Customer Reviews

Samba Essentials for Windows Administrators

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was rather impressed by this book. I know Windows networking, but I want to learn Samba. It is definitely the future of networking. It does Windows networking without all the fees and licensing hassles, which will get even worse with XP. Anyway, I had started setting up a Samba server and had one of the other books on the market. It was a good one and not just one that lists all of the options without any further explanation. But even the best book I had found still assumed that I understood Unix. So I was having trouble. This book is really different. It makes everything understandable, not in a simple-minded "dummies" way, but in a technically proficient way so that you can understand what it means, no matter what your background. If you are going to buy a book on Samba, this is the one to start with. By the way, it doesn't say on the cover (or on Amazon for that matter), but the book covers Samba version 2.2.

Only a 3. This book has some interesting topics about it, most has to do with Administering a Samba Server from the Web. Not from a Prompt. I was looking for more of a "Tricks of the Trade" kind of book. But this one does have some good points to it about web administering. But, what happens when the web is broke?
You are going to SSH into the box and fix it from a prompt not from a Web Page. Otherwise this book IS GOOD but not GREAT!

Kudos to Gary Wilson!

This is by far the most concise and useful guide to setting up and managing a samba server that I have read so far.

The author's focus on using Webmin... as the practical way to remotely manage your samba server from any desktop pc with a web browser is excellent. Your linux /samba box becomes a transparent fileserving appliance. It looks just like another windows server, yet is much more flexibly managed thru the webmin utility.

Excellent tips on tuning samba shares for a particular use: like shared MS Access databases, and shares only accessible by a distinct group of users.

His chapter on optimization will satisfy your "geek" urge to tweak the last bit of performance from your linux / samba box.

Tips on compiling and installing the latest samba release were very useful and -- more importantly -- they worked!

Overall -- an organized, well-researched, highly readable book... buy it!

Need Samba? Have a deadline, but find yourself intimidated by the intricacies of Linux? If that is the scenario you face, then Samba Essentials for Windows Administrators has been written with you in mind. Here the author begins with a comparison of the Windows platform and the Linux kernel, outlining their similarities and differences, providing a sense of direction to newbies. Taken as a whole, this book provides a good jumping-off point into the larger world of Linux.

Samba is approached in very task-oriented chapters. After an essential look at the basics of Samba, the chapters are broken down by task. Need a file server? Consult Chapter 3. How do I configure my Windows machines? Take a look at Chapter 6. Probably the best quality this book features is its coverage of SWAT, a powerful web interface that configures Samba in a way quite reminescent of Windows. Hence the title. You'll go from zero to Samba fast.

And yet, while this book is a worthy resource, I noticed one drawback. I highly recommend this book, but also suggest that it be used as a companion to other resources, including the official documentation on the Samba website. I bought the hard-copy version of 'Samba 3 by Example' (Terpstra), and together these two books helped me get up and running. The essentials are of course - essential - but on your way you'll come across a few snags. Sometimes these fall outside of the essentials, so you'll need a comrehensive grasp of this technology.

Very Very Good Book!! Beyond Excellent!! Beyond 500 stars!! I am very new to Linux and this book made it a breeze to get Samba running. Very refreshing to see such a useful reference tool available for the Linux community.

I am a Windows admin wanting to set up some easily managable Samba servers to complement the current setup. I find that this book doesn't baby me but explains how to get the tasks i know I want to do, done. However I am a little disappointed that the section on Winbind is a bit brief and left me a little confused.

This book is relatively well written and well thought out.
IT contains usefull samba information. Here is what I didn't like.
I felt like half the book is dedicated to setting up interfaces to configure and maintain samba, ie SWAT and Webmin. WASTE OF TIME!!!! There are plenty of more in depth issues that I felt this book didn't cover in greater depth. I was recently in a situation where I had to integrade a Windows 98, Windows 2000,NT 4.0 and AS/400 clients with a SCO Unix Server. There were many authentication issues related to Windows 2000 that the book didn't cover. If you are a windows admin and you like flashy interfaces and you are just looking to set up simple file sharing between Unix and smb clients. Then get this book. It will help you do that. However, I don't think the text delves deeply enough into the integration challenges that Unix/NT admins face everyday. Overall a good book. But too much focus on web tools and not enough on scenario planning and architecture. Another problem with this focus is alot of people understand the classic unix approach.
The /etc/smb.conf file is very straight forward and self referencing. I find it much easier to deal with that file and not have to worry about all sorts of flashy stuff that take the focus away from the task at hand.
Making windows clients happy.