1.1. Step 0: Read the man pages

The man pages distributed with SAMBA contain lots of useful info that will help to get you started. If you don't know how to read man pages then try something like:

$ nroff -man smbd.8 | more

Other sources of information are pointed to by the Samba web site, http://www.samba.org

1.2. Step 1: Building the Binaries

To do this, first run the program ./configure in the source directory. This should automatically configure Samba for your operating system. If you have unusual needs then you may wish to run

root# ./configure --help

first to see what special options you can enable. Then executing

root# make

will create the binaries. Once it's successfully compiled you can use

root# make install

to install the binaries and manual pages. You can separately install the binaries and/or man pages using

root# make installbin

and

root# make installman

Note that if you are upgrading for a previous version of Samba you might like to know that the old versions of the binaries will be renamed with a ".old" extension. You can go back to the previous version with

root# make revert

if you find this version a disaster!

1.3. Step 2: The all important step

At this stage you must fetch yourself a coffee or other drink you find stimulating. Getting the rest of the install right can sometimes be tricky, so you will probably need it.

If you have installed samba before then you can skip this step.

1.4. Step 3: Create the smb configuration file.

There are sample configuration files in the examples subdirectory in the distribution. I suggest you read them carefully so you can see how the options go together in practice. See the man page for all the options.

The simplest useful configuration file would be something like this:

[global] workgroup = MYGROUP [homes] guest ok = no read only = no

which would allow connections by anyone with an account on the server, using either their login name or "homes" as the service name. (Note that I also set the workgroup that Samba is part of. See BROWSING.txt for details)

Note that make install will not install a smb.conf file. You need to create it yourself.

Make sure you put the smb.conf file in the same place you specified in theMakefile (the default is to look for it in /usr/local/samba/lib/).

For more information about security settings for the [homes] share please refer to the document UNIX_SECURITY.txt.

1.5. Step 4: Test your config file with testparm

It's important that you test the validity of your smb.conf file using the testparm program. If testparm runs OK then it will list the loaded services. If not it will give an error message.

Make sure it runs OK and that the services look reasonable before proceeding.

1.6. Step 5: Starting the smbd and nmbd

You must choose to start smbd and nmbd either as daemons or from inetd. Don't try to do both! Either you can put them in inetd.conf and have them started on demand by inetd, or you can start them as daemons either from the command line or in /etc/rc.local. See the man pages for details on the command line options. Take particular care to read the bit about what user you need to be in order to start Samba. In many cases you must be root.

The main advantage of starting smbd and nmbd as a daemon is that they will respond slightly more quickly to an initial connection request. This is, however, unlikely to be a problem.

1.7. Step 6: Try listing the shares available on your server

$ smbclient -L yourhostname

Your should get back a list of shares available on your server. If you don't then something is incorrectly setup. Note that this method can also be used to see what shares are available on other LanManager clients (such as WfWg).

If you choose user level security then you may find that Samba requests a password before it will list the shares. See the smbclient man page for details. (you can force it to list the shares without a password by adding the option -U% to the command line. This will not work with non-Samba servers)

1.8. Step 7: Try connecting with the unix client

$ smbclient //yourhostname/aservice

Typically the yourhostname would be the name of the host where you installed smbd. The aservice is any service you have defined in the smb.conf file. Try your user name if you just have a [homes] section in smb.conf.

For example if your unix host is bambi and your login name is fred you would type:

$ smbclient //bambi/fred

1.9. Step 8: Try connecting from a DOS, WfWg, Win9x, WinNT, Win2k, OS/2, etc... client

Try mounting disks. eg:

C:\WINDOWS\> net use d: \\servername\service

Try printing. eg:

C:\WINDOWS\> net use lpt1: \\servername\spoolservice

C:\WINDOWS\> print filename

Celebrate, or send me a bug report!

1.10. What If Things Don't Work?

If nothing works and you start to think "who wrote this pile of trash" then I suggest you do step 2 again (and again) till you calm down.

Then you might read the file DIAGNOSIS.txt and the FAQ. If you are still stuck then try the mailing list or newsgroup (look in the README for details). Samba has been successfully installed at thousands of sites worldwide, so maybe someone else has hit your problem and has overcome it. You could also use the WWW site to scan back issues of the samba-digest.

When you fix the problem PLEASE send me some updates to the documentation (or source code) so that the next person will find it easier.

2.1. Agenda

To identify the key functional mechanisms of MS Windows networking to enable the deployment of Samba as a means of extending and/or replacing MS Windows NT/2000 technology.

We will examine:

1. Name resolution in a pure Unix/Linux TCP/IP environment

2. Name resolution as used within MS Windows networking

3. How browsing functions and how to deploy stable and dependable browsing using Samba

4. MS Windows security options and how to configure Samba for seemless integration

5. Configuration of Samba as:

   1. A stand-alone server

   2. An MS Windows NT 3.x/4.0 security domain member

   3. An alternative to an MS Windows NT 3.x/4.0 Domain Controller

2.2. Name Resolution in a pure Unix/Linux world

The key configuration files covered in this section are:

• /etc/hosts

• /etc/resolv.conf

• /etc/host.conf

• /etc/nsswitch.conf

2.3. Name resolution as used within MS Windows networking

MS Windows networking is predicated about the name each machine is given. This name is known variously (and inconsistently) as the "computer name", "machine name", "networking name", "netbios name", "SMB name". All terms mean the same thing with the exception of "netbios name" which can apply also to the name of the workgroup or the domain name. The terms "workgroup" and "domain" are really just a simply name with which the machine is associated. All NetBIOS names are exactly 16 characters in length. The 16th character is reserved. It is used to store a one byte value that indicates service level information for the NetBIOS name that is registered. A NetBIOS machine name is therefore registered for each service type that is provided by the client/server.

The following are typical NetBIOS name/service type registrations:

Unique NetBIOS Names: MACHINENAME<00> = Server Service is running on MACHINENAME MACHINENAME<03> = Generic Machine Name (NetBIOS name) MACHINENAME<20> = LanMan Server service is running on MACHINENAME WORKGROUP<1b> = Domain Master Browser Group Names: WORKGROUP<03> = Generic Name registered by all members of WORKGROUP WORKGROUP<1c> = Domain Controllers / Netlogon Servers WORKGROUP<1d> = Local Master Browsers WORKGROUP<1e> = Internet Name Resolvers

It should be noted that all NetBIOS machines register their own names as per the above. This is in vast contrast to TCP/IP installations where traditionally the system administrator will determine in the /etc/hosts or in the DNS database what names are associated with each IP address.

One further point of clarification should be noted, the /etc/hosts file and the DNS records do not provide the NetBIOS name type information that MS Windows clients depend on to locate the type of service that may be needed. An example of this is what happens when an MS Windows client wants to locate a domain logon server. It find this service and the IP address of a server that provides it by performing a lookup (via a NetBIOS broadcast) for enumeration of all machines that have registered the name type *<1c>. A logon request is then sent to each IP address that is returned in the enumerated list of IP addresses. Which ever machine first replies then ends up providing the logon services.

The name "workgroup" or "domain" really can be confusing since these have the added significance of indicating what is the security architecture of the MS Windows network. The term "workgroup" indicates that the primary nature of the network environment is that of a peer-to-peer design. In a WORKGROUP all machines are responsible for their own security, and generally such security is limited to use of just a password (known as SHARE MORE security). In most situations with peer-to-peer networking the users who control their own machines will simply opt to have no security at all. It is possible to have USER MODE security in a WORKGROUP environment, thus requiring use of a user name and a matching password.

MS Windows networking is thus predetermined to use machine names for all local and remote machine message passing. The protocol used is called Server Message Block (SMB) and this is implemented using the NetBIOS protocol (Network Basic Input Output System). NetBIOS can be encapsulated using LLC (Logical Link Control) protocol - in which case the resulting protocol is called NetBEUI (Network Basic Extended User Interface). NetBIOS can also be run over IPX (Internetworking Packet Exchange) protocol as used by Novell NetWare, and it can be run over TCP/IP protocols - in which case the resulting protocol is called NBT or NetBT, the NetBIOS over TCP/IP.

