Hour 4: Installing and Testing the Configuration: Other Tools Included with Samba

Sams Teach Yourself Samba in 24 Hours

Hour 4: Installing and Testing the Configuration

Sections in this Chapter:
Which Processes?		Command-Line Arguments
Configuring the [global] Section of smb.conf		Testing the Installation
Setting up the Shared Group Directory		Other Tools Included with Samba
Setting Up a User's Home Directories		Summary
Setting Up the Printer		Q&A
Verifying smb.conf		New Terms
Starting smbd and nmbd

Other Tools Included with Samba

In addition to the tools already mentioned, several other utilities are also included with Samba (see Table 4.2). These can be found in the /usr/local/samba/bin/ directory.

Table 4.2 Other Tools and Utilities Included in the Samba Suite

Tool name

Description

smbstatus

This tool reports on the current status of connections and locked files.

nmblookup

This utility queries NetBIOS name information over TCP/IP.

testprns

This simple utility verifies whether a printer name is valid for use as a service name. This means that the printer name can be found in the /etc/printcap specified.

make_smbcodepage

This tool allows for the compiling or decompiling of code page files for use with the internationalization features of Samba.

smbtar

This shell script provides a means of backing up and restoring files on remote SMB shares to UNIX tape drives by using the smbclient utility. Backups are discussed more in Hour 23, "Tips and Tricks."

smbrun

This small glue program is used by smbd to execute shell commands. By glue I mean that it acts as an interface to allow smbd to run some type of shell scripts or other command-line tools.

rpcclient

This command-line tool analogous to smbclient allows for performing DCE/RPC to Windows NT and Samba servers. This is discussed more in Hour 22, "Experimental PDC Support."

swat

This GUI administrative tool manages the smb.conf file. GUI administration tools are examined more in Hour 9, "GUI Administration Tools."

smbpasswd,
addtosmbpass,
convert_smbpasswd

These tools provide means of manipulating changing the LanMan and NT hashes stored in the private/smbpasswd file used by Samba when encrypted passwords have been enabled. Encryption is discussed more in Hour 6.

Two of the tools listed, which can be extremely useful, are smbstatus and nmblookup. You will look at both of these diagnostic tools here, beginning with smbstatus.

The smbd daemon for a connection runs as root until it is necessary to perform some operation on behalf of the user connected. At that time, the process uid becomes the user's UNIX uid and then switches back to root. This can result in some difficulty when trying to determine which smbd process belongs to which user. smbstatus displays information about currently connected users and currently locked files. The following output shows that I'm connected to my home directory and currently have a file open for editing:

root# smbstatus
Samba version 2.0.0beta4
Service      uid      gid      pid     machine
----------------------------------------------
jerryc       jerryc   users    472     queso    (192.168.1.72) Tue Dec 29 11:31:05 1998

Locked files:
Pid    DenyMode   R/W        Oplock           Name
--------------------------------------------------
472    DENY_NONE  RDONLY     EXCLUSIVE+BATCH  src/samba/source/Makefile   Tue Dec 29 11:31:56 1998

Share mode memory usage (bytes):
   1048368(99%) free + 136(0%) used + 72(0%) overhead = 1048576(100%) total

The second tool that I often use is nmblookup. This command-line utility provides a means of querying NetBIOS names and returning the associated IP address:

root# /usr/local/samba/bin/nmblookup eagle
Sending queries to 192.168.1.255
192.168.1.73 eagle<00>

nmblookup defaults to locate the <00> type name. By appending #<xx> to the NetBIOS name you querying, nmblookup can resolve a different resource type, such as the messenger server name type <03>:

root# /usr/local/samba/bin/nmblookup eagle#03
Sending queries to 192.168.1.255
192.168.1.73 eagle<03>

nmblookup can . also resolve group names:

root# /usr/local/samba/bin/nmblookup fowlplay
Sending queries to 192.168.1.255
192.168.1.73 fowlplay<00>

And finally, you can use the -S switch to perform a node status request on the name and return output similar to the nbtstat.exe -a netbios name command run from a Windows box:

root# /usr/local/samba/bin/nmblookup chipsndips -S
Sending queries to 192.168.1.255
192.168.1.72 chipsndips<00>
Looking up status of 192.168.1.72
received 8 names
        QUESO           <00> -         M <ACTIVE>
        CHIPSNDIPS      <00> - <GROUP> M <ACTIVE>
        QUESO           <03> -         M <ACTIVE>
        QUESO           <20> -         M <ACTIVE>
        CHIPSNDIPS      <1e> - <GROUP> M <ACTIVE>
        CARTEGW         <03> -         M <ACTIVE>
        CHIPSNDIPS      <1d> -         M <ACTIVE>
        ..__MSBROWSE__. <01> - <GROUP> M <ACTIVE>
num_good_sends=0 num_good_receives=0

Sams Teach Yourself Samba in 24 Hours

Contents Index

Hour 4: Installing and Testing the Configuration

Previous Hour Next Hour

Sections in this Chapter:
Which Processes?		Command-Line Arguments
Configuring the [global] Section of smb.conf		Testing the Installation
Setting up the Shared Group Directory		Other Tools Included with Samba
Setting Up a User's Home Directories		Summary
Setting Up the Printer		Q&A
Verifying smb.conf		New Terms
Starting smbd and nmbd

Tool name	Description
smbstatus	This tool reports on the current status of connections and locked files.
nmblookup	This utility queries NetBIOS name information over TCP/IP.
testprns	This simple utility verifies whether a printer name is valid for use as a service name. This means that the printer name can be found in the /etc/printcap specified.
make_smbcodepage	This tool allows for the compiling or decompiling of code page files for use with the internationalization features of Samba.
smbtar	This shell script provides a means of backing up and restoring files on remote SMB shares to UNIX tape drives by using the smbclient utility. Backups are discussed more in Hour 23, "Tips and Tricks."
smbrun	This small glue program is used by smbd to execute shell commands. By glue I mean that it acts as an interface to allow smbd to run some type of shell scripts or other command-line tools.
rpcclient	This command-line tool analogous to smbclient allows for performing DCE/RPC to Windows NT and Samba servers. This is discussed more in Hour 22, "Experimental PDC Support."
swat	This GUI administrative tool manages the smb.conf file. GUI administration tools are examined more in Hour 9, "GUI Administration Tools."
smbpasswd, addtosmbpass, convert_smbpasswd	These tools provide means of manipulating changing the LanMan and NT hashes stored in the private/smbpasswd file used by Samba when encrypted passwords have been enabled. Encryption is discussed more in Hour 6.