samba - Aug 2003 - Supported version of Samba for commercial use.

Dear Sirs.

We have csv reports that are created on a unix server automatically via a
cron job. We are looking at putting these reports in a shared area / work
out a way of sharing a unix device to windows machine like mapping a network
drive. The only product we have found that can possibly do this is samba.
Because we are a large company ('BRITISH TELECOM') we really need a
version
of this product that is supported. Are there any subsidiary companies that
offer support for this product?

If any one can help can you reply by returning an email or call 01908656496.
Regards
Stephen Williams

Steve

A question for you - may need a bit of digging about.  

John has asked us to look at automating the creation of some csv report
extracts which he currently does manually. Chris has worked out the method
to get this done using a cron job  but we would need to store the outputs
(daily) on some sort of shared area so they could be accessed by Pete/Jason
to move onto Plink folders, and also in the future by Actuate.

There will be obvious questions about archiving etc but for now we need to
know what's practical in terms of sharing a UNIX device so it could be
mapped to a PC like a network drive. The product that I've had mentioned to
me is Samba but I'm not sure how this works or whether it's suitable for
the
live environment (it may be a freeware product which could cause
acceptability issues?)

Could you see if anyone knows anything about this, or similarly acceptable
products please?

Monday, August 4, 2003, 4:42:20 PM, steve wrote:
> Dear Sirs.
> We have csv reports that are created on a unix server automatically via a
> cron job. We are looking at putting these reports in a shared area / work
> out a way of sharing a unix device to windows machine like mapping a
network
> drive. The only product we have found that can possibly do this is samba.
What if in the unix box you install samba client and then it map
\\WINSERVER\SHARE as /mnt/samba.
>From cron just output all file to /mnt/samba.
>From client just access this files as  \\WINSERVER\SHARE
>From admin, just set permission, accesslit etc from WINSERVER only.
Happy ending (hopefully).


--beast

On Mon, Aug 04, 2003 at 05:17:47PM +0700, Beast wrote:
> Monday, August 4, 2003, 4:42:20 PM, steve wrote:
> 
> > Dear Sirs.
> 
> > We have csv reports that are created on a unix server automatically
via a
> > cron job. We are looking at putting these reports in a shared area /
work
> > out a way of sharing a unix device to windows machine like mapping a
network
> > drive. The only product we have found that can possibly do this is
samba.
> 
> What if in the unix box you install samba client and then it map
> \\WINSERVER\SHARE as /mnt/samba.
> >From cron just output all file to /mnt/samba.
> >From client just access this files as  \\WINSERVER\SHARE
> >From admin, just set permission, accesslit etc from WINSERVER only.
> Happy ending (hopefully).
This assumes Linux, or using a product like sharity.  However, then you rely
on the network for the correct operation of the cron job.  Generally, I 
would not recommend such a setup - using Samba on the server-side is much 
mroe reliable - if only becouse then you only have one server, not the 
windows machine serving the files out again.

Samba is highly suited to solving this particular problem.  If you are after
commericial support (and I certainly understand the need for this in many
corperate environments) then you will find a number of consultants 
listed in our support directory: http://samba.org/samba/support/

(Unfortunetely the Samba team can only list them, we cannot warrent their 
services).  

You might also want to consider SerNet www.sernet.de, who put on the 
annual SambaXP conference.

Andrew Bartlett

On Mon, Aug 04, 2003 at 10:42:20AM +0100, steve.22.williams@bt.com
wrote:
> Dear Sirs.
> 
> We have csv reports that are created on a unix server automatically via a
> cron job. We are looking at putting these reports in a shared area / work
> out a way of sharing a unix device to windows machine like mapping a
network
> drive. The only product we have found that can possibly do this is samba.
> Because we are a large company ('BRITISH TELECOM') we really need a
version
> of this product that is supported. Are there any subsidiary companies that
> offer support for this product?
> 
> If any one can help can you reply by returning an email or call
01908656496.
I'm sure that many Samba support companies in the UK are salivating at the
thought of a Samba contract with BT :-).

Try here :

http://us1.samba.org/samba/support/uk.html

In addition, you should know that you can get Samba support
from IBM, HP, SGI and Sun - just ask your sales rep.

Jeremy.