MS Windows machines use a complex array of name resolution mechanisms. Since we are primarily concerned with TCP/IP this demonstration is limited to this area.

2.4. How browsing functions and how to deploy stable and dependable browsing using Samba

As stated above, MS Windows machines register their NetBIOS names (ie: the machine name for each service type in operation) on start up. Also, as stated above, the exact method by which this name registration takes place is determined by whether or not the MS Windows client/server has been given a WINS server address, whether or not LMHOSTS lookup is enabled, or if DNS for NetBIOS name resolution is enabled, etc.

In the case where there is no WINS server all name registrations as well as name lookups are done by UDP broadcast. This isolates name resolution to the local subnet, unless LMHOSTS is used to list all names and IP addresses. In such situations Samba provides a means by which the samba server name may be forcibly injected into the browse list of a remote MS Windows network (using the "remote announce" parameter).

Where a WINS server is used, the MS Windows client will use UDP unicast to register with the WINS server. Such packets can be routed and thus WINS allows name resolution to function across routed networks.

During the startup process an election will take place to create a local master browser if one does not already exist. On each NetBIOS network one machine will be elected to function as the domain master browser. This domain browsing has nothing to do with MS security domain control. Instead, the domain master browser serves the role of contacting each local master browser (found by asking WINS or from LMHOSTS) and exchanging browse list contents. This way every master browser will eventually obtain a complete list of all machines that are on the network. Every 11-15 minutes an election is held to determine which machine will be the master browser. By nature of the election criteria used, the machine with the highest uptime, or the most senior protocol version, or other criteria, will win the election as domain master browser.

Clients wishing to browse the network make use of this list, but also depend on the availability of correct name resolution to the respective IP address/addresses.

Any configuration that breaks name resolution and/or browsing intrinsics will annoy users because they will have to put up with protracted inability to use the network services.

Samba supports a feature that allows forced synchonisation of browse lists across routed networks using the "remote browse sync" parameter in the smb.conf file. This causes Samba to contact the local master browser on a remote network and to request browse list synchronisation. This effectively bridges two networks that are separated by routers. The two remote networks may use either broadcast based name resolution or WINS based name resolution, but it should be noted that the "remote browse sync" parameter provides browse list synchronisation - and that is distinct from name to address resolution, in other words, for cross subnet browsing to function correctly it is essential that a name to address resolution mechanism be provided. This mechanism could be via DNS, /etc/hosts, and so on.

2.5. MS Windows security options and how to configure Samba for seemless integration

MS Windows clients may use encrypted passwords as part of a challenege/response authentication model (a.k.a. NTLMv1) or alone, or clear text strings for simple password based authentication. It should be realized that with the SMB protocol the password is passed over the network either in plain text or encrypted, but not both in the same authentication requets.

When encrypted passwords are used a password that has been entered by the user is encrypted in two ways:

• An MD4 hash of the UNICODE of the password string. This is known as the NT hash.

• The password is converted to upper case, and then padded or trucated to 14 bytes. This string is then appended with 5 bytes of NULL characters and split to form two 56 bit DES keys to encrypt a "magic" 8 byte value. The resulting 16 bytes for the LanMan hash.

You should refer to the Password Encryption chapter in this HOWTO collection for more details on the inner workings

MS Windows 95 pre-service pack 1, MS Windows NT versions 3.x and version 4.0 pre-service pack 3 will use either mode of password authentication. All versions of MS Windows that follow these versions no longer support plain text passwords by default.

MS Windows clients have a habit of dropping network mappings that have been idle for 10 minutes or longer. When the user attempts to use the mapped drive connection that has been dropped the SMB protocol has a mechanism by which the connection can be re-established using a cached copy of the password.

When Microsoft changed the default password mode, they dropped support for caching of the plain text password. This means that when the registry parameter is changed to re-enable use of plain text passwords it appears to work, but when a dropped mapping attempts to revalidate it will fail if the remote authentication server does not support encrypted passwords. This means that it is definitely not a good idea to re-enable plain text password support in such clients.

The following parameters can be used to work around the issue of Windows 9x client upper casing usernames and password before transmitting them to the SMB server when using clear text authentication.

passsword level = integer username level = integer

By default Samba will lower case the username before attempting to lookup the user in the database of local system accounts. Because UNIX usernames conventionally only contain lower case character, the username level parameter is rarely even needed.

However, password on UNIX systems often make use of mixed case characters. This means that in order for a user on a Windows 9x client to connect to a Samba server using clear text authentication, the password level must be set to the maximum number of upper case letter which could appear is a password. Note that is the server OS uses the traditional DES version of crypt(), then a password level of 8 will result in case insensitive passwords as seen from Windows users. This will also result in longer login times as Samba hash to compute the permutations of the password string and try them one by one until a match is located (or all combinations fail).

The best option to adopt is to enable support for encrypted passwords where ever Samba is used. There are three configuration possibilities for support of encrypted passwords:

2.6. Conclusions

Samba provides a flexible means to operate as...

• A Stand-alone server - No special action is needed other than to create user accounts. Stand-alone servers do NOT provide network logon services, meaning that machines that use this server do NOT perform a domain logon but instead make use only of the MS Windows logon which is local to the MS Windows workstation/server.

• An MS Windows NT 3.x/4.0 security domain member.

• An alternative to an MS Windows NT 3.x/4.0 Domain Controller.

3.1. Samba and PAM

A number of Unix systems (eg: Sun Solaris), as well as the xxxxBSD family and Linux, now utilize the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) facility to provide all authentication, authorization and resource control services. Prior to the introduction of PAM, a decision to use an alternative to the system password database (/etc/passwd) would require the provision of alternatives for all programs that provide security services. Such a choice would involve provision of alternatives to such programs as: login, passwd, chown, etc.

PAM provides a mechanism that disconnects these security programs from the underlying authentication/authorization infrastructure. PAM is configured either through one file /etc/pam.conf (Solaris), or by editing individual files that are located in /etc/pam.d.

The following is an example /etc/pam.d/login configuration file. This example had all options been uncommented is probably not usable as it stacks many conditions before allowing successful completion of the login process. Essentially all conditions can be disabled by commenting them out except the calls to pam_pwdb.so.

#%PAM-1.0 # The PAM configuration file for the `login' service # auth required pam_securetty.so auth required pam_nologin.so # auth required pam_dialup.so # auth optional pam_mail.so auth required pam_pwdb.so shadow md5 # account requisite pam_time.so account required pam_pwdb.so session required pam_pwdb.so # session optional pam_lastlog.so # password required pam_cracklib.so retry=3 password required pam_pwdb.so shadow md5

PAM allows use of replacable modules. Those available on a sample system include:

$ /bin/ls /lib/security pam_access.so pam_ftp.so pam_limits.so pam_ncp_auth.so pam_rhosts_auth.so pam_stress.so pam_cracklib.so pam_group.so pam_listfile.so pam_nologin.so pam_rootok.so pam_tally.so pam_deny.so pam_issue.so pam_mail.so pam_permit.so pam_securetty.so pam_time.so pam_dialup.so pam_lastlog.so pam_mkhomedir.so pam_pwdb.so pam_shells.so pam_unix.so pam_env.so pam_ldap.so pam_motd.so pam_radius.so pam_smbpass.so pam_unix_acct.so pam_wheel.so pam_unix_auth.so pam_unix_passwd.so pam_userdb.so pam_warn.so pam_unix_session.so

The following example for the login program replaces the use of the pam_pwdb.so module which uses the system password database (/etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, /etc/group) with the module pam_smbpass.so which uses the Samba database which contains the Microsoft MD4 encrypted password hashes. This database is stored in either /usr/local/samba/private/smbpasswd, /etc/samba/smbpasswd, or in /etc/samba.d/smbpasswd, depending on the Samba implementation for your Unix/Linux system. The pam_smbpass.so module is provided by Samba version 2.2.1 or later. It can be compiled by specifying the --with-pam_smbpass options when running Samba's configure script. For more information on the pam_smbpass module, see the documentation in the source/pam_smbpass directory of the Samba source distribution.

