VSI-AXPVMS-SAMBA-V0406-5F-1-RELNOTES.PDF

This document provides Release Notes for Samba for OpenVMS Version 4.6-5F, based on Samba 4.6.5, released in August 2020. It details a significant update from previous OpenVMS versions (previously known as CIFS for OpenVMS), with the product now formally called "Samba."

Key Enhancements and New Features:

• Modern Protocol Support: Includes support for AES encryption, SMB2, and SMB3 protocols.
• Heimdal Kerberos Integration.
• WINBIND Redesign: WINBIND functionality is now a separate daemon process, improving name resolution and lookup frequency. It enables user/group identity mapping, dynamic OpenVMS user account creation, and optional OpenVMS resource identifier creation for member servers.
• Path Flexibility: A new global parameter, "vms path allow", allows SMBCLIENT to support both Unix and OpenVMS file and directory specifications.
• General Improvements: Numerous other enhancements and changes to smb.conf parameters.

Installation and Configuration:

• Prerequisites: Requires OpenVMS Version 8.4-1H1 or higher, an ODS-5-enabled file system, and the OpenVMS internationalization data kit (VMSI18N) for international character support. Users must also increase specific SYSGEN parameters.
• Migration from CIFS: The SAMBA$CONFIG.COM utility can migrate existing CIFS for OpenVMS configurations to Samba, including backing up old settings for rollback if needed.
• Cluster Support: Samba supports multiple instances in a cluster, but explicitly warns against having different instances access the same shared directories to prevent data corruption. Installation instructions cover various cluster configurations.
• Post-Installation Steps: Detailed steps for verifying logical names, defining utilities, configuring the Samba server role (standalone or domain member) using SMBCONF, managing character sets, and integrating Samba into system startup/shutdown procedures.
• WINBIND Configuration: Specific guidance is provided for configuring WINBIND, including setting UIC number ranges for dynamically created OpenVMS accounts and identifiers.

Limitations and Known Issues:

• Domain Controller Roles: This release does not support classic Primary Domain Controller (PDC), Backup Domain Controller (BDC), or Active Directory Domain Controller roles.
• Client Compatibility: Not supported for Microsoft Windows XP and Windows 7 clients.
• Specific Problems: Known issues include challenges with Kerberos authentication using SMBCLIENT (with workarounds), incorrect object ownership in certain scenarios (inherit owner = yes is a common fix), net rpc user rename not being supported, and auto-detection of IP interfaces with TCPware TCP/IP (requiring manual configuration). The SMBCLIENT "more" command requires the GNV for OpenVMS kit.

Resolved Issues:

• The release includes fixes for many specific issues, such as the net time set command, smbtree displaying all domains, smbcontrol winbind functionality, smbclient connection timeouts, file version deletion, handling of UTF-8 and international characters in filenames (requiring DECC$FILENAME_ENCODING_UTF8), and smbclient now correctly accepting both OpenVMS and UNIX-style paths.