[olug] Samba rant and request for feedback

[Brian Roberson]

Hi Derek,

    I guess you havent looked at the samba team membership lately, cause
you'll see my name ;-)  ( Or you have, that's why you are asking this in an
"around the bush" way :)  In any event, I have setup/used samba in 100+ user
environments ( yes, as a NT-PDC ) and It work's great, yes there are a few
pitfalls with the NT-acl issues ( file perm changing etc.. ) these are
mostly due to nt-acl not being inline with the posix semantics. etc.. etc..
etc... ( I could go on for day's )  Anyway's , post your config somewhere
and we call all take a look at it and go from there. now, I am under the
impression you are using roaming profiles, as you've stated they get
corrupt.. etc... do you have the logon path setup or are the profiles being
written to the user's home directory? also, you've mentioned you where using
`create mask 0777` on one of your shares, I have _always_ had issue with
this in large user environments ( ideally you'd want to use the `force
create mode` instead ( remember, `create mask` bit-wise and's the
permision's with what the client is requesting to save the file as ) the not
being able to logon sound like permision issue's as well ( file that is )
weird thing's happen when window's messes up the profile some way, etc... so
sure, post the config and we'll go from there.





----- Original Message -----
From: "dbw" <lug at robotz.com>
To: <olug at bstc.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2001 6:12 PM
Subject: [olug] Samba rant and request for feedback


> Concerning Samba.
>
> I am using Samba as 1)pdc for an NT network -w- all clients being
> NT Workstation 4.0 and 2) office file server 3) NT user authentication
> to the NT domain (which is Samba).
>
> Both at home and at work I am using a Linux Samba driven network
> server in very similar ways.  The primary difference is that the
> number of users on my company's home office LAN is greater (10 or
> more during a given work day) than the users on my home network (my
> wife and I, and sometimes a third computer when we have a guest over
> for Quake).
>
> Getting right to the point, I haven't really had any problems on
> my home LAN using Samba.  It works great and is a much better value
> as compared to buying a licensed copy of NT server for use at my
> home.  At home all the client pc's are either Linux or win98 and
> I use NT domain authentication.  My wife and I are reasonably careful
> that we always log off properly and the setup-using Samba seems reasonably
> trouble free.  I have had this arrangement for nearly two years now
> using Slackware and Redhat and two different versions of Samba.
>
> The office is an entirely different matter.  Nothing but trouble!
> I thought that Samba worked so great on my home LAN that it would
> be a blessing at work.  The idea of getting rid of NT server and
> working in an environment I enjoyed, ie Linux, would complement that
> which I read about Samba being far more stable and easier to manage
> compared to an NT domain server.
>
> At least one office user's profile is corrupted a week.  Usually
> because that individual did not log off properly or something, but
> still it seems quite fragile.
>
> Using 'create mask = 0777' for example, at home, works fine,  On
> the office LAN files are created so that the group permission do
> now allow write access.  So when one of the office staff tries to
> modify a file created on the public drive by another member of the
> office staff, they cannot save.  There are no directory redundancies
> or syntactical errors to explain this behavior.  All users are members
> of the 'user' group. Because my configuration at the office so closely
> resembles the configuration at home, there should not be a problem;
> given that it has always worked fine at home.
>
> Today for no apparent reason the Samba box will not allow half of
> my office users to log in.  Files that appear on the file system
> under the Linux server itself are invisible to the network neighborhood
> browser on the winNT workstations.  When Shari and Jamie log in all
> of their desktop icons are missing and they cannot access msie.
> Yet Tanya's login and desktop is fine.  Keeping in mind that no one
> touches this server and that it is in a secure area + is not on the
> Internet at all to be exploited, I can find no reasonable explanation
> for all of these problems that have continuously plagued my office
> installation of a Samba file server.  After all, I went with Samba
> over NT because I have so little free time to baby-sit these servers,
> I wanted something closer to the idealistic "maintenance free" concept.
>
>
> I'm a big advocate of Samba and I understand quite well the server
> message block protocol from my days as a MS NT network admin at Inacom.
> I want to prove to all of my old NT zealot colleagues that Linux
> can do the same thing and do it better thanks to free and open source
> technologies like Samba, but right now I am pulling my hair out and
> I have an office full of people that are ready to throw me under
> a bus and run over me.
>
> Other than being a rant, I am interested in hearing feedback from
> people that ARE using Samba in a WORK / COMMERCIAL environment to
> serve office staff of no fewer than 10 people.  Also, it would be
> additionally interesting to hear that it is being used as a pdc for
> an NT domain and NT network user authentication.  I am interested
> in knowing how well it is working for "you" and how many problems
> you are having.
>
> My overall analysis will help me to decide if I want to keep going
> with Samba or go back to NT server 4.0 sp6a blah blah, which I really
> hate even thinking about. :o) But d at mn I am so frustrated right now,
> and the thought of having to go into work tomorrow during this icy
> crap when I could have otherwise worked from home further frustrated
> me with Samba.
>
> There may be things that I am overlooking or doing incorrectly.
> However, and no offence to anyone, they won't be third grade level
> - easy to point out mistakes but there might be something concerning
> the use of the Samba box as a primary NT domain controller or something
> that I am.  I know that there are a lot of brilliant individuals
> in this group, so I am eager to receive feedback.
>
> Also, I have so little time to continue to baby-sit this project.
> Anyone that is thoroughly familiar with Samba and server message
> block; if you would please contract me if you are interested in doing
> some contract work in Lincoln. Basically, getting this thing up and
> running once and for all and/or pointing out to me what I am missing
> I would very much appreciate hearing from you.  I don't simply want
> to re-install and start from scratch, I want to learn what I am possibly
> doing wrong OR conclude once and for all that *gasp* Samba is too
> immature in its development at this time to serve my needs.
>
> My samba is version 2.0.6 : and yes I do plan to upgrade to the latest
> to see if that fixes my problem.  I have no Win2000 pc's on my LAN
> at this time nor do I have any plans to in the near future.  Maybe
> the upgrade is all I need to do, what do you think?
>
> -end of rant-
>
> -Derek
>
> ps: Adam at AIM who spoke after Jason during the OLUG meeting, I
> lost your b-card, could you please email me your name and contact
> information.  Thank you!
>
>
>
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