Using Samba



Authors: Gerald Carter, Jay Ts, and Robert Eckstein

Format: Paperback 432 pages

Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 3rd edition (January 1, 2007)

ISBN-10: 0596007698

ISBN-13: 978-0596007690



Review by James Pyles

February 27, 2007



Samba. To most people with a technical background, the word immediately envokes an image of Linux and Windows machines working and playing well together, however it is so much more (and for those of you who clicked on the link to this review thinking it was about the popular Brazilian music form, try Wikipedia instead). Even samba.org uses the line in its header 'Opening Windows to a Wider World'. However, just how far does that world extend?



The third edition of this well respected book has been updated for Samba version 3.x and to quote its back cover, addresses features such as:

• Integrating with Active Directory and OpenLDAP
  
  
• Migrating from Windows NT 4.0 domains to Samba
  
  
• Delegating administrative tasks to nonroot users
  
  
• Managing printers
  
  
• Making use of Virtual File System (VFS) plug-ins and other advanced file-serving features
  
  

But enough of the advertisements. Is this a book you really need to have?



I recently read a review at O'Reilly of a book I had previously reviewed for The Linux Tutorial website. The anonymous reviewer stated that the book was very good but only useful to IT professionals. The reviewer felt that the book should have widened it's scope to include the 'mainstream consumer'. Problem is, the book wasn't written for the 'mainstream consumer'. The specific focus of that book was the IT professional. So is Using Samba. More specficially, this book targets those folks who will be using Samba in their roles as UNIX and Linux system administrators providing file and print services to Windows hosts (and lest we forget, 'UNIX and Linux' also includes such systems as Solaris, FreeBSD, and Mac OS X). If you are a student who wants to do some work in *nix/Windows interoperation or you just get your kicks setting up Samba servers, you'll also find this text useful but please keep in mind, home users, small office users, and Windows geeks are not the readers of choice.



It's sometimes difficult to review a subsequent edition of a book that has been so popular. The tendency is to say something like 'It was great back in the day and it's still great'. Not that the statement can't be true, but I have to take an honest look under the hood before I have my say.



For me, one of the 'big deals' about Samba 3.0 is how it works with Microsoft Windows Active Directory Domains and Domain Controls. Sadly, (but not the book's fault) you still can't put Windows DCs and Samba DCs in the same domain, but you can now join a Samba host as a member server to a Windows Active Directory Domain. Chapter 1 outlines some other nifty new Samba features such as Windows NT Domain Controller Support (yes, NT is still alive out there somewhere), Local Nested Groups, and Stackable Virtual File System (VFS) Modules. You can even take a look at what the future may hold for Samba version 4.0. Finishing up with the 'what Samba does and doesn't do' and 'where to get Samba' sections in the first chapter, I launched myself into the rest of the book.



Using Samba is as much a tutorial about Windows hosts as it is about Samba. Remember, the book is written with the UNIX admin in mind, so there are no assumptions that the reader knows much about Windows. The opening chapters address what you'd expect including server configuration, authentication, disk shares and printing. Domains and Domain Controllers are covered well later in the text. Topics include Samba PDCs, BDCs, and how to trade in your old NT Server for a shiny new Samba box. The wrap up of the book is the troubleshooting chapter and appendicies that provide a list of common daemons, commands and configuration options. The icing on the cake for me was Appendix B which shows the reader how to download the latest Samba source code from a Subversion (SVN) repository (if you intend to try out this option, get to know Subversion first).



The bottom line is if you are a UNIX administrator looking to learn or update your skills on Samba 3.0, add the Carter, et al book to your list of 'must have' resources. If you are a student looking in the UNIX/Linux admin direction as far as career advancement, this text is for you, too.



 

Title: Using Samba
Category: Open Source
Sub-Category: Open Source Books
Author: James Pyles
Related Link: Find Using Samba at O'Reilly
Added: February 27th 2007
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