Samba 3.3.0 file server released

The Samba developer team has released version 3.3.0 of the SMB/CIFS file server for Unix-based operating systems. Samba 3.3.0 offers improved cluster support and enhanced admin tools like smbcontrol and the net command, which can now use kerberos for authentication. Two VFS modules, currently still marked as experimental, help with managing NTFS-style access lists (ACLs) on the Samba server.

In addition, the Samba developers have removed two parameters from the smb.conf configuration file (idmap config DOM:range, idmap domains), added four new ones (cups connection timeout, init logon delayed hosts, init logon delay, winbind reconnect delay) and changed the default for the "ldap ssl" parameter to "start tls". The "share modes" setting was marked as deprecated.

Reportedly, setting up the Idmap service, which translates user IDs between Unix and Windows, has also become easier. The service can now handle multiple domains as well as aliases for users and groups. The tdbsam password database backend was upgraded in a major way and is no longer downward compatible. In their changelog, the developers recommend that users back up the /etc/samba/passdb.tdb file before updating to version 3.3.0.

(trk)