#%PAM-1.0 # The PAM configuration file for the `login' service # auth required pam_smbpass.so nodelay account required pam_smbpass.so nodelay session required pam_smbpass.so nodelay password required pam_smbpass.so nodelay

The following is the PAM configuration file for a particular Linux system. The default condition uses pam_pwdb.so.

#%PAM-1.0 # The PAM configuration file for the `samba' service # auth required /lib/security/pam_pwdb.so nullok nodelay shadow audit account required /lib/security/pam_pwdb.so audit nodelay session required /lib/security/pam_pwdb.so nodelay password required /lib/security/pam_pwdb.so shadow md5

In the following example the decision has been made to use the smbpasswd database even for basic samba authentication. Such a decision could also be made for the passwd program and would thus allow the smbpasswd passwords to be changed using the passwd program.

#%PAM-1.0 # The PAM configuration file for the `samba' service # auth required /lib/security/pam_smbpass.so nodelay account required /lib/security/pam_pwdb.so audit nodelay session required /lib/security/pam_pwdb.so nodelay password required /lib/security/pam_smbpass.so nodelay smbconf=/etc/samba.d/smb.conf

Note: PAM allows stacking of authentication mechanisms. It is also possible to pass information obtained within on PAM module through to the next module in the PAM stack. Please refer to the documentation for your particular system implementation for details regarding the specific capabilities of PAM in this environment. Some Linux implmentations also provide the pam_stack.so module that allows all authentication to be configured in a single central file. The pam_stack.so method has some very devoted followers on the basis that it allows for easier administration. As with all issues in life though, every decision makes trade-offs, so you may want examine the PAM documentation for further helpful information.

3.2. Distributed Authentication

The astute administrator will realize from this that the combination of pam_smbpass.so, winbindd, and rsync (see http://rsync.samba.org/) will allow the establishment of a centrally managed, distributed user/password database that can also be used by all PAM (eg: Linux) aware programs and applications. This arrangement can have particularly potent advantages compared with the use of Microsoft Active Directory Service (ADS) in so far as reduction of wide area network authentication traffic.

3.3. PAM Configuration in smb.conf

There is an option in smb.conf called obey pam restrictions. The following is from the on-line help for this option in SWAT;

When Samba 2.2 is configure to enable PAM support (i.e. --with-pam), this parameter will control whether or not Samba should obey PAM's account and session management directives. The default behavior is to use PAM for clear text authentication only and to ignore any account or session management. Note that Samba always ignores PAM for authentication in the case of encrypt passwords = yes. The reason is that PAM modules cannot support the challenge/response authentication mechanism needed in the presence of SMB password encryption.

Default: obey pam restrictions = no

4.1. Instructions

The Distributed File System (or Dfs) provides a means of separating the logical view of files and directories that users see from the actual physical locations of these resources on the network. It allows for higher availability, smoother storage expansion, load balancing etc. For more information about Dfs, refer to Microsoft documentation.

This document explains how to host a Dfs tree on a Unix machine (for Dfs-aware clients to browse) using Samba.

To enable SMB-based DFS for Samba, configure it with the --with-msdfs option. Once built, a Samba server can be made a Dfs server by setting the global boolean host msdfs parameter in the smb.conf file. You designate a share as a Dfs root using the share level boolean msdfs root parameter. A Dfs root directory on Samba hosts Dfs links in the form of symbolic links that point to other servers. For example, a symbolic link junction->msdfs:storage1\share1 in the share directory acts as the Dfs junction. When Dfs-aware clients attempt to access the junction link, they are redirected to the storage location (in this case, \\storage1\share1).

Dfs trees on Samba work with all Dfs-aware clients ranging from Windows 95 to 2000.

Here's an example of setting up a Dfs tree on a Samba server.

# The smb.conf file: [global] netbios name = SAMBA host msdfs = yes [dfs] path = /export/dfsroot msdfs root = yes

In the /export/dfsroot directory we set up our dfs links to other servers on the network.

root# cd /export/dfsroot

root# chown root /export/dfsroot

root# chmod 755 /export/dfsroot

root# ln -s msdfs:storageA\\shareA linka

root# ln -s msdfs:serverB\\share,serverC\\share linkb

You should set up the permissions and ownership of the directory acting as the Dfs root such that only designated users can create, delete or modify the msdfs links. Also note that symlink names should be all lowercase. This limitation exists to have Samba avoid trying all the case combinations to get at the link name. Finally set up the symbolic links to point to the network shares you want, and start Samba.

Users on Dfs-aware clients can now browse the Dfs tree on the Samba server at \\samba\dfs. Accessing links linka or linkb (which appear as directories to the client) takes users directly to the appropriate shares on the network.

5.1. Viewing and changing UNIX permissions using the NT security dialogs

New in the Samba 2.0.4 release is the ability for Windows NT clients to use their native security settings dialog box to view and modify the underlying UNIX permissions.

Note that this ability is careful not to compromise the security of the UNIX host Samba is running on, and still obeys all the file permission rules that a Samba administrator can set.

In Samba 2.0.4 and above the default value of the parameter nt acl support has been changed from false to true, so manipulation of permissions is turned on by default.

5.2. How to view file security on a Samba share

From an NT 4.0 client, single-click with the right mouse button on any file or directory in a Samba mounted drive letter or UNC path. When the menu pops-up, click on the Properties entry at the bottom of the menu. This brings up the normal file properties dialog box, but with Samba 2.0.4 this will have a new tab along the top marked Security. Click on this tab and you will see three buttons, Permissions, Auditing, and Ownership. The Auditing button will cause either an error message A requested privilege is not held by the client to appear if the user is not the NT Administrator, or a dialog which is intended to allow an Administrator to add auditing requirements to a file if the user is logged on as the NT Administrator. This dialog is non-functional with a Samba share at this time, as the only useful button, the Add button will not currently allow a list of users to be seen.

5.3. Viewing file ownership

Clicking on the "Ownership" button brings up a dialog box telling you who owns the given file. The owner name will be of the form :

"SERVER\user (Long name)"

Where SERVER is the NetBIOS name of the Samba server, user is the user name of the UNIX user who owns the file, and (Long name) is the descriptive string identifying the user (normally found in the GECOS field of the UNIX password database). Click on the Close button to remove this dialog.

If the parameter nt acl support is set to false then the file owner will be shown as the NT user "Everyone".

The Take Ownership button will not allow you to change the ownership of this file to yourself (clicking on it will display a dialog box complaining that the user you are currently logged onto the NT client cannot be found). The reason for this is that changing the ownership of a file is a privileged operation in UNIX, available only to the root user. As clicking on this button causes NT to attempt to change the ownership of a file to the current user logged into the NT client this will not work with Samba at this time.

There is an NT chown command that will work with Samba and allow a user with Administrator privilege connected to a Samba 2.0.4 server as root to change the ownership of files on both a local NTFS filesystem or remote mounted NTFS or Samba drive. This is available as part of the Seclib NT security library written by Jeremy Allison of the Samba Team, available from the main Samba ftp site.

5.4. Viewing file or directory permissions

The third button is the "Permissions" button. Clicking on this brings up a dialog box that shows both the permissions and the UNIX owner of the file or directory. The owner is displayed in the form :

"SERVER\user (Long name)"

Where SERVER is the NetBIOS name of the Samba server, user is the user name of the UNIX user who owns the file, and (Long name) is the descriptive string identifying the user (normally found in the GECOS field of the UNIX password database).

If the parameter nt acl support is set to false then the file owner will be shown as the NT user "Everyone" and the permissions will be shown as NT "Full Control".

The permissions field is displayed differently for files and directories, so I'll describe the way file permissions are displayed first.

5.5. Modifying file or directory permissions

Modifying file and directory permissions is as simple as changing the displayed permissions in the dialog box, and clicking the OK button. However, there are limitations that a user needs to be aware of, and also interactions with the standard Samba permission masks and mapping of DOS attributes that need to also be taken into account.

If the parameter nt acl support is set to false then any attempt to set security permissions will fail with an "Access Denied" message.

