I probably have an odd setup, so please bear with me. To simplify as much
as possible, I have two servers and a client. The first server is the
back-end file server and is accessible only by the second ("gateway")
server. (The second server has dual ethernet, one of which is a crossover
to the file server.) The file server has a Samba share that's pretty simple
and open, and the gateway server mounts it. Then the gateway server has a
Samba share at that mount point to share the back-end server out to the
network. Again, bear with me on that :)
Now the issue I'm having may not have a workaround, but I'm just looking
for
ideas. When users on the client (any computer on the network) write a file
to the "server" that they see, it is in turn writing back to the Samba
share
on the file server. Thus, no matter who writes the file, it's written to
the actual filesystem as the user by which the gateway mounts the share on
the file server. Can anybody think of any way to pass along the user ID up
the chain so that it's written to the filesystem as the originating user? I
can make sure the user accounts line up on the two servers, that's no big
deal. I'm just wondering if it's possible.
It's not a showstopper for me if everything gets written as the same user, I
can deal with that. (Although I am having issues with create masks and
group writability, but that's for another time.) I'm just tossing the
question out to the group to see if it's anything that's been dealt with
before or anything interesting enough to warrant discussion/collaboration.
The answer might even be to use something other than Samba between the
gateway server and the file server. I'm certainly open to suggestions on
that. The only other related technology with which I have any experience is
NFS and I chose Samba over that simply for the stability and robustness in
unexpected situations. It's been my experience in the past that NFS gets
pretty unstable when the network connection drops and can hang a machine's
shutdown procedures. This is to be avoided in this particular situation
because, in the event of a power failure detected by the UPS, properly
stopping the services and unmounting the filesystem cleanly are critical.
The _only_ job of the file server on the back end is to protect the data.
If anybody has any suggestions I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!
--
Regards,
David P. Donahue
"It's hard enough to live in a world where you grow old and die, why be
disharmonious?"
- Jack Kerouac
> > SNIP > > Now the issue I'm having may not have a workaround, but I'm just > looking for > ideas. When users on the client (any computer on the network) write a > file > to the "server" that they see, it is in turn writing back to the Samba > share > on the file server. Thus, no matter who writes the file, it's written > to > the actual filesystem as the user by which the gateway mounts the > share on > the file server. Can anybody think of any way to pass along the user > ID up > the chain so that it's written to the filesystem as the originating > user?Long and short of it no. This can also cause some serious other problems. Don't know why you want to do this, but here's a solution. (Using LDAP backend would make this spiffy, but this should be ok) On the server where stuff actually rights, share that as an NFS share and mount it on the "Gateway" server. Then share the nfs mount point via samba. The LDAP part comes in because you can have both servers using ldap for users and groups and keep your permissions and UID/GID stuff global.> I > can make sure the user accounts line up on the two servers, that's no > big > deal. I'm just wondering if it's possible. > > It's not a showstopper for me if everything gets written as the same > user, I > can deal with that. (Although I am having issues with create masks > and > group writability, but that's for another time.) I'm just tossing the > question out to the group to see if it's anything that's been dealt > with > before or anything interesting enough to warrant > discussion/collaboration. > > The answer might even be to use something other than Samba between the > gateway server and the file server. I'm certainly open to suggestions > on > that. The only other related technology with which I have any > experience is > NFS and I chose Samba over that simply for the stability and > robustness in > unexpected situations. It's been my experience in the past that NFS > gets > pretty unstable when the network connection drops and can hang a > machine's > shutdown procedures. This is to be avoided in this particular > situation > because, in the event of a power failure detected by the UPS, properly > stopping the services and unmounting the filesystem cleanly are > critical. > The _only_ job of the file server on the back end is to protect the > data. > > If anybody has any suggestions I'd really appreciate it. Thanks! > > > -- > Regards, > David P. Donahue > > "It's hard enough to live in a world where you grow old and die, why > be > disharmonious?" > - Jack Kerouac > -- > To unsubscribe from this list go to the following URL and read the > instructions: https://lists.samba.org/mailman/options/samba