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SAMBA+ 4.12.0 has just been released. Packages for various SUSE and Red Hat platforms as well as for Debian GNU/Linux and Ubuntu are available now.

This is the first stable release of the Samba 4.12 release series. Please read the release notes carefully before upgrading.

SAMBA+ now provides native systemd support. The init scripts have been removed from most packages, except RHEL 6 and SLES 11. The desired Samba start mode can still be configured in the /etc/default/sernet-samba service configuration file. The SAMBA_RESTART_ON_UPDATE parameter is ignored by the systemd services. The services will be restarted after update.

Support for multicast DNS is now enabled. Samba can announce itself in combination with the Avahi daemon. This behavior can be controlled with the "multicast dns register" smb.conf option. Samba shares which use the fruit VFS module for enhanced OS X interoperability with enabled Time Machine support will also be registered.

Samba 4.12 raises the minimum requirement for Python to Python 3.5. Due to this requirement SAMBA+ 4.12.0 does not provide the AD DC functionality for SLES12 for now.

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 a news article published by SerNet we inform about our current status regarding the COVID19 pandemic. We update the article regularly if there are any new developments. We want to keep our customers and partners informed in a transparent manner.

Volker Lendecke will give a talk on "Implementing SMB Semantics in a Linux Cluster" at Vault '20, the Linux Storage and Filesystems Conference on February 24–25, 2020, in Santa Clara, CA/USA. Lendecke is SerNet co-founder and long-time Samba Team member.

The talk is scheduled onTuesday, 2:30 pm–3:00 pm. From the abstract:

"To implement the SMB protocol, Samba has to implement semantics that are not covered by the Linux kernel API. The protocol element to mention here are the concept of share modes and leases, similar to NFSv4 share reservations and delegations. To implement those, Samba has to maintain data structures in user space and keep those consistent across cluster nodes. One of those data structures is a central table containing SMB-level information about all file open instances.

This talk will describe the semantics to be implemented, the challenges for clustered implementations of the SMB protocol and approaches by the Samba Team to make this scale well across nodes."

At the Storage Developer Conferenece (SDC) last year (September 23 - 26, 2019, Santa Clara/California), Volker Lendecke and Ralph Böhme, both part of SerNet and the international Samba Team, gave presentations. These are available on the SNIA YouTube channel.

Ralph Böhme: What's new in Samba?
Direct Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7cngkehwP8
Abstract: Presenting an overview on the latest advancements, new features and changes in Samba. The key focus is on Samba's SMB3 fileserver implementation, while also covering recent enhancements in Clustered Samba and Samba's implementation of Active Directory.

Volker Lendecke: Samba's RPC Services for non GPL SMB Servers
Direct Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ePEfzPrqDg
Abstract: Implementing [MS-SMB2] is a first step towards Windows interoperability. The simple task of listing shares is a nontrivial challenge, because Windows uses the srvsvc RPC service for this. Samba provides a seamless Windows user experience, it implements both SMB and RPC. It does so in a way that can be easily split apart in a GPL-compatible manner without putting GPL requirements on the SMB implementation. This talk presents a project where a non-GPL SMB implementor uses Samba's RPC implementation to provide a share listing and other RPC-based services, providing a much shorter time to market than by implementing the RPC stack independently. The talk also covers ways forward how Samba could implement a full RPC stack usable for simple integration of other RPC-based services.

Volker Lendecke:  Progress in making clustered Samba more scalable
Direct Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jewaMvKD32o
Abstract: This talk is a sequel to the 2018 talk about how to make Samba really fly in a clustered environment (direct link). It provides insights on the progress of the deep restructuring of Samba's core data structures as well as plans to optimize both the isolated as well as the heavily concurrent, shared file access that suffers from significant lock contention on internal data structures.

Ticket sales for the sambaXP 2020 have begun. SerNet will host the annual meeting of the international Samba community from 26 to 28 May 2020 at the Hotel Freizeit In in Göttingen. For the first time an SMB3 interoperability laboratory (IO-Lab) will be held parallel to the sambaXP.

The new IO-Lab format starts on May 24 and ends on May 29: On all days, a collaborative exchange for testing SMB3 implementations should be possible in a cooperative atmosphere. All participants can get involved in testing, identifying and fixing bugs in order to develop and improve interoperable products. Microsoft and SerNet provide networks and infrastructure for the IO-Lab. The participants define the testing process together and ensure that their goals are achieved.

The SerNet/Microsoft SMB3 IO-Lab offers

• the latest Windows client and server software from Microsoft, including test suites that help to verify interoperability for various functions of the SMB3 protocols,
• technical support for SMB3 engineers to investigate traces and help diagnose problems.

The participants of the interoperability laboratory are subject to a non-disclosure agreement and entry is restricted to registrants only.

Tickets for the conference as well as the IO-lab are available at an early bird price until 29 February 2020. In addition, a tutorial on Tuesday 26 May can be booked: Stefan Kania, longtime sambaXP speaker and samba trainer, will focus on the topic "CTDB".  Tickets and further information about the CfP can be found here: sambaxp.org.

The Call for Papers is also still running, submissions of papers are still welcome.

The sambaXP 2020 is sponsored by Google and Microsoft. This year's organiser is once again SerNet GmbH, which would like to use the conference to promote exchange between Samba developers and users from all over the world.