SAMBA documentation

[Gerald Carter]

> Do you know of a document that gives a clear, concise 
> overview of the process to configure SAMBA to work in 
> an NT domain with autofs? As an MCSE trying to learn 
> how to use Linux, I find the process very frustrating. 

Linux ( an UNIX ) documentation is generally divided 
up into parts.  You are trying to put these parts together
without understanding each part.

My best advice is to get Evie Nemeth's book on "UNIX System
Admistration" published by prentice hall (just had the 3rd 
edition come out) or Aeleen Frisch's "Essential System 
Administration" publish by O'Reilly.

You may also want to think about attending one
of the USENIX conferences.  The Large Installation -
System Administration (LISA) conference is coming up
in December in New Orleans.  See http://www.usenix.org/events
for details.

> I can find about a billion documents that tell how 
> to configure specific parts (smb.conf, auto.master,
> auto.misc...), but I can't find a document that gives 
> a conceptual overview of the entire process-what
> steps need to be performed in order to accomplish 
> a goal. It is very time consuming to read man pages
> and FAQs on the LDP-and they all tell you how to configure 
> one piece of the puzzle. There is nothing that 
> I have found that gives a broad overview of which 
> pieces go together. 

The pieces fit however you want them to.  :-)
Sorry, not trying to trivialize your frustration here.
I feel your pain. 8-)

> In the Windows world I am used to having 
> documentation that tells you what steps are necessary 
> to accomplish a task, and documentation on how to 
> perform each step. Linux works entirely differently and
> I feel that the conceptual overviews of processes are 
> missing. The documentation seems to assume a high level 
> of competence and knowledge of what pieces are needed 
> to get something to work.

You were previsouly working from documentation by 
one vendor.  The flexibility of not being tied to one vendor
also means that the documentation will also be splintered.
You will have to put the pieces together.  That's what 
makes it fun. :-)

<snip>
> 
> Below are the steps that I know about in this process. 
> 
> Smb.conf has to be configured
> 
> Smbd and nmbd have to be running
> 
> The machine has to be added to the NT domain
> 
> What has to be done about passwords?

What about passwords?  Do you have Samba configured 
for domain mode security?

> Nfs has to be running
> 
> Auto.master has to be configured
> 
> Auto.misc has to be configured

NFS is composed of a client and a server.  Are you 
automounting from yourself?  Is the automount daemon running?

> puzzle, as I still have 2 Redhat machines that will not see 
> each others' SAMBA shares. 

Ummm...are you trying to use Samba to share between to 
Linux servers.  If so, I would recommend using NFS instead.
Much better solution for that environment.

I can answer more questions as I have time if you need.
Probably need more details about your system as well.




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 )