[Samba] About NAS versus Samba

[Gaiseric Vandal]

With Samba 3.x (I think it was samba 3.4.x when we started deploying 
Windows 7)  I found that offline folders on Windows 7 broke offline 
authentication.


On 07/12/13 02:43, Jim Potter wrote:
> I use a Netgear readynas1500 as a fileserver for my Samba3/ldap domain 
> which I' ve just upgraded to AD and it works fine in both cases (lots 
> of users, though with relatively few active connections). It runs a 
> bog standard Samba3 + winbind member server (NT or ADS) as far as I 
> can tell.
>
> Having said that, the 2 shortcomings I have found are with windows 7 
> clients...  troubles doing offline files (there are  bunch of tweaks, 
> but none work perfectly) and it doesnt work too well with the 
> libraries feature in win7 (it needs indexing o some sort that isn't 
> povided by samba I think)
>
> BTW, would a Samba4 member server setup help with these issues? If it 
> did, I'd upgrade even if it did invaidate warranty...
>
> cheers
>
> Jim
>
> On 11/07/2013 05:03, fernando at lozano.eti.br wrote:
>> Hi Cris,
>>
>>>> Hi there, Has anyone tried to configure a NAS server to authenticate
>>>> users using a Samba PDC, or even a Samba4 DC (AD-compatible) or an IPA
>>>> server?
>>>
>>> not in a while, but I have done a samba 3 DC
>>
>> This was not my question. I'm ok running samba 3 DCs. :-)
>>
>> Have you ever configured a NAS so it would authenticate users from 
>> your Samba DC and them serve SMB file shares (aka network drives) to 
>> Windows desktops?
>>
>>
>>>> I'm evaluating replacing some Linux file server for a NAS product, but
>>>> all them make me nervous when the vendor talks about "Active Directory
>>>> support" and nothing else.
>>>
>>> if 3rd party support is your concern, why are you using fedora 
>>> instead of
>>> RHEL?
>>
>> Are you trying to sell me RHEL subscriptions or help me with my 
>> question? ;-) Anything wrong about asking about Fedora on a Fedora 
>> list, or any server issue is forbidden for Fedora users? ;-)
>>
>> AFAIK it shouldn't matter, from a technical perspective, if the samba 
>> DC runs Fedora, Debian, Slackware, RHEL, SuSE, Ubuntu, Solaris, 
>> whatever. I am not talking about OS level FC drivers or iSCSI 
>> initiators. Either a NAS will be compatible with Samba3, Samba4, both 
>> or neither. This depends on the SMB and MSRPC features needed by the 
>> NAS, all them application level protocols, not kernel modules. If 
>> I'll need Red Hat support for managing this system is another, 
>> unrelated, question.
>>
>> If the NAS vendors state they suṕport RHEL, that's not que question 
>> either, as supporting RHEL could mean the RHEL linux kernel smbfs and 
>> cifsfs driver talks to the NAS, not the NAS talks to the Samba DC. Or 
>> else, RHEL support may mean just that the NAS talks NFS and so a RHEL 
>> machine can mount volumes from tne NAS. That's not what I want.
>>
>> Most times I see linux servers they are simply members of a MSAD 
>> domain, not the DC themselves. But mine are. All vendors I talked to 
>> assume MSAD, and don't know about Samba. :-(
>>
>> Anyway Fedora is my desktop system and development workstation. The 
>> DC in question runs RHEL. But if this works I can try someday using 
>> Fedora or CentOS with the same (or other) NAS.
>>
>>
>>>>> In theory, many NASes are Linux boxes running samba, so there
>>>> shouldn't be a problem, except if the web admin interface won't 
>>>> support
>>>> a samba DC setup and I won't have SSH access to configure the NAS 
>>>> samba
>>>> myself
>>>>
>>>
>>> a cheaper nas will probably use samba, but not all NASs do. there are
>>> several commercial SMB/CIFS implementation out there.
>>
>> At least iomega/lenovo/emc state their NAS runs Samba. And a lot of 
>> less know vendors also. I'll buy a single, cheap NAS, not a high end 
>> EMC rack full of boxes. :-)
>>
>> But... will any NAS you know work with a Samba DC, or else, using an 
>> IPA server? Or will they only work with Microsoft Windows Server AD?
>>
>> All vendors I contacted talk only about MS Active Directory. They 
>> don't even know about NT4-style domains, which would mean a Samba3 DC 
>> should work. Besides, AFAIK a Samba4 DC isn't supported by RHEL at 
>> all -- that's why I included IPA in my question -- I'd have to use 
>> Sernet packages for Samba4. Even then, Samba4 is very new, I don't 
>> know if a NAS implementation would accept it in place of a MSAD DC.
>>
>> Most vendors talk to me about vmware, exchange and sql server 
>> support. They offer me windows-only backup servers and the like. Some 
>> even offer me SAP R/3 agents, while my ERP is another one. They can 
>> only follow their standard script for windows shops. So I ask for the 
>> collective knowledge from the Fedora and Samba lists... can anyone 
>> tell me "I tried this NAS and it worked"? Or should I better forget 
>> about this and keep using cheap intel boxes as file servers?
>>
>> Am I the first linux sysadmin in the world who's considering to have 
>> a NAS replacing some file servers but keeping his samba DCs?
>>
>>
>> []s, Fernando Lozano
>>
>