The first thing to note is that the "Add" button will not return a list of users in Samba 2.0.4 (it will give an error message of "The remote procedure call failed and did not execute"). This means that you can only manipulate the current user/group/world permissions listed in the dialog box. This actually works quite well as these are the only permissions that UNIX actually has.

If a permission triple (either user, group, or world) is removed from the list of permissions in the NT dialog box, then when the "OK" button is pressed it will be applied as "no permissions" on the UNIX side. If you then view the permissions again the "no permissions" entry will appear as the NT "O" flag, as described above. This allows you to add permissions back to a file or directory once you have removed them from a triple component.

As UNIX supports only the "r", "w" and "x" bits of an NT ACL then if other NT security attributes such as "Delete access" are selected then they will be ignored when applied on the Samba server.

When setting permissions on a directory the second set of permissions (in the second set of parentheses) is by default applied to all files within that directory. If this is not what you want you must uncheck the "Replace permissions on existing files" checkbox in the NT dialog before clicking "OK".

If you wish to remove all permissions from a user/group/world component then you may either highlight the component and click the "Remove" button, or set the component to only have the special "Take Ownership" permission (displayed as "O" ) highlighted.

5.6. Interaction with the standard Samba create mask parameters

Note that with Samba 2.0.5 there are four new parameters to control this interaction. These are :

security mask

force security mode

directory security mask

force directory security mode

Once a user clicks "OK" to apply the permissions Samba maps the given permissions into a user/group/world r/w/x triple set, and then will check the changed permissions for a file against the bits set in the security mask parameter. Any bits that were changed that are not set to '1' in this parameter are left alone in the file permissions.

Essentially, zero bits in the security mask mask may be treated as a set of bits the user is not allowed to change, and one bits are those the user is allowed to change.

If not set explicitly this parameter is set to the same value as the create mask parameter to provide compatibility with Samba 2.0.4 where this permission change facility was introduced. To allow a user to modify all the user/group/world permissions on a file, set this parameter to 0777.

Next Samba checks the changed permissions for a file against the bits set in the force security mode parameter. Any bits that were changed that correspond to bits set to '1' in this parameter are forced to be set.

Essentially, bits set in the force security mode parameter may be treated as a set of bits that, when modifying security on a file, the user has always set to be 'on'.

If not set explicitly this parameter is set to the same value as the force create mode parameter to provide compatibility with Samba 2.0.4 where the permission change facility was introduced. To allow a user to modify all the user/group/world permissions on a file with no restrictions set this parameter to 000.

The security mask and force security mode parameters are applied to the change request in that order.

For a directory Samba will perform the same operations as described above for a file except using the parameter directory security mask instead of security mask, and force directory security mode parameter instead of force security mode .

The directory security mask parameter by default is set to the same value as the directory mask parameter and the force directory security mode parameter by default is set to the same value as the force directory mode parameter to provide compatibility with Samba 2.0.4 where the permission change facility was introduced.

In this way Samba enforces the permission restrictions that an administrator can set on a Samba share, whilst still allowing users to modify the permission bits within that restriction.

If you want to set up a share that allows users full control in modifying the permission bits on their files and directories and doesn't force any particular bits to be set 'on', then set the following parameters in the smb.conf(5) file in that share specific section :

security mask = 0777

force security mode = 0

directory security mask = 0777

force directory security mode = 0

As described, in Samba 2.0.4 the parameters :

create mask

force create mode

directory mask

force directory mode

were used instead of the parameters discussed here.

5.7. Interaction with the standard Samba file attribute mapping

Samba maps some of the DOS attribute bits (such as "read only") into the UNIX permissions of a file. This means there can be a conflict between the permission bits set via the security dialog and the permission bits set by the file attribute mapping.

One way this can show up is if a file has no UNIX read access for the owner it will show up as "read only" in the standard file attributes tabbed dialog. Unfortunately this dialog is the same one that contains the security info in another tab.

What this can mean is that if the owner changes the permissions to allow themselves read access using the security dialog, clicks "OK" to get back to the standard attributes tab dialog, and then clicks "OK" on that dialog, then NT will set the file permissions back to read-only (as that is what the attributes still say in the dialog). This means that after setting permissions and clicking "OK" to get back to the attributes dialog you should always hit "Cancel" rather than "OK" to ensure that your changes are not overridden.

6.1. Introduction

Beginning with the 2.2.0 release, Samba supports the native Windows NT printing mechanisms implemented via MS-RPC (i.e. the SPOOLSS named pipe). Previous versions of Samba only supported LanMan printing calls.

The additional functionality provided by the new SPOOLSS support includes:

• Support for downloading printer driver files to Windows 95/98/NT/2000 clients upon demand.

• Uploading of printer drivers via the Windows NT Add Printer Wizard (APW) or the Imprints tool set (refer to http://imprints.sourceforge.net).

• Support for the native MS-RPC printing calls such as StartDocPrinter, EnumJobs(), etc... (See the MSDN documentation at http://msdn.microsoft.com/ for more information on the Win32 printing API)

• Support for NT Access Control Lists (ACL) on printer objects

• Improved support for printer queue manipulation through the use of an internal databases for spooled job information

There has been some initial confusion about what all this means and whether or not it is a requirement for printer drivers to be installed on a Samba host in order to support printing from Windows clients. A bug existed in Samba 2.2.0 which made Windows NT/2000 clients require that the Samba server possess a valid driver for the printer. This is fixed in Samba 2.2.1 and once again, Windows NT/2000 clients can use the local APW for installing drivers to be used with a Samba served printer. This is the same behavior exhibited by Windows 9x clients. As a side note, Samba does not use these drivers in any way to process spooled files. They are utilized entirely by the clients.

The following MS KB article, may be of some help if you are dealing with Windows 2000 clients: How to Add Printers with No User Interaction in Windows 2000

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q189/1/05.ASP

6.2. Configuration

6.3. The Imprints Toolset

The Imprints tool set provides a UNIX equivalent of the Windows NT Add Printer Wizard. For complete information, please refer to the Imprints web site at http://imprints.sourceforge.net/ as well as the documentation included with the imprints source distribution. This section will only provide a brief introduction to the features of Imprints.

6.4. Migration to from Samba 2.0.x to 2.2.x

Given that printer driver management has changed (we hope improved) in 2.2 over prior releases, migration from an existing setup to 2.2 can follow several paths. Here are the possible scenarios for migration:

• If you do not desire the new Windows NT print driver support, nothing needs to be done. All existing parameters work the same.

• If you want to take advantage of NT printer driver support but do not want to migrate the 9x drivers to the new setup, the leave the existing printers.def file. When smbd attempts to locate a 9x driver for the printer in the TDB and fails it will drop down to using the printers.def (and all associated parameters). The make_printerdef tool will also remain for backwards compatibility but will be removed in the next major release.

• If you install a Windows 9x driver for a printer on your Samba host (in the printing TDB), this information will take precedence and the three old printing parameters will be ignored (including print driver location).

• If you want to migrate an existing printers.def file into the new setup, the current only solution is to use the Windows NT APW to install the NT drivers and the 9x drivers. This can be scripted using smbclient and rpcclient. See the Imprints installation client at http://imprints.sourceforge.net/ for an example.

The have been two new parameters add in Samba 2.2.2 to for better support of Samba 2.0.x backwards capability (disable spoolss) and for using local printers drivers on Windows NT/2000 clients (use client driver). Both of these options are described in the smb.coinf(5) man page and are disabled by default.

7.1. Joining an NT Domain with Samba 2.2

Assume you have a Samba 2.x server with a NetBIOS name of SERV1 and are joining an NT domain called DOM, which has a PDC with a NetBIOS name of DOMPDC and two backup domain controllers with NetBIOS names DOMBDC1 and DOMBDC2 .

In order to join the domain, first stop all Samba daemons and run the command:

root# smbpasswd -j DOM -r DOMPDC -UAdministrator%password

as we are joining the domain DOM and the PDC for that domain (the only machine that has write access to the domain SAM database) is DOMPDC. The Administrator%password is the login name and password for an account which has the necessary privilege to add machines to the domain. If this is successful you will see the message:

smbpasswd: Joined domain DOM.

in your terminal window. See the smbpasswd(8) man page for more details.

