samba - Mar 2005 - what are *.tdb files?

In /varcache/samba/ I have several .tdb files.  Like brlock.tdb, 
locking.tdb, ntdrivers.tdb, etc.  Excusing my ignorance, what are these 
files, and what do they do?  And why must they be copied when migrating 
from one samba server to a new one?

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Adam Williams wrote:

| In /varcache/samba/ I have several .tdb files.
| Like brlock.tdb,  locking.tdb, ntdrivers.tdb, etc.
| Excusing my ignorance, what are these  files, and
| what do they do?  And why must they be copied when
| migrating  from one samba server to a new one?

Samba uses a lightweight database called Trivial Database
(tdb).  Here's the list  (john, we should really document
this somewhere).


(*) information persistent across restarts (but not
necessarily important to backup).


account_policy.tdb*	NT account policy settings
			such as pw expiration, etc...

brlock.tdb		byte range locks

browse.dat		browse lists

connections.tdb		share connections (used to enforce
			max connections, etc...)

gencache.tdb		generic caching db

group_mapping.tdb*	group mapping information

lang_en.tdb		Language encodings (i think).

locking.tdb		share modes & oplocks

login_cache.tdb*	bad pw attempts

messages.tdb		Samba messaging system

netsamlogon_cache.tdb*	cache of user net_info_3 struct
			from net_samlogon() request (as a
			domain member)

ntdrivers.tdb*		installed printer drivers

ntforms.tdb*		installed printer forms

ntprinters.tdb*		installed printer information

printing/		directory containing tdb per print
			queue of cached lpq output

registry.tdb		Windows registry skeleton
			(connect via regedit.exe)

sessionid.tdb		session information (e.g. support for
			'utmp = yes')

share_info.tdb*		share acls

unexpected.tdb		unexpected packet queue needed to
			support windows clients that respond
			on a difference port that the
			originating request)  (i could be wrong
~ 			on this one).

winbindd_cache.tdb	winbindd's cache of user lists, etc...

winbindd_idmap.tdb*	winbindd's local idmap db

wins.dat*		wins database when 'wins support = yes'



The following tdb's should be backed up IMO:

	nt*.tdb
	account_policy.tdb
	group_mapping.tdb
	share_info.tdb




cheers, jerry
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jerry@samba.org wrote:
> Adam Williams wrote:
> 
> | In /varcache/samba/ I have several .tdb files.
> | Like brlock.tdb,  locking.tdb, ntdrivers.tdb, etc.
> | Excusing my ignorance, what are these  files, and
> | what do they do?  And why must they be copied when
> | migrating  from one samba server to a new one?
> 
> Samba uses a lightweight database called Trivial Database
> (tdb).  Here's the list  (john, we should really document
> this somewhere).
<snip -- excellent list removed and saved away>
> winbindd_idmap.tdb*            winbindd's local idmap db
> The following tdb's should be backed up IMO:
> 
>    nt*.tdb
>    account_policy.tdb
>    group_mapping.tdb
>    share_info.tdb
If you're running with winbind and using local tdbs rather than LDAP,
I'd
vote to add the winbindd_idmap.tdb to the list of things to backup. 

In fact I tdbbackup this file once an hour into a winbindd_idmap.tdb.HH 
file. (where HH is 0-23) We've had a few of these files get corrupt and 
then you end up no owners & groups on all/some of your files. It is a real 
mess.

Bill Marshall 
IBM Global Services Unix & Intel Servers
Rochester PC Server Team