[Samba] Samba 4.0 released - The First Free Software Active Directory Compatible Server is now available !

Charles Tryon charles.tryon at gmail.com
Wed Dec 12 07:07:17 MST 2012


Amazing work, and thanks to everyone on the team, from core developers to
testers, to people on the ground pushing through implementations and
reporting back bugs and patches.  This is an amazing day that a LOT of
people have been waiting for!


On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 12:32 PM, Jeremy Allison <jra at samba.org> wrote:

>                       Samba Team Releases Samba 4.0
>                       =============================
>
> December 11th 2012.
>
> The Samba Team is proud to announce the release of Samba 4.0, a major
> new release of the award-winning Free Software file, print and
> authentication server suite for Microsoft Windows clients.
>
>
> The First Free Software Active Directory Compatible Server
> ==========================================================
>
> As the culmination of ten years' work, the Samba Team has created the
> first compatible Free Software implementation of Microsoft’s Active
> Directory protocols. Familiar to all network administrators, the
> Active Directory protocols are the heart of modern directory service
> implementations.
>
> Samba 4.0 comprises an LDAP directory server, Heimdal Kerberos
> authentication server, a secure Dynamic DNS server, and
> implementations of all necessary remote procedure calls for Active
> Directory. Samba 4.0 provides everything needed to serve as an Active
> Directory Compatible Domain Controller for all versions of Microsoft
> Windows clients currently supported by Microsoft, including the
> recently released Windows 8.
>
> The Samba 4.0 Active Directory Compatible Server provides support for
> features such as Group Policy, Roaming Profiles, Windows
> Administration tools and integrates with Microsoft Exchange and Free
> Software compatible services such as OpenChange.
>
> The Samba 4.0 Active Directory Compatible Server can also be joined to
> an existing Microsoft Active Directory domain, and Microsoft Active
> Directory Domain Controllers can be joined to a Samba 4.0 Active
> Directory Compatible Server, showing true peer-to-peer
> interoperability of the Microsoft and Samba implementations of the
> Active Directory protocols.
>
> Acknowledging the value of the interoperability of the Samba 4.0
> Active Directory Compatible Server, Steve van Maanen, the co-founder
> of Starsphere LLC, an IT services company in Tokyo, said:
>
> "Thanks to Samba4, I have two fully replicating Active Directory
> Domain controllers that boot in under 10 seconds ! It is nice to have
> alternatives, and Samba4 is a great one."
>
> Upgrade scripts are also provided for organizations using the previous
> Microsoft Windows NT Domain Controller functionality in Samba 3.x, to
> allow them to migrate smoothly to Samba 4.0.
>
> Suitable for low-power and embedded applications, yet scaling to large
> clusters, Samba 4.0 is efficient and flexible. Its Python programming
> interface and administration toolkit help in enterprise deployments.
>
>
> Created Using Microsoft Documentation
> =====================================
>
> The Samba 4.0 Active Directory Compatible Server was created with help
> from the official protocol documentation published by Microsoft
> Corporation and the Samba Team would like acknowledge the
> documentation help and interoperability testing by Microsoft engineers
> that made our implementation interoperable.
>
> "Active Directory is a mainstay of enterprise IT environments, and
> Microsoft is committed to support for interoperability across
> platforms," said Thomas Pfenning, director of development, Windows
> Server. "We are pleased that the documentation and interoperability
> labs that Microsoft has provided have been key in the development of
> the Samba 4.0 Active Directory functionality."
>
>
> Introducing SMB2.1 File Serving Support
> =======================================
>
> Samba 4.0 includes the first Free Software implementation of
> Microsoft's SMB2.1 file serving protocol. Building on the success of
> the SMB2.0 server in Samba 3.6, the Samba 4.0 file server component is
> an evolution of the trusted Samba file serving code that is used
> worldwide by vendors of file servers, such as IBM's clustered Scale
> Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS), and many other commercial
> products.
>
> In addition, the Samba 4.0 file server contains an initial
> implementation of SMB3, which will be further developed in later Samba
> 4 releases into a fully-featured SMB3 clustered file server
> implementation.
>
> Future developments of our SMB3 server and client suite, in
> combination with our expanding number of SMB3 tests, will keep driving
> the performance improvements and improved compatibility with Microsoft
> Windows that Samba users have come to expect from our software.
