Samba 4 Enters Beta 170
rayk_sland writes "Progress is being made on the long awaited Samba 4 release. On Tuesday the Samba 4 team announced their first beta. Those of us who refuse to have a closed-source server at the core of our networks will be encouraged to see this milestone. Here are a few of the new features: 'Samba 4.0 beta supports the server-side of the Active Directory logon environment used by Windows 2000 and later, so we can do full domain join and domain logon operations with these clients. ... Samba 4.0 beta ships with two distinct file servers. We now use the file server from the Samba 3.x series 'smbd' for all file serving by default. For pure file server work, the binaries users would expect from that series (nmbd, winbindd, smbpasswd) continue to be available. Samba 4.0 also ships with the 'NTVFS' file server. This file server is what was used in all previous alpha releases of Samba 4.0, and is tuned to match the requirements of an AD domain controller. We continue to support this, not only to provide continuity to installations that have deployed it as part of an AD DC, but also as a running example of the NT-FSA architecture we expect to move smbd to in the longer term. ... Finally, a new scripting interface has been added to Samba 4, allowing Python programs to interface to Samba's internals, and many tools and internal workings of the DC code is now implemented in python.'"
Re:yeah, but... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:internals? in python? (Score:5, Informative)
You are basically completely wrong about what the Samba team has done. All the daemons and such are still written in C (and/or C++). Did you really think that they would rewrite Samba from the ground up in an interpreted language?
All they have done is provide a scripting interface with bindings for Python. I don't know if the interface is generic enough to be used by other scripting languages, but that's irrelevant. The point is that you can script Samba, not that Samba is a script.
Re:Big shoutout to Tridge and the whole Samba team (Score:4, Informative)
Meh. Sun had CIFS in the Solaris kernel 5 years ago.
Err, cifs has been around for years in the linux kernel (as a module), and smbfs before that has been around since at least June 96
Re:Harsh (Score:4, Informative)
"it (open source) just seemed to want to steal someone else's work in this particular area."
What a baddass comment. Completely wrong, of course, but badass.
SAMBA predates Windows SMB server.
It would be just as accurate to say Microsoft "just seemed to want to steal someone else's work in this particular area."
Re:Interesting, to say the least (Score:3, Informative)
I have an active Samba4 testbed intergrated to a huge AD structure and until alpha17 I've had all sorts of issues. However I now have alpha19 and things have changed considerably - it's working to the point where I have put a Samba4 test controller into production and have seen this Just Work once installed correctly.
However the official Samba4 install docs are shit. I had to work out a HOWTO that with the help of a few searches to fine tune it, that after a lot of work Just Works as well. You have to install and configure BIND, krf5, ntp etc one by one in the right order and get it right or you are screwed. I spent a few hours today knocking up a internal HOWTO based on all of that and it's now the install process I'm happy with and can execute in 15 minutes
The issues I see with Samba is not wether is nearing production ready or not - its a prick to install correctly if you don't do a lot of testing and research (which is why I despair at the wiki install process, frankly it's not worth spit) - which is why I think a lot of admins run into real deep trouble at first and often just give up. You also do need good working AD knowledge, an area a lot of Linux admins just do not have. You also need good Linux knowledge, something most Windows Admin just do not have. In other words, it doesnt allow clicktards to use it. You need to know what the fuck you are doing.
But when I have an Exchange 2010 platform referencing the Samba4 controller as it's DC, that's a really good test to see that it all really does work and works so well that even a AD sensitive application like Exchange has no idea it's not talking to a W2K8 controller.
So, summary - since Alpha18, Samba4 has become good enough to Just Work, no MS server knows the difference and someone with experience of NT back to 3.1/3.5 days is happy with how it works. However Samba really need to get the install documentation in much better shape or even simply point to HOWTO's that do work, so that they get more people to actually be able to USE the damn thing so you dont have to go through what I did to get to the point where I am. Take my advice, find a good HOWTO from somewhere that ISNT the Samba4 wiki and you will have a much better experience. Still not clicktard level easy and I suspect never will be..... but frankly clicktards should be staying the fuck away from SysAdmin anyway.
Re:Big shoutout to Tridge and the whole Samba team (Score:4, Informative)