[KLUG Members] Samba 4 Tech Preview Coming

[Adam Tauno Williams]

The Samba team is probably going to release a Samba 4 technology preview
soon;  here is the WHATSNEW.txt file that just made it to the
samba-technical list.  Looks very cool.

Wouldn't this be an AWESOME topic for a presentation? :)

-----

What's new in Samba4 Technology Preview
=======================================

Samba 4 is the ambitious next version of the Samba suite that is being 
developed in parallel to the stable 3.0 series. The main emphasis in 
this branch is support for the AD logon protocols used by Windows 2000
and above.

Samba 4 is currently not yet in a state where it is usable in
production environments. Note the WARNINGS below, and the STATUS file,
which aims to document what should and should not work.

With 3 years of development under our belt since tridge firs proposed
a new VFS layer for Samba3 (a project which eventually lead to our AD
efforts), it was felt that we should create something we could 'show
off' to our users.  This is a Technology Preview (TP), aimed at allowing
users, managers and developers to see how we have progressed, and to
invite feedback and support.

WARNINGS
========

Samba4 TP is currently a pre-alpha technology.  It may eat your cat, but
is far more likely to choose to munch on your password database.  In
particular if you are upgrading from Samba3, you should backup all
configuration and data.

We expect that format changes will require that the user database be
rebuilt from scratch a number of times before we make a final release,
loosing password data. 

Samba4 TP includes basic ACL protection on the main user database, but
due to time constraints, none on the registry at this stage.  We do
not currently have ACLs on the SWAT web-based management tool.

Filesystem access should occour as the logged in user, much as Samba3
does.

We strongly recommend against use in a production environment at this
stage.

NEW FEATURES
============

Samba4 supports the server-side of the AD logon environment
used by Windows 2000 and later, as evidenced by domain join
and domain logon operations.  

Our Domain Controller (DC) implementation includes our own built-in
LDAP server, KDC as well as the logon services provided over CIFS.  We
correctly generate the Kerberos PAC, and include it with the kerberos
tickets we issue.

SWAT is the new user-freindly interface to Samba4 managment, and
provides access to our setup and migration functionality.  In
particular, we can migrate windows domains in Samba4 from this
interface.  This allows setup of initial user databases, and upgrades
from Samba3.

The new NTFVS features in Samba4, the project that started this all,
is concerned with providing 'exact' semantics for basic file
operations, and is backed by an extensive client testsuite.

A new scripting interface has been added to Samba4, allowing
JavaScript programs to interface to Samba's internals.  This is also
used for the SWAT GUI.  

Samba4 is strongly based around an LDAP-like backend, which includes
an implementation against the actual LDAP protocol.  With the addition
of modules on directory servers and in Samba, we hope this can allow
Samba4 to be a powerful frontend to vendor directories, much as Samba3
is.

CHANGES
=======

Those familiar with Samba 3 can find a list of user-visible changes 
since that release series in the NEWS file. 

In particular, standalone server and domain member roles are not
currently supported.  While we have much of the infrustructure
required, we have not collected these peices togeather.

There is no printing support in the current release.

KNOWN ISSUES
============

- SWAT can be painful with <TAB> and forms.  Just use the mouse, as
  the JS layer doing this will change.

- Domain logons (using Kerberos) from windows clients incorrectly
  state that the password expires today.

RUNNING Samba4
==============

A short guide to setting up Samba 4 can be found in the howto.txt file
in root of the tarball.

DEVELOPMENT and FEEDBACK
========================
Bugs can be filed at https://bugzilla.samba.org/. Please
look at the STATUS file before filing a bug to see if a particular 
is supposed to work yet.

Development and general discussion about Samba 4 happens mainly on 
the #samba-technical IRC channel (on irc.freenode.net) and 
the samba-technical mailing list (see http://lists.samba.org/ for 
details).