Samba/iX 2.0.7

By Wendy Cheng
Computer Systems Division

New Features and Improvements

As part of Hewlett Packard CSYs commitment to HP 3000 platform and interoperability with NT, Samba/iX 2.0.7 comes with a host of long-awaited improvements and new features to take NT connectivity to a new level.




	NOTE: Samba/iX 2.0.7 has been tested with Windows 2000.If you choose to run Samba/iX 2.0.7 server, you should read the installation instructions in the READLXF6 file under the SMB207 group and SAMBA account on your system after you install the official release patch/6.5 of Samba/iX 2.0.7.

Samba Web Administration Tool - SWAT

SWAT is a web-based tool which can be used remotely to configure the Samba configuration file (smb.conf). Various parameters, share security, and other features can be modified from a browser interface, in effect giving added flexibility. SWAT is very user-friendly with help and related documentation available on-line.The name of the binary is SWAT and its location is/SAMBA/SMB207/bin/swat. Before SWAT can be run, entries in the following files need to be updated first: INETDCNF.NET.SYS andSERVICES.NET.SYS. As soon as this is done, running SWAT is as simple as pointing your favorite browser to:

http://sambaserver:901 [Here 901 is the port at which SWAT operates.]

Improvements Incorporated in the New Samba/iX

Samba/iX 2.0.7 comes with a host of improvements and enhancements over the previous releases version 1.9.16p9. It includes bug-fixes and patches from the previous versions.

User-Selectable Name Resolution Order

The resolution of NetBIOS names into IP addresses can be done in several different ways (broadcast, lmhosts, DNS lookup, WINS). In the Samba version 2.0.7, a new parameter, name resolution order, allows administrators to select the methods of name resolution, and the order in which such methods are applied.

Improved Share Mode Handling

The handling of share modes has been greatly improved in this new version of Samba 2.0.7. The confidence level on share mode handling in Samba is now much higher than it was previously.

Western European Language Support

Samba/iX 2.0.7 supports Western European languages in filenames. This means that Western European versions of NT/95/98 should be able to create and view files with filenames in those languages.Currently code page 850 and 437 are supported (ISO8559-1).

New MPE Valid Characters

With MPE/iX 6.5 a few extra characters gained legal status and these are duly supported in Samba/iX 2.0.7.These characters are:~,\\,$,%,^,*,+,|,{,},:These can now be used in the filenames. With Samba 2.0.7,mapdiffs utility is also provided. More information as to why the old filename mapping method was enhanced is provided in the Readme.

Change in the Default Security Mode

In previous versions of Samba/iX, the default security mode was security = share. In this version, this has been altered to make security = user as default. The user needs to note that the config file needs to be adjusted to avoid unexpected changes in behavior.