A guide to the features of Samba-3 provides step-by-step installation instructions on integrating Samba into a Windows or UNIX environment.

Series Editor Bruce Perens is an Open Source evangelist, developer, and consultant whose software is a major component of most commercial embedded Linux offerings. He founded or co-founded Linux Standard Base, Open Source Initiative, and Software in the Public Interest. As Debian GNU/Linux Project Leader, he was instrumental in getting the system on two U.S. Space Shuttle flights.

Preface and Introduction A man's gift makes room for him before great men. Gifts are like hooks that can catch hold of the mind taking it beyond the reach of forces that otherwise might constrain it. -- Anon. This is a book about Samba. It is a tool, a derived work of the labors of many and of the diligence and goodwill of more than a few. This book contains material that has been contributed in a persistent belief that each of us can add value to our neighbors as well as to those who will follow us. This book is designed to meet the needs of the Microsoft network administrator. UNIX administrators will benefit from this book also, though they may complain that it is hard to find the information they think they need. So if you are a Microsoft certified specialist, this book should meet your needs rather well. If you are a UNIX or Linux administrator, there is no need to feel badly you should have no difficulty finding answers to your current concerns also. What Is Samba? Samba is a big, complex project. The Samba project is ambitious and exciting. The team behind Samba is a group of some thirty individuals who are spread the world over and come from an interesting range of backgrounds. This team includes scientists, engineers, programmers, business people, and students. Team members were drawn into active participation through the desire to help deliver an exciting level of transparent interoperability between Microsoft Windows and the non-Microsoft information technology world. The slogan that unites the efforts behind the Samba project says: Samba, Opening Windows to a Wider World! The goal behind the project is one of removing barriers to interoperability. Samba provides file and print services for Microsoft Windows clients. These services may be hosted off any TCP/IP-enabled platform. The original deployment platforms were UNIX and Linux, though today it is in common use across a broad variety of systems. The Samba project includes not only an impressive feature set in file and print serving capabilities, but has been extended to include client functionality, utilities to ease migration to Samba, tools to aid interoperability with Microsoft Windows, and adminstration tools. The real people behind Samba are users like you. You have inspired the developers (the Samba Team) to do more than any of them imagined could or should be done. User feedback drives Samba development. Samba-3 in particular incorporates a huge amount of work done as a result of user requests, suggestions and direct code contributions. Why This Book? There is admittedly a large number of Samba books on the market today and each book has its place. Despite the apparent plethora of books, Samba as a project continues to receive much criticism for failing to provide sufficient documentation. Samba is also criticized for being too complex and too difficult to configure. In many ways this is evidence of the success of Samba as there would be no complaints if it was not successful. The Samba Team members work predominantly with UNIX and Linux, so it is hardly surprising that existing Samba documentation should reflect that orientation. The original HOWTO text documents were intended to provide some tips, a few golden nuggets, and if they helped anyone then that was just wonderful. But the HOWTOs lacked structure and context. They were isolated snapshots of information that were written to pass information on to someone else who might benefit. They reflected a need to transmit more information that could be conveniently put into manual pages. The original HOWTO documents were written by different authors. Most HOWTO documents are the result of feedback and contributions from numerous authors. In this book we took care to preserve as much original content as possible. As you read this book you will note that chapters were written by multiple authors, each