[Samba] samba4 readiness

[Gerald (Jerry) Carter]

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Shawn Wilson wrote:

> 5. how far is current cvs from being samba4-stable? 
> (estimated date and feature set)

This is a blurb I put in the upcoming 3rd edition of "Using Samba"
(O'Reilly).  Hope it helps clarify things.





cheers, jerry

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"Samba Domains: NT 4.0 or Active Directory?"

Before we dive into the technical details of Samba's domain controller
functionality, it is important to understand what a Samba domain is and
is not and where the project is headed.  Samba 3.0 can act as a Windows
NT 4.0 domain controller with one major exceptions.  It does not
implement the Windows System Account Manager (SAM) replication
protocol.  This means that it cannot participate as a domain controller
with Windows DCs including mixed-mode Active Directory domains.

Samba 3.0 cannot at this time act as a domain controller for an Active
Directory domain.  However, active research in this area is ongoing
under the guise of Samba 4.  There has been a great deal of confusion
about the relationship between Samba 3 and Samba 4.  Both source code
repositories are part of the Samba project.  Samba 3.0 is the current
production branch while Samba 4 is the research branch focused on new
functionality to be integrated into the production releases once it has
matured.

The real question everyone asks is "When will Samba 4 be released?"
The truth of the matter is that Samba 4 is a blueprint of where Samba
as a project wants to go.  Of course, blueprints often require a
prototype and therefore developers will releases technical previews of
the Samba 4 branch from time to time as a way to expose designs to a
wider audience.  Some prototypes work while others are thrown away.
At some point the production releases of Samba will look like these
working prototypes.  Whether this occurs gradually or all at once is
yet to be seen.

Pieces of Samba 4 have already been released as production quality
services.  For example, the samba4wins project
(http://enterprisesamba.org/) provides a WINS server that supports the
Microsoft WINS replication protocol.  Other pieces, such as Samba 4's
memory management library, are shipping in Samba 3.0 today.  It likely
that Samba 4 in whole or in part will continue to co-exist with Samba
3.0 for several years to come.  Who knows what release will contain the
combined features of Samba 3.0 and technology of Samba 4
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