There is existing development code to join a domain without having to create the machine trust account on the PDC beforehand. This code will hopefully be available soon in release branches as well.

This command goes through the machine account password change protocol, then writes the new (random) machine account password for this Samba server into a file in the same directory in which an smbpasswd file would be stored - normally :

/usr/local/samba/private

In Samba 2.0.x, the filename looks like this:

<NT DOMAIN NAME>.<Samba Server Name>.mac

The .mac suffix stands for machine account password file. So in our example above, the file would be called:

DOM.SERV1.mac

In Samba 2.2, this file has been replaced with a TDB (Trivial Database) file named secrets.tdb.

This file is created and owned by root and is not readable by any other user. It is the key to the domain-level security for your system, and should be treated as carefully as a shadow password file.

Now, before restarting the Samba daemons you must edit your smb.conf(5) file to tell Samba it should now use domain security.

Change (or add) your security = line in the [global] section of your smb.conf to read:

security = domain

Next change the workgroup = line in the [global] section to read:

workgroup = DOM

as this is the name of the domain we are joining.

You must also have the parameter encrypt passwords set to yes in order for your users to authenticate to the NT PDC.

Finally, add (or modify) a password server = line in the [global] section to read:

password server = DOMPDC DOMBDC1 DOMBDC2

These are the primary and backup domain controllers Samba will attempt to contact in order to authenticate users. Samba will try to contact each of these servers in order, so you may want to rearrange this list in order to spread out the authentication load among domain controllers.

Alternatively, if you want smbd to automatically determine the list of Domain controllers to use for authentication, you may set this line to be :

password server = *

This method, which was introduced in Samba 2.0.6, allows Samba to use exactly the same mechanism that NT does. This method either broadcasts or uses a WINS database in order to find domain controllers to authenticate against.

Finally, restart your Samba daemons and get ready for clients to begin using domain security!

7.2. Samba and Windows 2000 Domains

Many people have asked regarding the state of Samba's ability to participate in a Windows 2000 Domain. Samba 2.2 is able to act as a member server of a Windows 2000 domain operating in mixed or native mode.

There is much confusion between the circumstances that require a "mixed" mode Win2k DC and a when this host can be switched to "native" mode. A "mixed" mode Win2k domain controller is only needed if Windows NT BDCs must exist in the same domain. By default, a Win2k DC in "native" mode will still support NetBIOS and NTLMv1 for authentication of legacy clients such as Windows 9x and NT 4.0. Samba has the same requirements as a Windows NT 4.0 member server.

The steps for adding a Samba 2.2 host to a Win2k domain are the same as those for adding a Samba server to a Windows NT 4.0 domain. The only exception is that the "Server Manager" from NT 4 has been replaced by the "Active Directory Users and Computers" MMC (Microsoft Management Console) plugin.

7.3. Why is this better than security = server?

Currently, domain security in Samba doesn't free you from having to create local Unix users to represent the users attaching to your server. This means that if domain user DOM\fred attaches to your domain security Samba server, there needs to be a local Unix user fred to represent that user in the Unix filesystem. This is very similar to the older Samba security mode security = server, where Samba would pass through the authentication request to a Windows NT server in the same way as a Windows 95 or Windows 98 server would.

Please refer to the Winbind paper for information on a system to automatically assign UNIX uids and gids to Windows NT Domain users and groups. This code is available in development branches only at the moment, but will be moved to release branches soon.

The advantage to domain-level security is that the authentication in domain-level security is passed down the authenticated RPC channel in exactly the same way that an NT server would do it. This means Samba servers now participate in domain trust relationships in exactly the same way NT servers do (i.e., you can add Samba servers into a resource domain and have the authentication passed on from a resource domain PDC to an account domain PDC.

In addition, with security = server every Samba daemon on a server has to keep a connection open to the authenticating server for as long as that daemon lasts. This can drain the connection resources on a Microsoft NT server and cause it to run out of available connections. With security = domain, however, the Samba daemons connect to the PDC/BDC only for as long as is necessary to authenticate the user, and then drop the connection, thus conserving PDC connection resources.

And finally, acting in the same manner as an NT server authenticating to a PDC means that as part of the authentication reply, the Samba server gets the user identification information such as the user SID, the list of NT groups the user belongs to, etc. All this information will allow Samba to be extended in the future into a mode the developers currently call appliance mode. In this mode, no local Unix users will be necessary, and Samba will generate Unix uids and gids from the information passed back from the PDC when a user is authenticated, making a Samba server truly plug and play in an NT domain environment. Watch for this code soon.

NOTE: Much of the text of this document was first published in the Web magazine LinuxWorld as the article Doing the NIS/NT Samba.

8.1. Prerequisite Reading

Before you continue reading in this chapter, please make sure that you are comfortable with configuring basic files services in smb.conf and how to enable and administer password encryption in Samba. Theses two topics are covered in the smb.conf(5) manpage and the Encryption chapter of this HOWTO Collection.

8.2. Background

Versions of Samba prior to release 2.2 had marginal capabilities to act as a Windows NT 4.0 Primary Domain Controller (PDC). With Samba 2.2.0, we are proud to announce official support for Windows NT 4.0-style domain logons from Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 clients. This article outlines the steps necessary for configuring Samba as a PDC. It is necessary to have a working Samba server prior to implementing the PDC functionality. If you have not followed the steps outlined in UNIX_INSTALL.html, please make sure that your server is configured correctly before proceeding. Another good resource in the smb.conf(5) man page. The following functionality should work in 2.2:

• domain logons for Windows NT 4.0/2000 clients.

• placing a Windows 9x client in user level security

• retrieving a list of users and groups from a Samba PDC to Windows 9x/NT/2000 clients

• roving (roaming) user profiles

• Windows NT 4.0-style system policies

The following pieces of functionality are not included in the 2.2 release:

• Windows NT 4 domain trusts

• SAM replication with Windows NT 4.0 Domain Controllers (i.e. a Samba PDC and a Windows NT BDC or vice versa)

• Adding users via the User Manager for Domains

• Acting as a Windows 2000 Domain Controller (i.e. Kerberos and Active Directory)

Please note that Windows 9x clients are not true members of a domain for reasons outlined in this article. Therefore the protocol for support Windows 9x-style domain logons is completely different from NT4 domain logons and has been officially supported for some time.

Implementing a Samba PDC can basically be divided into 2 broad steps.

1. Configuring the Samba PDC

2. Creating machine trust accounts and joining clients to the domain

There are other minor details such as user profiles, system policies, etc... However, these are not necessarily specific to a Samba PDC as much as they are related to Windows NT networking concepts. They will be mentioned only briefly here.

8.3. Configuring the Samba Domain Controller

The first step in creating a working Samba PDC is to understand the parameters necessary in smb.conf. I will not attempt to re-explain the parameters here as they are more that adequately covered in the smb.conf man page. For convenience, the parameters have been linked with the actual smb.conf description.

Here is an example smb.conf for acting as a PDC:

[global] ; Basic server settings netbios name = POGO workgroup = NARNIA ; we should act as the domain and local master browser os level = 64 preferred master = yes domain master = yes local master = yes ; security settings (must user security = user) security = user ; encrypted passwords are a requirement for a PDC encrypt passwords = yes ; support domain logons domain logons = yes ; where to store user profiles? logon path = \\%N\profiles\%u ; where is a user's home directory and where should it ; be mounted at? logon drive = H: logon home = \\homeserver\%u ; specify a generic logon script for all users ; this is a relative **DOS** path to the [netlogon] share logon script = logon.cmd ; necessary share for domain controller [netlogon] path = /usr/local/samba/lib/netlogon read only = yes write list = ntadmin ; share for storing user profiles [profiles] path = /export/smb/ntprofile read only = no create mask = 0600 directory mask = 0700

There are a couple of points to emphasize in the above configuration.

• Encrypted passwords must be enabled. For more details on how to do this, refer to ENCRYPTION.html.

