samba - Oct 2025 - Raising Functional Level

Hello,

Ive read a few this about the functional level but Im not sure if this 
is something we want to do.

What are the benefits of raising the level?

Will Samba do that by itself during an upgrade process or is this a pure 
admin-controlled upgrade?

Will it be mandatory to upgrade for a future version of samba?

It says "older clients that dont support the new level will break".
Are
these just older Windows machine or does anybody know if other clients 
(Mailserver, MacOS, ...) are breaking too?

Thanks and have a nice weekend!

Am 24.10.25 um 07:51 schrieb Hans Schulze via samba:
> That worked. Many thanks! However, I only upgraded to *2012_R2* for 
> now, since I?m still running *Samba 4.19.5*. I also didn?t need to 
> perform a schema upgrade ? it was already at *69*.
>
> Best regards
>
>
>
> Am 22.10.2025 um 19:46 schrieb Luis Peromarta via samba:
>> Try this.
>>
>> http://samba.bigbird.es/doku.php?id=samba:upgrade-fl-2016
>> On 22 Oct 2025 at 16:08 +0100, Hans Schulze via 
>> samba<samba at lists.samba.org>, wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> how exactly should one proceed when raising the functional level?
I?ve
>>> never done it myself, and I?m a bit worried that something might
stop
>>> working afterward. Currently, I?m on Domain Functional Level
2008R2,
>>> and
>>> the goal is to reach at least 2012R2.
>>>
>>> Do I need to proceed step by step, or can I go directly to the
target
>>> level? Is it sufficient to just run the well-known command from the
>>> Samba Wiki, or is there more that needs to be done?
>>>
>>> I also read somewhere that the *smb.conf* file might need to be
>>> adjusted. Does the version need to be explicitly set as an option 
>>> there?
>>> If so, on all member DCs?
>>>
>>> Does the forest level also need to be raised? What else should I
pay
>>> attention to?
>>>
>>> Regards
>>> -- 
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>>> instructions:https://lists.samba.org/mailman/options/samba
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On Fri, 24 Oct 2025 11:17:22 +0200
Matthias K?hne | Ellerhold Aktiengesellschaft via samba
<samba at lists.samba.org> wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Ive read a few this about the functional level but Im not sure if
> this is something we want to do.
> 
> What are the benefits of raising the level?
There are multiple benefits, for instance, you gain access to things
that require the later schema.
> 
> Will Samba do that by itself during an upgrade process or is this a
> pure admin-controlled upgrade?
No, this is purely an admin controlled process, you have to add a line
to every DCs smb.conf file and run a command on one.
> 
> Will it be mandatory to upgrade for a future version of samba?
It isn't mandatory at present, but who knows what will happen in the
future ?
> 
> It says "older clients that dont support the new level will
break".
> Are these just older Windows machine or does anybody know if other
> clients (Mailserver, MacOS, ...) are breaking too?
I doubt it refers to anything but old Windows clients, but I am unsure
because I cannot find that statement, can you provide a link ?

Rowland