Using Samba, Second Edition [Paperback]

Jay T's (Author), Robert Eckstein (Author), David Collier-Brown (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0596002564 | ISBN-13: 978-0596002565 | Publication Date: February 2003 | Edition: 2nd

This book, which has been officially adopted by the Samba Team and is under the GNU Free Documentation License (FDL), is a comprehensive guide to Samba administration. The 2nd edition focuses on Samba 2.2 and covers the most important features of 3.0, which was under development as this book went to print.

Samba is a cross-platform triumph: it turns a Unix or Linux system into a file and print server for Microsoft Windows network clients. Samba is so robust, flexible, fast, and secure that many people are choosing it over Windows NT/2000/XP for their file and print services. Samba is also free software, licensed under the GNU General Public License.

This book will help you make file and print sharing as robust, powerful, and efficient as possible. The authors delve into the internals of the Windows activities and protocols to an unprecedented degree, explaining the strengths and weaknesses of each feature in Windows domains and in Samba itself.

Using Samba takes you from basic installation and configuration--on both the client and server side, for a wide range of systems--to subtle details of security, cross-platform compatibility, and resource discovery that make the difference between whether a user sees the folder they expect or a cryptic error message.

The range of this book knows few bounds. Wondering how to integrate Samba's authentication with that of a Windows PDC? How to get Samba to serve Microsoft Dfs shares? How to share files on Mac OS X? These and a dozen other issues of interest to system administrators are covered. A whole chapter is dedicated to troubleshooting.

Whether you're playing on one note or a full three-octave range, on your personal computer or an enterprise network, Using Samba will give you an efficient and secure server.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Samba, the Server Message Block (SMB) server software that makes it relatively easy to integrate Unix or Linux servers into networks of Microsoft Windows workstations, has to date been mostly explained as an afterthought. Most often, it's appeared in the latter chapters of books about Linux. It deserves better, and the authors of Using Samba have delivered exactly that.

This book documents Samba 2.0.4 fully (version 2.0.5, source and binary, appears on the companion CD-ROM), focusing on smbd, nmbd, the command-line tools, and Samba's newfound ability to integrate itself securely with Windows NT domains.

Though it includes a bit of information on the SMB and Common Internet File System (CIFS) protocols that underlie Samba, the emphasis here is on setting up and configuring software. Explicit sections explain how to install Samba on a Unix/Linux system and how to set up Microsoft clients to communicate with the Samba machine. The authors pay lavish attention to the Samba configuration file, smb.conf, and explain exactly what settings you need to include in it to allow disk shares, network browsing, and integration with Windows domains. A highly useful reference that lists all Samba configuration options (along with their valid values, default values, and explanations) appears in an appendix. --David Wall

Topics covered: All aspects of setting up and configuring Samba 2.0 and its variants, including client configuration, file sharing, network browsing, file system differences between Windows and Unix/Linux, security, and the contents of the Samba configuration file. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"This is an extensive manual on Samba and the definitive work on the subject." "This book is an essential reference for the Samba administrator, novice or expert as all possible options for each type of configuration are covered in great detail, and Samba has a great many options!" - Steven Ashley Woltering, Ping, March 2006

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 2nd edition (February 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596002564
• ISBN-13: 978-0596002565
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #865,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Source of Information, December 2, 1999

By 

B. Connelly (East Lansing, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Using Samba (O'Reilly System Administration) (Paperback)

I'd been wanting to set up Samba on my LAN for quite a while, but I just couldn't find decent documentation on it. I even e-mailed O'Reilly with the suggestion of making a Samba book and was very happy to be told that one was on its way. This book not only covers Samba and its configuration, but also explains it's protocol SMB/CIFS very well. I was able to breeze through the book in a short time and have Samba up and running perfectly within a week. O'Reilly lives up to it's reputation with this one.

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Treatment of Samba and Networking, August 9, 2000

By 

Robert L. Cochran (Greenbelt, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Using Samba (O'Reilly System Administration) (Paperback)

This is by far the finest computer book I have ever read. I recommend this book to people wanting to install and use Samba because no other book, HOWTO, or online forum explains SAMBA so well. I also recommend this book to people just getting their feet wet with networking because it comprehensively examines both Linux and Windows networking issues in an extremely easy to read, step-by-step way.

This book has screen shots -- a lot of them. This book has examples -- a lot of them. This book has very easily followed writing that tells you how to set up your Linux and Windows machines and how to get Samba going. The book sits down with you, rolls up your sleeves, and shows you how to progress in a way that yeilds desired results -- Samba installs and works on your network! It blends instruction with just the right amount of background explanation without forcing you to read page after page of useless, smothering detail. A lot of authors would be well advised to achieve this kind of balance in computer books and darn few succeed. I had my Windows box talking to my Linux box via Samba in just a day. I spent about 2 weeks going over the book and studying my existing Windows network before making any software changes whatsoever.

This book offers a comprehensive networking fault tree people new to networking will find extremely useful. Follow this fault tree and you will be able to correct general networking problems as well as specific Samba problems. When I had networking problems back when I first got into Linux with Red Hat 6.0, I could have fixed them with this book's fault tree. It would have saved me hours of frustration to have worked through this book's fault tree.

I think everyone wanting to connect Linux boxes to Windows boxes should rush to order this book and then spend 2 weeks reading it cover to cover before messing with ANY network settings. You will be rewarded for your money and patience with results and a feeling of genuine accomplishment.

I've noticed a trend in Linux books where the authors like to waste space and reader's time with useless banner "warnings" and sometimes repetitive moralizing. Some writers print warnings every 2 pages and sound as bad as hoax emails. Well you won't find many warnings in Using Samba. They are worth reading when found.

As far as I can see, there are only 2 bad points about this book and you can't blame the authors for them: unless it is lovingly revised in a new edition, increasing rollouts of Windows 2000 will rapidly obsolete the excellent Samba advice you can get here. As of this writing (August 2000), Windows Millenium Edition will be available to consumers September 14, and depending on sales this may help obsolete the book also. The second bad point is that Samba has not gone into a new version which can deal with Windows 2000 and Millenium Edition yet. It is still stuck at 2.0.7. Hopefully the Samba team will release a new version in the near future covering Windows 2000. And I sure hope The Samba Book, as it is called, is revised to cover the new Windows products!

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Great O'Reilly Book, December 31, 1999

By 

Joe "amazon8824" (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Using Samba (O'Reilly System Administration) (Paperback)

I've beed using Samba for the last 2 years and this book helped me finally understand how to properly configure it in 1 night. Very well written and easy to understand. Topics like oplocks and network printer configuration are explained in an easy to read manner. If your using or plan to use Samba, you need this book. Well worth the money.