• The server must support domain logons and a [netlogon] share

• The server must be the domain master browser in order for Windows client to locate the server as a DC. Please refer to the various Network Browsing documentation included with this distribution for details.

As Samba 2.2 does not offer a complete implementation of group mapping between Windows NT groups and Unix groups (this is really quite complicated to explain in a short space), you should refer to the domain admin group smb.conf parameter for information of creating "Domain Admins" style accounts.

8.4. Creating Machine Trust Accounts and Joining Clients to the Domain

A machine trust account is a Samba account that is used to authenticate a client machine (rather than a user) to the Samba server. In Windows terminology, this is known as a "Computer Account."

The password of a machine trust account acts as the shared secret for secure communication with the Domain Controller. This is a security feature to prevent an unauthorized machine with the same NetBIOS name from joining the domain and gaining access to domain user/group accounts. Windows NT and 2000 clients use machine trust accounts, but Windows 9x clients do not. Hence, a Windows 9x client is never a true member of a domain because it does not possess a machine trust account, and thus has no shared secret with the domain controller.

A Windows PDC stores each machine trust account in the Windows Registry. A Samba PDC, however, stores each machine trust account in two parts, as follows:

• A Samba account, stored in the same location as user LanMan and NT password hashes (currently smbpasswd). The Samba account possesses and uses only the NT password hash.

• A corresponding Unix account, typically stored in /etc/passwd. (Future releases will alleviate the need to create /etc/passwd entries.)

There are two ways to create machine trust accounts:

• Manual creation. Both the Samba and corresponding Unix account are created by hand.

• "On-the-fly" creation. The Samba machine trust account is automatically created by Samba at the time the client is joined to the domain. (For security, this is the recommended method.) The corresponding Unix account may be created automatically or manually.

8.5. Common Problems and Errors

• I cannot include a '$' in a machine name.

  A 'machine name' in (typically) /etc/passwd of the machine name with a '$' appended. FreeBSD (and other BSD systems?) won't create a user with a '$' in their name.

  The problem is only in the program used to make the entry, once made, it works perfectly. So create a user without the '$' and use vipw to edit the entry, adding the '$'. Or create the whole entry with vipw if you like, make sure you use a unique User ID !

• I get told "You already have a connection to the Domain...." or "Cannot join domain, the credentials supplied conflict with an existing set.." when creating a machine trust account.

  This happens if you try to create a machine trust account from the machine itself and already have a connection (e.g. mapped drive) to a share (or IPC$) on the Samba PDC. The following command will remove all network drive connections:

  C:\WINNT\> net use * /d

  Further, if the machine is a already a 'member of a workgroup' that is the same name as the domain you are joining (bad idea) you will get this message. Change the workgroup name to something else, it does not matter what, reboot, and try again.

• The system can not log you on (C000019B)....

  I joined the domain successfully but after upgrading to a newer version of the Samba code I get the message, "The system can not log you on (C000019B), Please try a gain or consult your system administrator" when attempting to logon.

  This occurs when the domain SID stored in private/WORKGROUP.SID is changed. For example, you remove the file and smbd automatically creates a new one. Or you are swapping back and forth between versions 2.0.7, TNG and the HEAD branch code (not recommended). The only way to correct the problem is to restore the original domain SID or remove the domain client from the domain and rejoin.

• The machine trust account for this computer either does not exist or is not accessible.

  When I try to join the domain I get the message "The machine account for this computer either does not exist or is not accessible". What's wrong?

  This problem is caused by the PDC not having a suitable machine trust account. If you are using the add user script method to create accounts then this would indicate that it has not worked. Ensure the domain admin user system is working.

  Alternatively if you are creating account entries manually then they have not been created correctly. Make sure that you have the entry correct for the machine trust account in smbpasswd file on the Samba PDC. If you added the account using an editor rather than using the smbpasswd utility, make sure that the account name is the machine NetBIOS name with a '$' appended to it ( i.e. computer_name$ ). There must be an entry in both /etc/passwd and the smbpasswd file. Some people have reported that inconsistent subnet masks between the Samba server and the NT client have caused this problem. Make sure that these are consistent for both client and server.

• When I attempt to login to a Samba Domain from a NT4/W2K workstation, I get a message about my account being disabled.

  This problem is caused by a PAM related bug in Samba 2.2.0. This bug is fixed in 2.2.1. Other symptoms could be unaccessible shares on NT/W2K member servers in the domain or the following error in your smbd.log: passdb/pampass.c:pam_account(268) PAM: UNKNOWN ERROR for User: %user%

  At first be ensure to enable the useraccounts with smbpasswd -e %user%, this is normally done, when you create an account.

  In order to work around this problem in 2.2.0, configure the account control flag in /etc/pam.d/samba file as follows:

  account required pam_permit.so

  If you want to remain backward compatibility to samba 2.0.x use pam_permit.so, it's also possible to use pam_pwdb.so. There are some bugs if you try to use pam_unix.so, if you need this, be ensure to use the most recent version of this file.

8.6. System Policies and Profiles

Much of the information necessary to implement System Policies and Roving User Profiles in a Samba domain is the same as that for implementing these same items in a Windows NT 4.0 domain. You should read the white paper Implementing Profiles and Policies in Windows NT 4.0 available from Microsoft.

Here are some additional details:

• What about Windows NT Policy Editor?

  To create or edit ntconfig.pol you must use the NT Server Policy Editor, poledit.exe which is included with NT Server but not NT Workstation. There is a Policy Editor on a NTws but it is not suitable for creating Domain Policies. Further, although the Windows 95 Policy Editor can be installed on an NT Workstation/Server, it will not work with NT policies because the registry key that are set by the policy templates. However, the files from the NT Server will run happily enough on an NTws. You need poledit.exe, common.adm and winnt.adm. It is convenient to put the two *.adm files in c:\winnt\inf which is where the binary will look for them unless told otherwise. Note also that that directory is 'hidden'.

  The Windows NT policy editor is also included with the Service Pack 3 (and later) for Windows NT 4.0. Extract the files using servicepackname /x, i.e. that's Nt4sp6ai.exe /x for service pack 6a. The policy editor, poledit.exe and the associated template files (*.adm) should be extracted as well. It is also possible to downloaded the policy template files for Office97 and get a copy of the policy editor. Another possible location is with the Zero Administration Kit available for download from Microsoft.

• Can Win95 do Policies?

  Install the group policy handler for Win9x to pick up group policies. Look on the Win98 CD in \tools\reskit\netadmin\poledit. Install group policies on a Win9x client by double-clicking grouppol.inf. Log off and on again a couple of times and see if Win98 picks up group policies. Unfortunately this needs to be done on every Win9x machine that uses group policies....

  If group policies don't work one reports suggests getting the updated (read: working) grouppol.dll for Windows 9x. The group list is grabbed from /etc/group.

• How do I get 'User Manager' and 'Server Manager'

  Since I don't need to buy an NT Server CD now, how do I get the 'User Manager for Domains', the 'Server Manager'?

  Microsoft distributes a version of these tools called nexus for installation on Windows 95 systems. The tools set includes

  • Server Manager

  • User Manager for Domains

  • Event Viewer

  Click here to download the archived file ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/NEXUS.EXE

  The Windows NT 4.0 version of the 'User Manager for Domains' and 'Server Manager' are available from Microsoft via ftp from ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/SRVTOOLS.EXE

8.7. What other help can I get?

There are many sources of information available in the form of mailing lists, RFC's and documentation. The docs that come with the samba distribution contain very good explanations of general SMB topics such as browsing.

• What are some diagnostics tools I can use to debug the domain logon process and where can I find them?

  One of the best diagnostic tools for debugging problems is Samba itself. You can use the -d option for both smbd and nmbd to specify what 'debug level' at which to run. See the man pages on smbd, nmbd and smb.conf for more information on debugging options. The debug level can range from 1 (the default) to 10 (100 for debugging passwords).

