[Samba] Books of Samba 4

[Marc Muehlfeld]

Hello Tony,

thanks for your detailed mail about documentation wishes. But for the 
most things I have some questions about what you mean in detail.




Am 02.03.2014 00:05, schrieb Tony Hain:
> The inconsistencies between 3 & 4 wrt AD need some documentation, the wiki
> is virtually useless, and the How-To guide is just about all 3 with
> NT4-style domains, or how to join AD as a DC.

What do you mean with "3 & 4 wrt"? Samba for DD-WRT? I never used that. 
But a documentation about that I would expect more on their homepage, 
than in the Samba Wiki.

The Samba HowTo Collection is about NT4-style domains. And I think it 
won't be renewed, because the Wiki should replace it with HowTos, etc.

Why is the Wiki virtually useless? Please be more specific.




> Documentation of samba-tool is virtually non-existent, and what is there
> assumes you know all the syntax of the underlying tool, and which new
> command replaces what old command.

I already thought about writing something about samba-tool. But the 
syntax and a short explanation you get with --help and I don't have an 
idea what to write about it.

What exactly do you expect from a samba-tool documentation in the Wiki?




 > The difference in provisioning is
> frustrating at best. Particularly when samba-tool doesn't provide adequate
> configuration for a functional system.

The provisioning provides just a basic setup to start with. The 
configuration is a functional system. But of course you have to add 
things like shares, etc. by yourself. It's not a wizzard and not 
something that replaces the old SWAT.

What are you missing for a "functional system" after the provisinging?




 > From my post about the printer errors
> (that persist despite the offered config which I already had, and how to
> turn off printing is another thing missing from the documentation):
> 	The wiki and HOW TO are useless as they are just as focused on
> 	making the server into a printing hub as it is on making the
> 	machine be a DC despite a 'server role = member server' statement.
> 	 FWIW:   samba-tool domain provision --server-role= member \
> 		 --domain=EXAMPLE --realm=EXAMPLE.LOCAL
> 	results in a DC that refuses to be demoted, and won't join an
> existing
> 	AD without adding to [global]:
> 	# !!!!!!!!!!!!! mandatory & missing from member provision step
> !!!!!!!!!!
> 	security = ADS
> 	It is all well and good to explain how to enable the services and
> try to be the
> 	one-box-to-rule-them-all, but there should be working examples about
> how
> 	to disable services when that service is not a role for this
> machine.!.!.!

Sorry. I don't understand what you are trying to say.

Of course the print server HowTo describes how to configure print server 
functions on top of a working Samba installation. And how you get a 
working DC or member server where you can put this on top, there are 
other HowTos in the Wiki. Each topic has it's own HowTo. But of course 
they can be combined. Or what do you mean in this section?




> In general there is a lack of documentation about how to turn off services
> that are not wanted on this instance, or if it does exist, it is not easily
> found.

What services do you want to turn off?





> The documentation about %U vs %u left me initially confused. Just finding
> the documentation about the variable definitions requires a google search
> because the wiki search returns nothing when you look for definition of
> variables, or variable substitutions. Put in %U or \%U and you get back a
> pile of references to -U... I misremembered the reference I had read in the
> initial read through, but did pull out 'requested vs. current', figured I
> wanted the received current ID rather than the requested one because that
> would map to the unix acls on this server, and didn't make the association
> that requested equated to the AD SID that all remote requests would be
> using. This lead to a couple of days trying to find the page again that made
> it clear I picked the wrong one.

Have you looked at the smb.conf manpage? There's a section about 
variable substitution. But it's right, that some of the variable stuff 
is confusing, as the AD DC stuff uses different code parts and some 
parameters and variables doesn't work if it's an DC or Member server, 
because some functions use different code. This could be really 
sometimes be confusing.



> Just as an exercise, try to walk through setting up a fresh 4.1 as a
> file-share-only member server in an existing AD, using the current
> documentation, and see how far you get.

I'm not sure what you mean here. What do you think is missing in the 
Member Server HowTo that prevents a working setup?
https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba/Domain_Member




Can you be a bit more specific what you mean in detail and what things 
you are missing in the Howtos?

And if you are missing complete HowTos, let me know about what topics. 
Then I can see what I can provide if I have time.

But of course you can register yourself to the Wiki and contribute 
documentation, too.



Regards,
Marc