samba headaches

[Gerald Carter]

So whenever I see these types of posts, I feel compelled to 
respond.  Comments below....

> From: TPsmith at ixl.com [mailto:TPsmith at ixl.com]
> Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2000 9:32 AM
> To: gonzo at eng.lsu.edu; samba at us5.samba.org
> Subject: RE: samba headaches
> 
> and the networking and multiple subnet issues of 
> using SAMBA continue. Steve and Charles, welcome to 
> the wonderful world of SAMBA. What you need to do, to 
> use SAMBA, is put your SAMBA on Unix box that is in 
> walking distance of your win32 machines, on the same 
> subnet, and never ever put the server on a different subnet 
> or move it far from the users.  SAMBA is NOT an 
> enterprise solution for file access, when going from a 
> win32 box to a  Unix/Linux SAMBA server.  It just doesn't 
> Work!  

I'm not sure exactly what you're problem is, but I currently
run several Samba boxes for serving an entire network
(~700 machines).  Logon scripts, system policies,
9x domain logons, NT domain logons, etc...

While I can sense your frustration, because you couldn't 
get it to work work, doesn't mean that it doesn't work.
Problems can be caused by many things:

  o multiple protocol stacks installed on clients, each with
    a netbios binding.
  o problems with the physical network such as out of spec
    designs, bad routers, lost packets, etc...
  o misunderstandings of browsing
  o lack of documentation (or lack of reading documentation)

We've all fallen prey to one of these at some time
or another :-)

> I became a serious Unix administrator over the past 
> year, I am of course, still learning ALOT, what I did learn, 
> from trying to get SAMBA working, from Win32 boxes to
> SAMBA-Unix box, is forget it, unless the network is 
> "flat" and/or you are right next to the server.

This is incorrect.  I run access from about 30 subnets.

> Unix is great, but for having users, already on 
> a Windows network, using windows clients, just use a 
> WINDOWS server, when part of the server's function is 
> file sharing.... I am tired of fight SAMBA, I am sure I 
> am not the only one.

Being a sysadmin is a tough job because is sometimes takes
a broad range of knowlegde to get the job done.  However,
one of the advantages of forums like this one is to be able
to stand on the shoulders of those who have already been there.

As a side note, we (the SAMBA Team) are activey pursing 
development, enhancement and improvement of Samba.  What I
would encourage you to do is to let us know how we can improve
Samba.  Broad statements about everything not working are 
much help.  Specifics like, "On Solaris 2.8, I am unable to
do xxx.  Here is what I have tried and the results." go a long
way ( in bug fixing and receiving help from others).

My sympathy for your frustration.



Cheers, jerry
----------------------------------------------------------------------
   /\  Gerald (Jerry) Carter                     Professional Services
 \/    http://www.valinux.com/  VA Linux Systems   gcarter at valinux.com
       http://www.samba.org/       SAMBA Team          jerry at samba.org
       http://www.plainjoe.org/                     jerry at plainjoe.org

       "...a hundred billion castaways looking for a home."
                                - Sting "Message in a Bottle" ( 1979 )