[Samba] Samba 4 documentation hard to find.

[Thomas Schulz]

> 
> Hello Thomas,
> 
> Am 10.02.2014 22:09, schrieb Thomas Schulz:
> > There must be something that I am missing here.
> > We have been running Samba 3.6.18 and I decided that it was time to check
> > out Samba 4.1.4. Now that I have it, what do I do with it? I have found the
> > man pages, but I was expecting that there would be some overview available
> > somewhere.
> 
> What kind of documentation are you looking for? A good place to start is 
> the Samba Wiki: https://wiki.samba.org
> 
> If you miss something, please be more specific, what you're looking for.

I missed the wiki. On the Samba web site there is a 'learn Samba' button.
The 'Official HOWTO' is only for Samba 3  as far as I can see. The next
three offerings also are for Samba 3 or earlier. Fortunately the wiki
is for Samba 4. Thanks for the pointer.

>  > The first question that I could not find an answer for was what
> > directory do I put the smb.conf file in.
> 
> If you have compiled Samba with the same configure options than your old 
> version, then the smb.conf file goes exactly to the same place. If you 
> had told configure to place it somewhere else, then you'll have to place 
> it there. If you use RPMs, you should have a look at the documentation 
> where you got the package from.

I configured with the same options. Our Samba 3 setup has smb.conf in
PREFIX/lib and the install procedure does not create a  PREFIX/etc.
Samba 4 wants to find smb.conf in PREFIX/etc. Now it may be that
having it in PREFIX/lib is left over from Samba 2 and it could also
be in PREFIX/etc for Samba 3.

> > I found the answer to that by
> > using the strings command on all of the shared libraries and greping for
> > smb.conf. So I put it in etc and started smbd and nmbd the way I did for
> >Samba 3. That works.
> 
> If you don't migrate your NT4-style Samba domain to a Samba AD, then 4.0 
> is just the next release after 3.6. You update, like you in the past.
> 
> 
> > But the samba program also provides file services.
> > Does it do exactly the same things that smbd and nmbd do for sharing files?
> 
> No. You only require the 'samba' binary, if your Samba installation is 
> an AD DC. There you only start the 'samba' binary, which starts smbd as 
> child processes.

That is exactly the type of information that I expected to find in an
overview document. Thanks for the information.

> 
> For a classic NT4 domain you only need smbd and nmbd on your PDC.
> 
> 
> > And I would like to have a backup domain controler for our Windows domain
> > controler. Where do I start?
> 
> BDC for a NT4 domain? There are many HowTos on the internet.
> 
> When you migrate to Samba AD, there are HowTos in the Wiki for setting 
> up DCs and joining other machines as DC to your AD.

Our AD and DC are on a 14 year old Windows 2000 Server machine. I will
be much happier when I have a backup server for that!

> Regards,
> Marc

Thanks for the help.

Tom Schulz
Applied Dynamics Intl.
schulz at adi.com