>
>
> Integrated Clustered File Server Support
> ========================================
>
> Building on our success as the first commercial implementation of a
> clustered SMB/CIFS server, Samba 4.0 provides industry-leading
> scalability and performance as a clustered SMB2/SMB/CIFS file server,
> using our "clustered tdb" (ctdb) technology - also available as Free
> Software.
>
> Clustered Samba provides a "Single Server" view of clustered file
> storage, allowing clients to connect to the least loaded server and
> still providing a completely coherent view of the underlying clustered
> file system.
>
> Written and tested to be compatible with most clustered file systems,
> both Free Software and proprietary, Samba 4.0 with ctdb provides a
> scalable clustered file server solution with full Windows file sharing
> semantics.
>
> Samba and ctdb have been shipping in production file serving products
> for many years, to some of the most demanding customers in the world.
>
>
> Easy Integration into Existing Directory Services
> =================================================
>
> Samba 4.0 ships with an improved winbind, which allows Samba 4.0 file
> servers to easily integrate into existing Active Directory services as
> member servers. Both Microsoft Active Directory and Samba 4.0 Active
> Directory Compatible servers are supported.
>
>
> Stability, Security and Performance
> ===================================
>
> Samba 4.0 has been tested using our widely accepted smbtorture test
> suite, created by the Samba Team to test Samba itself and now used by
> most of the companies writing SMB3/SMB2/SMB/CIFS file server software
> to test their own products. We also regularly test interoperability
> with other major vendors at plug-fest events to make sure Samba 4.0
> deployments work correctly with existing customer equipment.
>
> In addition, Samba is one of eleven open source projects that leading
> software integrity vendor Coverity has certified as "secure" and has
> reached Coverity "Integrity Rung 2" certification.
>
> The Samba Team provides immediate responses to any security
> vulnerabilities, and provides fixes to all vendors using the Samba
> code in coordination with industry standard security reporting
> agencies.
>
>
> A Modular Toolbox for OEM Vendor Needs
> ======================================
>
> As Free Software, Samba 4.0 is the ideal choice for Original Equipment
> Manufacturers (OEMs) to use for their file, print and authentication
> products. It is easily integrated into a whole host of different
> tasks, and can be customized at will by the vendor to satisfy their
> needs.
>
> In addition, Samba 4.0 includes a modular "Virtual File System" (VFS)
> interface that vendors can use to quickly and efficiently customize
> Samba to take advantage of any specific features of their underlying
> technology without having to modify any of the core Samba code. From
> advanced file systems to network traffic analysis, the Samba VFS layer
> allows external code to be easily integrated with Samba. Example
> modules are provided as source code for vendors to customize as they
> wish.
>
> Samba is the leading choice for Microsoft Windows connectivity
> ==================================================================
>
> Samba is the leading technology choice for Windows file serving on
> Linux and UNIX platforms and in embedded Network Attached Storage
> (NAS) solutions. Samba is used by vendors selling NAS solutions
> ranging from high end clustered business-critical systems, to low end
> consumer devices, and everything in between. Samba is fully IPv6
> enabled and meets all mandates for modern network interoperability.
>
> Commercial support is available for Samba from many different vendors.
>
> Getting Samba 4.0
> =================
>
> Samba 4.0 source code is available now from the Samba Web site.
>
> http://www.samba.org
>
> About Active Directory
> ======================
>
> Microsoft Windows and Active Directory are trademarks of Microsoft
> Corporation.
>
> About the Samba Team
> ====================
>
> The Samba Team is a worldwide group of computer professionals working
> together via the Internet to produce the highest quality Free Software
> Windows (SMB3/SMB2/SMB/CIFS) server and client software. We are the
> undisputed experts in providing interoperability with computers
> running Microsoft Windows. Members of the Samba Team work for many of
> the largest companies in the software Industry and even helped
> Microsoft produce the protocol documentation that fully specifies the
> SMB/CIFS protocol.
> --
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-- 
    Charles Tryon
_________________________________________________________________________
  “Risks are not to be evaluated in terms of the probability of success,
but in terms of the value of the goal.”
                - Ralph D. Winter


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