. samba-3.0.10-sol8-sparc-local.gz

2) Use the command gunzip to unzip the packages.
a. Example #gunzip gcc.3.2.3-sol8-sparc-local.gz

3) Use command pkgadd –d to add packages.
a. Example #pkgadd –d gcc.3.2.3-sol8-sparc-local

4) Create the smb configuration file
a. I set up something like this to begin with;
b. # cd /usr/local/samba/lib
c. # vi smb.conf

# Global parameters
netbios name = (your server name)
workgroup = (whatever you want)
security = share
hosts allow = 192.168.1., localhost, e4500,
name resolve order = hosts
[root]
path = /
comment = Solaris Root
guest ok = Yes
read only = Yes
[export]
path = /export
comment = Solaris share
guest ok = Yes
read only = No

5) Modify your system search path depending on you shell;
a. Edit your .profile or .login or .cshrc to have similar PATH and MANPATH entries.
b. vi .profile
PATH=/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/ucb:/etc:/usr/local/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:/usr/local/samba/bin:.
export PATH
MANPATH=/usr/sbin:/usr/man:/usr/local/man:/usr/local/samba/man:.
export MANPATH

6) Check to see if the configuration is alright
a. #cd /usr/local/samba/bin
b. #testparm <return>
c. you should get output similar to the following;

Load smb config files from /usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf
Processing section “[root]”
Processing section “[export]”
Loaded services file OK.
Press enter to see a dump of your service definitions

7) Arrange for inetd to start the Samba daemons:
Most of Samba's services are provided by means of three servers or daemons: smbd is the Samba server, nmbd is the NetBIOS name server and swat is a Web-based Samba configuration tool. These deal with incoming connections on ports 137, 139 and 901 respectively and we need to tell the Solaris internet daemon, inetd, to start the appropriate Samba daemons whenever an incoming request is received on these ports.
a. Edit /etc/services and make the following changes if necessary. The lines should already be in there
Immediately after the line which reads:
sunrpc 111/tcp rpcbind
insert the two lines:
netbios-ns 137/udp # Samba nmbd
netbios-ssn 139/tcp # Samba smbd
and, after the line which reads:
ldaps 636/udp # LDAP protocol over TLS/SSL (was sldap)
insert the line:
swat 901/tcp # Samba swat
b. Now edit /etc/inetd.conf and add the following three lines to the end of the file:
netbios-ssn stream tcp nowait root /usr/local/samba/sbin/smbd smbd
netbios-ns dgram udp wait root /usr/local/samba/sbin/nmbd nmbd
swat stream tcp nowait.400 root /usr/local/samba/sbin/swat swat

Tell the inetd daemon to re-read its configuration file:
# pkill -HUP inetd
and Samba is installed and working.
8) You must edit /etc/dfs/dfstab and add your entries for your share, it should look similar to this
a. Ex. #vi /etc/dfs/dfstab
share –F nfs –o rw /export

9) You must start the nfs server daemon;
a. /etc/init.d/nfs.server start

10) Try to listen for your shares;
a. smbclient –L (servername)
b. This should give you a list of you shares

11) Try connecting with unix
a. Smbclient //servername/aservice
b. Aservice is = to your share so ex. is #smbclient //e4500/export

12) Try connecting from your windows client;
a. Net use (driveletter): \\servername\service
b. Ex. c:\WINDOWS\>net use m: \\e4500\export <enter>
c. It will tell you if it completed.

13) Try starting swat:
a. Open browser put

http://localhost:901

b. Or

http://ipaddressserver:901

helpful sites

http://us3.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/

http://groups.northwestern.edu/exec/htmldocs/Samba-HOWTO-Collection.html#AEN144

Thanks

Chris Adams