Using Samba: A File & Print Server for Linux, Unix & Mac OS X

Gerald Carter; Jay Ts; Robert Eckstein

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0596007698 ISBN 13: 9780596007690

Publisher: O'Reilly Media, 2007

This book is the comprehensive guide to Samba administration, officially adopted by the Samba Team. Wondering how to integrate Samba's authentication with that of a Windows domain? How to get Samba to serve Microsoft Dfs shares? How to share files on Mac OS X? These and a dozen other issues of interest to system administrators are covered. A whole chapter is dedicated to troubleshooting!

The range of this book knows few bounds. Using Samba takes you from basic installation and configuration -- on both the client and server side, for a wide range of systems -- to subtle details of security, cross-platform compatibility, and resource discovery that make the difference between whether users see the folder they expect or a cryptic error message.

The current edition covers such advanced 3.x features as:

• Integration with Active Directory and OpenLDAP
• Migrating from Windows NT 4.0 domains to Samba
• Delegating administrative tasks to non-root users
• Central printer management
• Advanced file serving features, such as making use of Virtual File System (VFS) plugins.

Samba is a cross-platform triumph: robust, flexible and fast, it turns a Unix or Linux system into a file and print server for Microsoft Windows network clients. This book will help you make your file and print sharing as powerful and efficient as possible. The authors delve into the internals of the Windows activities and protocols to an unprecedented degree, explaining the strengths and weaknesses of each feature in Windows domains and in Samba itself.

Whether you're playing on your personal computer or an enterprise network, on one note or a full three-octave range, Using Samba will give you an efficient and secure server.

Product Description:

Hard to find

Review:

Samba, as all Linux users know, enables Windows machines to talk to Linux or Unix using the SMB protocol. It enables Linux to work as a file and print server and, with the latest version, a domain controller complete with password encryption support--but Samba is both a complex and subtle piece of work. A CD-ROM containing Samba 2.0.5a plus sources, docs and so on is included with Using Samba.

The authors cover the background to SMB then move on to running Samba. They then shift to Windows 98 and NT where they explain how to set both up to use Samba including the infamous encrypted password problem after NT service pack 3. They don't tell you how to turn it off in NT's Registry, though. Then they move on to the configuration file. Most of us edit a sample smb.conf file until it works, but the authors cover each option in detail, with practical examples. The most exciting areas discussed are printer support and security.

Chapter nine is essential reading--troubleshooting Samba. It discusses log files, the fault tree, net utilities, Samba utilities, documentation and newsgroups with special reference to the various log levels available. All in all, this is the book Samba users have been waiting for. It's also perfect for Windows users looking to install a cheap, robust, Linux server. --Steve Patient