  Another helpful method of debugging is to compile samba using the gcc -g flag. This will include debug information in the binaries and allow you to attach gdb to the running smbd / nmbd process. In order to attach gdb to an smbd process for an NT workstation, first get the workstation to make the connection. Pressing ctrl-alt-delete and going down to the domain box is sufficient (at least, on the first time you join the domain) to generate a 'LsaEnumTrustedDomains'. Thereafter, the workstation maintains an open connection, and therefore there will be an smbd process running (assuming that you haven't set a really short smbd idle timeout) So, in between pressing ctrl alt delete, and actually typing in your password, you can gdb attach and continue.

  Some useful samba commands worth investigating:

  • testparam | more

  • smbclient -L //{netbios name of server}

  An SMB enabled version of tcpdump is available from http://www.tcpdup.org/. Ethereal, another good packet sniffer for Unix and Win32 hosts, can be downloaded from http://www.ethereal.com.

  For tracing things on the Microsoft Windows NT, Network Monitor (aka. netmon) is available on the Microsoft Developer Network CD's, the Windows NT Server install CD and the SMS CD's. The version of netmon that ships with SMS allows for dumping packets between any two computers (i.e. placing the network interface in promiscuous mode). The version on the NT Server install CD will only allow monitoring of network traffic directed to the local NT box and broadcasts on the local subnet. Be aware that Ethereal can read and write netmon formatted files.

• How do I install 'Network Monitor' on an NT Workstation or a Windows 9x box?

  Installing netmon on an NT workstation requires a couple of steps. The following are for installing Netmon V4.00.349, which comes with Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0, on Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0. The process should be similar for other version of Windows NT / Netmon. You will need both the Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Install CD and the Workstation 4.0 Install CD.

  Initially you will need to install 'Network Monitor Tools and Agent' on the NT Server. To do this

  • Goto Start - Settings - Control Panel - Network - Services - Add

  • Select the 'Network Monitor Tools and Agent' and click on 'OK'.

  • Click 'OK' on the Network Control Panel.

  • Insert the Windows NT Server 4.0 install CD when prompted.

  At this point the Netmon files should exist in %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\netmon\*.*. Two subdirectories exist as well, parsers\ which contains the necessary DLL's for parsing the netmon packet dump, and captures\.

  In order to install the Netmon tools on an NT Workstation, you will first need to install the 'Network Monitor Agent' from the Workstation install CD.

  • Goto Start - Settings - Control Panel - Network - Services - Add

  • Select the 'Network Monitor Agent' and click on 'OK'.

  • Click 'OK' on the Network Control Panel.

  • Insert the Windows NT Workstation 4.0 install CD when prompted.

  Now copy the files from the NT Server in %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\netmon\*.* to %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\netmon\*.* on the Workstation and set permissions as you deem appropriate for your site. You will need administrative rights on the NT box to run netmon.

  To install Netmon on a Windows 9x box install the network monitor agent from the Windows 9x CD (\admin\nettools\netmon). There is a readme file located with the netmon driver files on the CD if you need information on how to do this. Copy the files from a working Netmon installation.

• The following is a list if helpful URLs and other links:

  • Home of Samba site http://samba.org. We have a mirror near you !

  • The Development document on the Samba mirrors might mention your problem. If so, it might mean that the developers are working on it.

  • See how Scott Merrill simulates a BDC behavior at http://www.skippy.net/linux/smb-howto.html.

  • Although 2.0.7 has almost had its day as a PDC, David Bannon will keep the 2.0.7 PDC pages at http://bioserve.latrobe.edu.au/samba going for a while yet.

  • Misc links to CIFS information http://samba.org/cifs/

  • NT Domains for Unix http://mailhost.cb1.com/~lkcl/ntdom/

  • FTP site for older SMB specs: ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/developr/drg/CIFS/

• How do I get help from the mailing lists?

  There are a number of Samba related mailing lists. Go to http://samba.org, click on your nearest mirror and then click on Support and then click on Samba related mailing lists.

  For questions relating to Samba TNG go to http://www.samba-tng.org/ It has been requested that you don't post questions about Samba-TNG to the main stream Samba lists.

  If you post a message to one of the lists please observe the following guide lines :

  • Always remember that the developers are volunteers, they are not paid and they never guarantee to produce a particular feature at a particular time. Any time lines are 'best guess' and nothing more.

  • Always mention what version of samba you are using and what operating system its running under. You should probably list the relevant sections of your smb.conf file, at least the options in [global] that affect PDC support.

  • In addition to the version, if you obtained Samba via CVS mention the date when you last checked it out.

  • Try and make your question clear and brief, lots of long, convoluted questions get deleted before they are completely read ! Don't post html encoded messages (if you can select colour or font size its html).

  • If you run one of those nifty 'I'm on holidays' things when you are away, make sure its configured to not answer mailing lists.

  • Don't cross post. Work out which is the best list to post to and see what happens, i.e. don't post to both samba-ntdom and samba-technical. Many people active on the lists subscribe to more than one list and get annoyed to see the same message two or more times. Often someone will see a message and thinking it would be better dealt with on another, will forward it on for you.

  • You might include partial log files written at a debug level set to as much as 20. Please don't send the entire log but enough to give the context of the error messages.

  • (Possibly) If you have a complete netmon trace ( from the opening of the pipe to the error ) you can send the *.CAP file as well.

  • Please think carefully before attaching a document to an email. Consider pasting the relevant parts into the body of the message. The samba mailing lists go to a huge number of people, do they all need a copy of your smb.conf in their attach directory?

• How do I get off the mailing lists?

  To have your name removed from a samba mailing list, go to the same place you went to to get on it. Go to http://lists.samba.org, click on your nearest mirror and then click on Support and then click on Samba related mailing lists. Or perhaps see here

  Please don't post messages to the list asking to be removed, you will just be referred to the above address (unless that process failed in some way...)

8.8. Domain Control for Windows 9x/ME

A domain and a workgroup are exactly the same thing in terms of network browsing. The difference is that a distributable authentication database is associated with a domain, for secure login access to a network. Also, different access rights can be granted to users if they successfully authenticate against a domain logon server (NT server and other systems based on NT server support this, as does at least Samba TNG now).

The SMB client logging on to a domain has an expectation that every other server in the domain should accept the same authentication information. Network browsing functionality of domains and workgroups is identical and is explained in BROWSING.txt. It should be noted, that browsing is totally orthogonal to logon support.

Issues related to the single-logon network model are discussed in this section. Samba supports domain logons, network logon scripts, and user profiles for MS Windows for workgroups and MS Windows 9X/ME clients which will be the focus of this section.

When an SMB client in a domain wishes to logon it broadcast requests for a logon server. The first one to reply gets the job, and validates its password using whatever mechanism the Samba administrator has installed. It is possible (but very stupid) to create a domain where the user database is not shared between servers, i.e. they are effectively workgroup servers advertising themselves as participating in a domain. This demonstrates how authentication is quite different from but closely involved with domains.

Using these features you can make your clients verify their logon via the Samba server; make clients run a batch file when they logon to the network and download their preferences, desktop and start menu.

Before launching into the configuration instructions, it is worthwhile lookingat how a Windows 9x/ME client performs a logon:

1. The client broadcasts (to the IP broadcast address of the subnet it is in) a NetLogon request. This is sent to the NetBIOS name DOMAIN<1c> at the NetBIOS layer. The client chooses the first response it receives, which contains the NetBIOS name of the logon server to use in the format of \\SERVER.

2. The client then connects to that server, logs on (does an SMBsessetupX) and then connects to the IPC$ share (using an SMBtconX).

3. The client then does a NetWkstaUserLogon request, which retrieves the name of the user's logon script.

4. The client then connects to the NetLogon share and searches for this and if it is found and can be read, is retrieved and executed by the client. After this, the client disconnects from the NetLogon share.

5. The client then sends a NetUserGetInfo request to the server, to retrieve the user's home share, which is used to search for profiles. Since the response to the NetUserGetInfo request does not contain much more the user's home share, profiles for Win9X clients MUST reside in the user home directory.

6. The client then connects to the user's home share and searches for the user's profile. As it turns out, you can specify the user's home share as a sharename and path. For example, \\server\fred\.profile. If the profiles are found, they are implemented.

