[Samba] Samba3 - small lan [1]

[John H Terpstra]

On Friday 24 June 2005 09:47, Serge Naggar wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have posted to this list once before without any reply.  It would be

This is a volunteer list. Most of us on the list are very busy with our day 
jobs. Not every posting gets attention. That is the way it is with free 
support.

> nice if some reply could indicate why the posting was not appropriate
> and some indication as to what one should do - the last time I included
> my smbconf. This time I have reworked my questions, limited their scope
> , and put them in two emails.
>
> I have two essentially identical linux computers [east and west] both
> running Samba 3.0.9-2.6-suse with Suse linux pro 9.1 on a two machine
> lan - [east & west] connected by a hub.
>
> I am using `The Official Samba-3 HowTo & ref guide by Terpstra et al' as
> my samba reference.

I am delighted to see my work being used. I would refer you to the book 
"Samba-3 by Example" as a more appropriate text for examples of how to deploy 
Samba. The HOWTO is a to a large extent a mechanic's manual.

You can obtain a copy of the Samba-3 by Example (S3bE) book from:

http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/Samba3-ByExample.pdf

> Currently I cannot get the lan to work; the machines are not `seeing'
> each other even though they can ping each other.

There can be 1000 reasons for this. Suggest you follow the configuration 
examples in the S3bE - they are known to work and have been validated by 
dozens of reviewers from newbie to old-hand.

> 1.      Testparm, on both machines, shows no error but the server role =
> ROLE_STANDALONE. I expected it to identify itself as principal server?

That depends on what you want to do! A stand-alone server does not provide 
network logon services. That means it is not a PDC.

>         a. Am I correct in assuming that both machines will act as
> server AND lient?

Sure. Samba server includes: nmbd/smbd/winbindd - these are the servers
Samba's client is: smbclient

Please do not refer to smbfs's friends as Samba. The tools smbmount, 
smbumount, et al. are really part of the smbfs kernel driver package. The 
user-space tools are shipped with Samba because they use common libraries 
with Samba.

>         b. Is this is a valid setup?

That depends on what you want to do.

> 2.      a. As the partitions of both computers are the same should I
> slightly change the title names in each smb.conf - [e.g., homes and
> homesw; data and dataw; etc.] to avoid confusing samba's config [titles]
> even though the machines are given different names: east and west or can
> I have the smb.conf titles be the same for both machines except for the
> `east and west' names?

The [homes] stanza in the smb.conf is not a share, it is a meta-service that 
auto-creates user home shares. If you rename it the renamed version is a 
share, not a meta-service.

>         b. Should the names of the partitions [/mnt/data, etc.] remain
> the same or must they be changed?

Why do you think the partitions may need to be changed?

>
> 3.      Are there other test functions which I could use to find out
> what the problems are?

Best advice is to follow S3bE examples step-by-step.

- John T.
-- 
John H Terpstra
Samba-Team Member
Phone: +1 (650) 580-8668

Author:
The Official Samba-3 HOWTO & Reference Guide, ISBN: 0131453556
Samba-3 by Example, ISBN: 0131472216
Hardening Linux, ISBN: 0072254971
Other books in production.