Frequently Asked Questions

There are different roles Samba can adapt to and the configuration depends very much on this role. That's why we currently do provide example configuration files for these roles and do not put a complete smb.conf file in place. Please note that the Samba daemons won't start without a configuration file. So you need to copy one of the examples to /etc/samba/smb.conf before starting the services and adapt it to your setup.

The following example files are available:

• /etc/samba/smb.conf.README: Some important information and contact address.
• /etc/samba/smb.conf.member: Sample configuration file for a SAMBA+ AD member server.
• /etc/samba/smb.conf.standalone: Sample configuration file for a SAMBA+ standalone server.
• /etc/samba/smb.conf.ad: When setting up a SAMBA+ AD DC, the smb.conf file will be autogenerated by the 'samba tool domain provision' command. So you don't need to copy this file.

Please see the HowTo for details on the configuration and possible roles.

Samba can be run in different server modes. That's why you need to specify the role of your server before being able to start the daemon(s). This mode needs to be set with the "SAMBA_START_MODE" variable in the /etc/default/sernet-samba file. The following values are available:

• classic: Run Samba as a fileserver and start the classic smbd, nmbd, winbindd daemons.
• ad: Run Samba as an Active Directory server (samba daemon, starts the smbd, winbindd and integrated services on its own).

Additionally, you need to create the config file /etc/samba/smb.conf. After that you can start the daemon(s).

Yes. You can use sssd and sernet-samba together. Only in SAMBA+ versions prior 4.16.0 and SAMBA+ for Debian based systems you cannot install the sssd-ad package (which does not make sense together with winbindd anyway). The sssd package is a meta package that requires all sssd packages, so please go ahead with the sssd-common and the desired sssd-($backend) packages only instead of the sssd package.

For more info please read this Red Hat manual or this short list posting. 

Dmapi stands for Data Management API (DMAPI) interface for Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM).

SAMBA+ >= 4.4.3 packages do not support dmapi any longer. To re-build with dmapi support, the following commands can be run:

Debian/Ubuntu:

apt-get build-dep sernet-samba
apt-get source sernet-samba
cd samba-$VERSION/ 
DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=dmapi debuild -us -uc 

SuSE:

zypper source-install sernet-samba
rpmbuild -ba --with dmapi /usr/src/packages/SPECS/sernet-samba-4.4.spec 

Red Hat/CentOS:

yumdownloader --source sernet-samba
#yum-builddep sernet-samba-$VERSION.src.rpm
#Please install the dependencies manually, because yum-builddep
#does not work properly here.
rpmbuild --rebuild --with dmapi sernet-samba-$VERSION.src.rpm

This will also build the tsmsm VFS module.

SAMBA+ ships Spotlight as a RPC module. For more information on setting up Spotlight, please see https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Spotlight.

SAMBA+ follows the upstream Samba release life cycle. A new stable series appears roughly every six months and passes through three stages of about six months each:

• Fully supported, with bug-fix releases roughly every six weeks, covering all available fixes plus security updates.
• Maintenance mode, with backports for major and security issues and fewer fixes than the current series.
• Security-fixes-only mode, where only security issues are addressed.

Each series is maintained for about 18 months and then reaches end of life. SerNet provides the matching SAMBA+ packages, including all security fixes, for every series while it is supported. To stay covered, run a supported series and upgrade before your branch reaches end of life.

The current schedule and the stage of each series are published on the Samba Release Planning page.

If you want to report a security incident, a suspected vulnerability, or any other security-related issue concerning SAMBA+, please contact us at security@remove-this.samba.plus.

Please include all relevant technical details so our team can review and process your report as quickly as possible.