> Mr. Andrew Tridgell:
>
> I have made a gallant attempt to install and make use of the Samba 2.0.7
> suite of disk-sharing utility software
> on my Sun E-3000 running Solaris 2.5.1. (You will probably think my
> attempt was not gallant enough
> since I'm not currently able to use the package. Sorry...)
>
> While we are a City, and have a substantial desktop population of Windows
> NT 4.0 PC's and servers,
> nearly 1500 PC's and almost 35 servers, we also make use of Digital
> Alpha/Digital UNIX systems for
> our Oracle database and Financials as well as Sun/Solaris systems for our
> GIS (Geographic Information
> Systems) users.
>
> I am attempting to make available the GIS data disks on this Sun server to
> the nearly 500 clients who are
> using ArcView from their Windows NT 4.0 PC's to access this data -
> currently via Intergraph's
> NFS product, DiskAccess. There are some issues with DiskAccess as well,
> most notably the cost
> and speed (lack of?) of performance. However, this solution DOES in fact
> work - whereas the Samba solution
> appears to not work;
>
> Herewith, some of my issues:
>
> 1) The initial tarball I downloaded from the (4th) mirror site on the
> www.samba.org Web Site proved to
> be bad. It installed with numerous errors, no entries under the
> codepages sub-directory and no testparm
> program to test my SMB.CONF file. The total size was about 12+MB.
> I remedied this by downloading
> a new tarball from mirror sites 2, 3 & 5 and installing the one from
> site 2. This one came to
> about 16+MB and the package adds ran with NO errors. testparm IS
> present and works in this
> installation. (Initial tarball >
samba-2.0.7-sparc-sun-solaris2.5.1.tar.Z, 5.98MB. Final install
> tarball = samba-2.0.7-sparc-sun-solaris.2.5.1.tar.Z, 6.89MB. I have
> two other, untried tarballs
> if you so recommend: samba-2.0.7.tar.gz 4.07MB and
> samba-latest.tar.gz, 4.07MB. I also
> have a couple of earlier versions:
> samba-2.0.3-sparc-sun-solaris2.5.1.tar.Z, 719KB and
> samba-2.0.4b-nonis+-sparc-sun-solaris2.5.1.tar.Z, 4.70MB. I am not
> using NIS or NIS+.)
>
> 2) The version I installed was a binary, so the paths were completely
> different from those mentioned in
> the O'Reilly book "Using Samba" which I purchased prior to
beginning
> this entire process. Also, this
> book covered up to Samba 2.0.5 only, but I thought what the hell, it
> will probably be quite useful.
>
> 3) I followed all the instructions in the initial three (3) chapters of
> the Using Samba book including the
> sample SMB.CONF file. I finally looked in the /opt/samba/doc area
> and found out about the various
> settings and steps I should take to make Samba work with an NT 4.0
> network. I successfully created
> the smbpasswd file, where this version says it's supposed to be and
> successfully updated the
> passwords for the various users I added to the smbpasswd file. In
> order to NOT have to deal with an
> administrative nightmare, I provide a "generic" ArcView user for
all
> those 500 PC's so they don't need
> accounts OR need to know the password to connect. (NOTE: when I
> used the "man smbpasswd"
> command to obtain usage information on the smbpasswd command, I got
> a nice explanation of
> the smbpasswd file. It would have been a smidge helpful if the
> command and the name of the file itself
> were somehow just a tad different and had entries in the manpages.)
>
> 4) I spent considerable time in the appendix of the Using Samba book to
> go thru the sample SMB.CONF file
> and the various usage instructions for the entries it could contain.
> Here is a copy of my SMB.CONF:
>
> <<smb.conf>>
>
> I was able to successfully create the shares you see in this SMB.CONF file
> and particularly like the ability to
> attach to a share while making it "hidden". However, here's
what I
> encountered when I finally got the Samba
> suite UP and "advertising" its shares:
>
> 5) I (naturally) had to login to the Samba server using one of the
> valid username/password entries in the
> smbpasswd file. This allowed me to see the browseable shares. I
> found I could accomplish this only
> after logging off and re-logging in to my PC. Apparently the Samba
> suite needs to be UP and alive prior
> to the PC's coming UP - in order for them to "see" the Samba
server
> in the Network Neighborhood.
> This added considerable time to the testing procedures, as every
> time I made any changes to the
> SMB.CONF I had to stop the Samba suite and re-start it - then log
> out the PC and re-log it in for it
> to acknowledge the changes I'd just made. Simply issuing the
> commands for the SMBD & NMBD
> to be re-read to pick up any changes to the SMB.CONF didn't work.
>
> 6) I found that I could quite easily attach to both the browseable and
> non-browseable shares and see
> the contents of the shares as if they were local. Unfortunately
> this now renders the vast majority
> of the GIS data required by our GIS users null - since our Library
> and our Image Catalogues both
> contain hard coded UNIX pathnames to make them useable and relevant
> on the UNIX side - which
> is where all this data is initially created and made available to
> the PC GIS users. {This has been the
> primary reason for continuing to use the Intergraph NFS product vs.
> several alternatives - the ability
> to successfully read/interpret UNIX pathnames.)
>
> 7) I also found two rather curious anomalies: when I log in to the
> Samba server as my login name,
> I am connected but with the wrong user ID. I get the correct group
> ID, but the wrong user ID. (This
> is indicated in one of the many samba_log files that began appearing
> in the /var/adm area. Most of
> them have a 0-extent, but the directory is getting quite full!) The
> second anomaly is that when I
> log the PC off, then log it back in again, the shares appear to be
> attached after I finish coming
> back in. But, if I select one of the shares in the Windows
> Explorer, it tells me access denied -
> invalid username/password or username not found. If I bring up the
> Samba server from the network
> neighborhood by double-clicking on it to re-log in, I type in the
> same username/password that
> permitted me to attach in the first place, but I get an invalid
> username/password or username
> not found message. This means that the re-logging in of those 500
> PC's would not be transparent
> to those users, as it is now. Here is the samba_log file:
>
>
> <<samba_log.it-rmagnew>>
>
> I'm sure I've done many things wrong and there are no doubt
workarounds
> for all these issues, but until
> I know what they are, I cannot, in good conscience, use the product.
>
> Thank you for the creating the product in the first place. Thank you in
> advance for any assistance you could
> provide me.
>
> Robert M. Agnew
> Sr. GIS Analyst - Administrator
> City of Las Vegas
> (702) 229-6049
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