What is probably the world's first productive setup of Samba and Linux clients with SMB3 UNIX Extensions is now up and running at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences (UAS). Björn Jacke from the SerNet Samba team recently worked with colleagues from the university's IT department to equip the Samba server and connected Linux clients with this new feature for academic purposes.
Frankfurt UAS had consciously decided not to use dual protocols SMB and NFS. Instead, it now relies on uniform integration with SMB3: Samba's rights and sharing management offers much greater flexibility and easier administration. Without the Unix Extensions, students using Linux workstations were previously restricted in that symlinks or Unix commands such as chmod did not behave as they would on a typical POSIX/Linux system. The operations could not be mapped directly via the SMB protocol. Jacke: “With the new SMB3 UNIX Extensions, Linux clients now work perfectly with SMB mounts from Samba servers, enabling optimal integration without compromise. This makes studying at Frankfurt University even more enjoyable for students.”
Samba 4.22 with SMB3 Unix Extensions
The SMB3 UNIX Extensions feature is available since Samba version 4.22, which was released in April 2025. The topic also dominated this year's sambaXP and can be reviewed in several recordings published on the SAMBA+ YouTube channel.
SerNet has already incorporated some additional features into the current SAMBA+ packages, which will only be part of Samba from version 4.23 onwards in fall 2025.
SerNet: Worldwide partner for Samba projects
Support – remote or directly onsite – is part of the core business of SerNet's Samba team. The team supports companies and organizations in setting up, maintaining, and optimizing Samba infrastructures. The project implementation in Frankfurt shows how practical know-how and technological development come together at the customer's site.
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