[Samba] Re: Some doubts.

[Buchan Milne]

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| Dear All,
|
| I'm newbie to Linux. Most of every statement we read about Linux describes
| this as good tool to provide a Internet/Intranet Server, but as my
| experience says (I work in this field for more than 15 years, and yes, my
| know how is almost all from MS$) I don't know any organization that
doesn't
| have at least 1 file and print server. So I decide it to give it a try (it
| would be the time to let Linux enter MS$ field), I never had the chance to
| learn Unix/Linux, and l took last week, the full week, to put my first
| Linux/Samba machine belonging to my NT domain (I must fully understand
| installation, configuration, maintenance and possible problems before
start
| deploying to our customers). I tried several distributions (Caldera,
RedHat,
| Mandrake...) and finally I could do it using the latest distribution from
| Mandrake, 8.2. I had several problems, I tried installing Samba from RPMS,
| compiling it and I was almost quitting when I reboot my NT machines and it
| started working.

I would be interested in hearing what problems you had with the Mandrake
8.2 RPMs, so we can try and resolve them.

| By now I have a Samba server joined to my NT domain, I'm
| using winbind to catch my NT users/groups and I have a share mounted on
| ReiserFS XFS partition. I found the documentation to be to much detailed,
| and what I mean is that it would be nice that someone with experience
would
| compile a Quick Guide, or perhaps I didn't search enough.
| I'm sorry for this description but my questions are:

There is some documentation (relating to samba on Mandrake) at
http://mandrakeuser.org/connect/csamba.html

http://mandrakeuser.org/connect/csamba5.html#winbind covers setting up
winbind on Mandrake (8.1, 8.2 should be easier). For example, the
samba-winbind package now comes with a /etc/pam.d/system-auth-winbind.
So any services you want to make available to nt domain users, replace
the "service=system-auth" with "service=system-auth-winbind", and you
are set.

|
| 1 When at the Linux side we create a directory to share what permissions
| should we give?

For a user to be able to access (list files for example) on a directory,
they need read (r) and execute (x) permissions on the directory. This
either needs to be the user permissions (if they own the file), or group
permissions (if they are a member of the group that owns the file) or
other (which applies to all other users). If you are using ACLs, it
becomes more complex. You should try experimenting with files locally on
~ the server first, to see how unix handles file permissions, before you
add the complexity of samba (which has options to override the normal
operation).

| 2 What is the benefit of having the shared directory on a XFS partition?

Under Mandrake 8.1 and 8.2, samba and the kernel are compiled with ACL
support, which means you have ACLs that work almost like the permissions
under Windows NT/2000

| 3 I it possible on a subdirectory of a Samba share modify the
permissions so
| that they are different from the parent?

Yes. You should be able to manipulate the permissions of any file you
have write access to via the security tab of the file properties dialog
box. If the files are on a non-ACL-capable file-system, you will only be
able to change the permissions for the user, group, and others.

| 4 Perhaps someone can advise me of what are the minimum Linux installation
| for having just Samba and some administration?

It would be easiest to select the minimum install (with the option for
urpmi, you will see it prompts you) of Mandrake, by deselecting all the
groups of applications during installation. Then, you can either add
samba in the "package selection" which follows, or use "urpmi samba"
after installation is complete. You may also want to install some of the
following packages:

samba-client, nss_wins, samba-swat, samba-doc, samba-winbind, webmin,
ntlogon

I would suggest starting out with the included /etc/samba/smb.conf
(maybe back it up first), which includes a lot of sample configurations
that should work out the box. If you want a slightly easier
configuration tool, try webmin, by pointing your web browser to
https://ip.add.re.ss:10000 (if you have installed webmin, and maybe
start it with 'service webmin start' as root).

| 5 What is the best practice for updating a Samba installation?

Stick with the samba provided by your distribution. If you need a more
up-to-date version, check with your distributor (Mandrake has in the
past provided official updates to samba avialable via Mandrakeupdate).
You can also look in the "unsupported" directories of the Mandrake
mirrors (sometimes only the development mirrors carry it), or in the
case of samba, you can try on of the following 2 sites (although these
of course are not supported):

http://ranger.dnsalias.com/mandrake/samba/
http://people.mandrakesoft.com/~staburet/samba/

|
| I think that by now is all, and I hope to get some help.
|

You may also want to check out some of the Mandrake mailing lists (and
their archives), which you can find at
http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/flists.php3, or if you have specific
queries, http://mandrakeexpert.com allows you to post questions. There
is also of course the alt.os.linux.mandrake usenet group.


Both Sylvestre and I often read this mailing list, but if you have
specific issues with the packaging of samba for Mandrake, you can send
us mail (see the samba changelog also, using 'rpm -q --changelog samba').

I started out with samba 2.0.6 on Mandrake 7.1 as a domain controller,
and the same machine is still doing the job, but running samba-2.2.3a on
Mandrake 8.0 with about 60 Windows 2000 desktops, and some Windows NT4 also.

Buchan

- --
|----------------Registered Linux User #182071-----------------|
Buchan Milne                Mechanical Engineer, Network Manager
Cellphone * Work            +27 82 472 2231 * +27 21 8828820x202
Stellenbosch Automotive Engineering         http://www.cae.co.za
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