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As part of sambaXP 2021 an SMB Interoperability Lab (IO Lab) will take place online from Wednesday to Friday (May 5th 3:00 pm to 7th 9:00 pm). During the lab participants work together and test, identify and fix bugs in a collaborative setting. This IO Lab is sponsored and featured by Microsoft.

The virtual sambaXP 2021 itself is set for May 4 to 6. Tickets are available on the conference website https://sambaxp.org, participation in sambaXP as well as the IO Lab is free of charge. The call for papers is also still open.

The purpose of this IO Lab is for vendors to bring their implementations of SMB3 to test, identify, and fix bugs in a collaborative setting with the goal of providing a forum in which companies can develop interoperable products. The 2021 SMB3 IO Lab will be held online using a virtual private network, creating a collaborative framework for testing.  The participants of the IO Lab work together to define the testing process, assuring that objectives are accomplished.

The IO Lab offers access to:

• The latest Windows client and server software from Microsoft, including test suites that help verify interoperability on various features of SMB protocols
• Technical support from SMB engineers to look at traces and help with diagnosing problems
• IO Lab participants are covered by a non-disclosure agreement and access is restricted to registrants only

Please register if you are interested in attending and see the agenda for upcoming new details during the next weeks.

Note from the Organizer

If you are reluctant to participate because you feel that your SMB implementation is "not ready", you should still participate! The SMB Interoperability Lab is also a development opportunity, not just a testing opportunity. Implementations still in development are encouraged to participate.  It's a great opportunity to get help and learn from the experts!

SAMBA+ 4.12.12 has just been released by SerNet. Packages for various SUSE and Red Hat platforms as well as for Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu are available now.

For details, please see the release notes for Samba 4.12.12.

SAMBA+ packages and all later versions are available as software subscription. They can be purchased at the SAMBA+ shop, detailed information and prices are listed at https://shop.samba.plus. The subscriptions are managed at our platform OPOSSO (https://oposso.samba.plus). Users can activate their subscriptions here and manage access credentials. The new SAMBA+ packages are included in existing subscriptions.

In his sambaXP 2020 talk Douglas Bagnall (Catalyst) illustrates the improvements for Samba achieved by the transition to Python 3.  Bagnall is located in Wellington / New Zealand and member of the international Samba team.

Abstract

Samba, particularly the AD part, is riddled with Python. The transition from Python 2 to Python 3 was painful. Now that is over and we have the sudden benefit from a decade of language and library development. Some of the changes are actually quite useful, including an improved debugging infrastructure and built-in asynchronous concepts.

About the "sambaXP 2020 Retrospective"

In this series we will present recordings of the sambaXP 2020 in the coming month. The 19th edition of the international conference on the open source software Samba took place from 26 - 28 May 2020 for the first time exclusively in digital form. Due to the changed event format and the use of an online conference platform, organizer SerNet is able to offer all talks as videos for viewing (link).

SAMBA+ 4.13.5 has just been released by SerNet. Packages for various SUSE and Red Hat platforms as well as for Debian GNU/Linux and Ubuntu are available now.

For details, please see the Samba 4.13.5 release notes.

SAMBA+ packages and all later versions are available as software subscription. They can be purchased at the SAMBA+ shop, detailed information and prices are listed at https://shop.samba.plus. The subscriptions are managed at our platform OPOSSO (https://oposso.samba.plus). Users can activate their subscriptions here and manage access credentials. The new SAMBA+ packages are included in existing subscriptions.

For the 20th time SerNet organizes the Samba eXPerience (sambaXP), the conference around the open source software Samba – once again in 2021 as a digital event. From May 4 to 6, users from all over the world will meet. Tickets are now available on the conference website https://sambaxp.org, participation in sambaXP is free of charge. The call for papers has also started!

Due to the pandemic situation, the sambaXP organizing team is again focusing on a digital-only conference in 2021. The successful sambaXP 2020 has shown that this is possible and even offers some advantages, points out Nadine Dreymann, who is planning the conference for SerNet. "Thanks to the online format, speakers worldwide who otherwise - for various reasons - would not be able to travel to Göttingen have the opportunity to present their topics." Dreymann continues, "By making participation free, we also want to give even more people the opportunity to follow the conference live and get involved." Compared to last year's event, she says, sambaXP 2021 will therefore also be even more open and incorporate interactive elements so that the samba community can better interact.

Call for Papers

The call for papers for sambaXP 2021 is in progress. Presentations can be submitted via the conference page at https://sambaxp.org. Orga team and program committee are looking forward to interesting submissions. The presentations are scheduled on the conference days (Wednesday, May 5 and Thursday, May 6) for the period from 15:00 to 21:00 German time zone (CEST). For the final agenda, the best time slots in terms of time zone will be considered in consultation with the speakers. In addition, it is possible to record the talk beforehand in individual cases. 

Tutorials

The traditional tutorial by Stefan Kania will again be designed as a webinar on the day before the conference (Tuesday, May 4, 2021). The topic: ''Setting up Samba as a print server''. Tickets are available for 50 Euros. Björn Jacke (SerNet Samba Team) will also offer a free 2-hour workshop on "Integrate SAMBA+ AIX in an existing AD domain".