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When to Run a
Samba Server
First and foremost, Samba is a file- and
printer-sharing tool. File sharing refers to the ability to mount a remote
filesystem on a client as if it were local. Ordinary applications on the client
can then directly access files on the servera text editor can load files, the
user can edit them, and they can be saved directly back to the server, for
instance. This type of operation is most useful in office environments to
consolidate the storage of users' files and applications on a single server. Printer
sharing involves giving clients access to printers controlled from the server. It's
useful in saving resources by allowing many computers to use the same pool of
printers. These are the general tasks to which Samba may be applied.Because of the NetBIOS and SMB/CIFS heritage
in DOS and Windows, it's not surprising that Samba is most useful on networks
that include DOS and Windows systems. Samba provides features that are tailored
to the needs of these computers. For instance, DOS and Windows use
case-insensitive filesystems, so that FILE.TXT , file.txt , File.txt , and
other filenames that differ only in case are equivalent. Linux, by contrast,
uses a case-sensitive filesystem, so these filenames are all different. Samba
includes features to help bridge this gap, allowing Samba to serve files in a
case-insensitive manner. Also, SMB/CIFS provides support for features of DOS
and Windows filesystems like hidden and archive bits. These are flags to indicate that a file
should be hidden from users under most circumstances, or that the file has been
backed up. Linux filesystems don't include these features, so Samba provides a
way to provide these bits. Samba's extensive support for these and other
SMB/CIFS features makes Samba the ideal way to share files with DOS and Windows
systems. A few other OSs, such as IBM's OS/2, have similar requirements and
also support SMB/CIFS, so Samba is an excellent file-sharing tool for these
OSs, as well.Samba can be a useful tool even on networks that don't use
DOS, Windows, OS/2, or other OSs for which SMB/CIFS is the preferred
file-sharing protocol. UNIX and Linux systems, Macintoshes, BeOS systems, and
others all support SMB/CIFS, either through native tools or through third-party
packages. Linux often supports protocols that are more appropriate for these
platforms (such as NFS for Unix and Linux systems, discussed in
sometimes using Samba can be beneficial even in these cases. For instance, you
might prefer to run as few servers as possible, and make do with SMB/CIFS for
file sharing with non-Windows platforms. NFS and SMB/CIFS also use very
different security models, and in some situations the SMB/CIFS security system
(which uses usernames and passwords for authentication) may be preferable to
the NFS model (which uses IP addresses and the client's own security).
