solaris 10 and windows shares

Question

Currently I have windows only environment with multiple servers and some server access shared directories in other servers like this

\server1\sharedir1 (win server) \server2\sharedir2 (win server) \server3\sharedir3 (win server)

1. if i convert server 3 to be a solaris 10 and I install SAMBA on it will it be able because of sanmba installation to continue accessing \server1\sharedir1?
2. will the windows machines be able to access because of samba the shared dir \server3\sharedir3? because I have samba on it?
3. do i need to install something more on my windows 2003 server?

Thanks!

Answer 1

2. yes (that's the purpose of Samba)
3. no. You will need to join the samba server to the domain for seamless authentication.

For 1. I believe the answer is maybe. Solaris does not have a in-kernel CIFS client to mount a CIFS share into the filesystem. However, the GUI (gnome) does have an integrated CIFS client, so whoever is sitting at the computer would be able to access the shares on Windows servers. Samba also have a command-like client that behaves like FTP to be able to fetch file. Depending on what you need, this may or may not be sufficient.

Answer 2

1. yes
2. yes
3. may just be a matter of joining the samba to your AD, if you want to utilize existing security profiles and roles, but the Windows systems should be fine with no changes needed

Answer 3

Assuming that you

1. install and configure Samba correctly, on server3,
2. with the same server name,
3. share name,
4. in or trusting your existing domain or with the same local names and passwords,
5. and copied/duplicated NTFS permissions

then yes. That's what Samba is for. No need to install NFS client software on your existing Windows machines.

Answer 4

In Solaris 11 there is no longer a need for SAMBA as Solaris now has the ability to (natively, so to speak) act as SMB Server (this is what SAMBA does) and even as a SMB client.

I can only recommend Solaris 11 above Solaris 10, not only for this reason but for lots of other reasons as well. :-)

SMB : This is the MS Windows Application-layer network protocol mainly used for providing shared access to files in a MS Windows environment. Also sometimes known as CIFS.