7. The client then disconnects from the user's home share, and reconnects to the NetLogon share and looks for CONFIG.POL, the policies file. If this is found, it is read and implemented.

8.9. DOMAIN_CONTROL.txt : Windows NT Domain Control & Samba

NOTE : The term "Domain Controller" and those related to it refer to one specific method of authentication that can underly an SMB domain. Domain Controllers prior to Windows NT Server 3.1 were sold by various companies and based on private extensions to the LAN Manager 2.1 protocol. Windows NT introduced Microsoft-specific ways of distributing the user authentication database. See DOMAIN.txt for examples of how Samba can participate in or create SMB domains based on shared authentication database schemes other than the Windows NT SAM.

Windows NT Server can be installed as either a plain file and print server (WORKGROUP workstation or server) or as a server that participates in Domain Control (DOMAIN member, Primary Domain controller or Backup Domain controller). The same is true for OS/2 Warp Server, Digital Pathworks and other similar products, all of which can participate in Domain Control along with Windows NT.

To many people these terms can be confusing, so let's try to clear the air.

Every Windows NT system (workstation or server) has a registry database. The registry contains entries that describe the initialization information for all services (the equivalent of Unix Daemons) that run within the Windows NT environment. The registry also contains entries that tell application software where to find dynamically loadable libraries that they depend upon. In fact, the registry contains entries that describes everything that anything may need to know to interact with the rest of the system.

The registry files can be located on any Windows NT machine by opening a command prompt and typing:

C:\WINNT\> dir %SystemRoot%\System32\config

The environment variable %SystemRoot% value can be obtained by typing:

C:\WINNT>echo %SystemRoot%

The active parts of the registry that you may want to be familiar with are the files called: default, system, software, sam and security.

In a domain environment, Microsoft Windows NT domain controllers participate in replication of the SAM and SECURITY files so that all controllers within the domain have an exactly identical copy of each.

The Microsoft Windows NT system is structured within a security model that says that all applications and services must authenticate themselves before they can obtain permission from the security manager to do what they set out to do.

The Windows NT User database also resides within the registry. This part of the registry contains the user's security identifier, home directory, group memberships, desktop profile, and so on.

Every Windows NT system (workstation as well as server) will have its own registry. Windows NT Servers that participate in Domain Security control have a database that they share in common - thus they do NOT own an independent full registry database of their own, as do Workstations and plain Servers.

The User database is called the SAM (Security Access Manager) database and is used for all user authentication as well as for authentication of inter- process authentication (i.e. to ensure that the service action a user has requested is permitted within the limits of that user's privileges).

The Samba team have produced a utility that can dump the Windows NT SAM into smbpasswd format: see ENCRYPTION.txt for information on smbpasswd and /pub/samba/pwdump on your nearest Samba mirror for the utility. This facility is useful but cannot be easily used to implement SAM replication to Samba systems.

Windows for Workgroups, Windows 95, and Windows NT Workstations and Servers can participate in a Domain security system that is controlled by Windows NT servers that have been correctly configured. Almost every domain will have ONE Primary Domain Controller (PDC). It is desirable that each domain will have at least one Backup Domain Controller (BDC).

The PDC and BDCs then participate in replication of the SAM database so that each Domain Controlling participant will have an up to date SAM component within its registry.

9.1. Abstract

Integration of UNIX and Microsoft Windows NT through a unified logon has been considered a "holy grail" in heterogeneous computing environments for a long time. We present winbind, a component of the Samba suite of programs as a solution to the unified logon problem. Winbind uses a UNIX implementation of Microsoft RPC calls, Pluggable Authentication Modules, and the Name Service Switch to allow Windows NT domain users to appear and operate as UNIX users on a UNIX machine. This paper describes the winbind system, explaining the functionality it provides, how it is configured, and how it works internally.

9.2. Introduction

It is well known that UNIX and Microsoft Windows NT have different models for representing user and group information and use different technologies for implementing them. This fact has made it difficult to integrate the two systems in a satisfactory manner.

One common solution in use today has been to create identically named user accounts on both the UNIX and Windows systems and use the Samba suite of programs to provide file and print services between the two. This solution is far from perfect however, as adding and deleting users on both sets of machines becomes a chore and two sets of passwords are required both of which can lead to synchronization problems between the UNIX and Windows systems and confusion for users.

We divide the unified logon problem for UNIX machines into three smaller problems:

• Obtaining Windows NT user and group information

• Authenticating Windows NT users

• Password changing for Windows NT users

Ideally, a prospective solution to the unified logon problem would satisfy all the above components without duplication of information on the UNIX machines and without creating additional tasks for the system administrator when maintaining users and groups on either system. The winbind system provides a simple and elegant solution to all three components of the unified logon problem.

9.3. What Winbind Provides

Winbind unifies UNIX and Windows NT account management by allowing a UNIX box to become a full member of a NT domain. Once this is done the UNIX box will see NT users and groups as if they were native UNIX users and groups, allowing the NT domain to be used in much the same manner that NIS+ is used within UNIX-only environments.

The end result is that whenever any program on the UNIX machine asks the operating system to lookup a user or group name, the query will be resolved by asking the NT domain controller for the specified domain to do the lookup. Because Winbind hooks into the operating system at a low level (via the NSS name resolution modules in the C library) this redirection to the NT domain controller is completely transparent.

Users on the UNIX machine can then use NT user and group names as they would use "native" UNIX names. They can chown files so that they are owned by NT domain users or even login to the UNIX machine and run a UNIX X-Window session as a domain user.

The only obvious indication that Winbind is being used is that user and group names take the form DOMAIN\user and DOMAIN\group. This is necessary as it allows Winbind to determine that redirection to a domain controller is wanted for a particular lookup and which trusted domain is being referenced.

Additionally, Winbind provides an authentication service that hooks into the Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) system to provide authentication via a NT domain to any PAM enabled applications. This capability solves the problem of synchronizing passwords between systems since all passwords are stored in a single location (on the domain controller).

9.4. How Winbind Works

The winbind system is designed around a client/server architecture. A long running winbindd daemon listens on a UNIX domain socket waiting for requests to arrive. These requests are generated by the NSS and PAM clients and processed sequentially.

The technologies used to implement winbind are described in detail below.

9.5. Installation and Configuration

Many thanks to John Trostel jtrostel@snapserver.com for providing the HOWTO for this section.

This HOWTO describes how to get winbind services up and running to control access and authenticate users on your Linux box using the winbind services which come with SAMBA 2.2.2.

9.6. Limitations

Winbind has a number of limitations in its current released version that we hope to overcome in future releases:

• Winbind is currently only available for the Linux operating system, although ports to other operating systems are certainly possible. For such ports to be feasible, we require the C library of the target operating system to support the Name Service Switch and Pluggable Authentication Modules systems. This is becoming more common as NSS and PAM gain support among UNIX vendors.

• The mappings of Windows NT RIDs to UNIX ids is not made algorithmically and depends on the order in which unmapped users or groups are seen by winbind. It may be difficult to recover the mappings of rid to UNIX id mapping if the file containing this information is corrupted or destroyed.

• Currently the winbind PAM module does not take into account possible workstation and logon time restrictions that may be been set for Windows NT users.

9.7. Conclusion

The winbind system, through the use of the Name Service Switch, Pluggable Authentication Modules, and appropriate Microsoft RPC calls have allowed us to provide seamless integration of Microsoft Windows NT domain users on a UNIX system. The result is a great reduction in the administrative cost of running a mixed UNIX and NT network.

10.1. FAQs

11.1. Introduction

Samba is developed in an open environment. Developers use CVS (Concurrent Versioning System) to "checkin" (also known as "commit") new source code. Samba's various CVS branches can be accessed via anonymous CVS using the instructions detailed in this chapter.

This document is a modified version of the instructions found at http://samba.org/samba/cvs.html

11.2. CVS Access to samba.org

The machine samba.org runs a publicly accessible CVS repository for access to the source code of several packages, including samba, rsync and jitterbug. There are two main ways of accessing the CVS server on this host.