Frequently Asked Questions

From SambaWiki

What are tdb files?

 Answered by Jerry Carter on samba@lists.samba.org
 [1]

Samba uses a lightweight database called Trivial Database (tdb). Here's the list (john, we should really document this somewhere).
(*) information persistent across restarts (but not necessarily important to backup).

account_policy.tdb*NT account policy settings such as pw expiration, etc...
brlock.tdbbyte range locks
browse.datbrowse lists
connections.tdbshare connections (used to enforce max connections, etc...)
gencache.tdbgeneric caching db
group_mapping.tdb*group mapping information
lang_en.tdbLanguage encodings (i think).
locking.tdbshare modes & oplocks
login_cache.tdb*bad pw attempts
messages.tdbSamba messaging system
netsamlogon_cache.tdb*cache of user net_info_3 struct from net_samlogon() request (as a domain member)
ntdrivers.tdb*installed printer drivers
ntforms.tdb*installed printer forms
ntprinters.tdb*installed printer information
printing/directory containing tdb per print queue of cached lpq output
registry.tdbWindows registry skeleton (connect via regedit.exe)
sessionid.tdbsession information (e.g. support for 'utmp = yes')
share_info.tdb*share acls
unexpected.tdbunexpected packet queue needed to support windows clients that respond on a difference port that the originating request) (i could be wrong on this one).
winbindd_cache.tdbwinbindd's cache of user lists, etc...
winbindd_idmap.tdb*winbindd's local idmap db
wins.dat*wins database when 'wins support = yes'

In the private subdirectory we have two more tdb files:

secrets.tdb*Private information like workstation passwords, the ldap admin dn and trust account information
passdb.tdb*User account information if passdb backend = tdbsam is used

The following tdb's should be backed up IMO:
  nt*.tdb   account_policy.tdb   group_mapping.tdb   share_info.tdb   winbindd_idmap.tdb   secrets.tdb   passdb.tdb

Example

To back up printing.tdb:

    root# ls
     .              browse.dat     locking.tdb     ntdrivers.tdb printing.tdb
     ..             share_info.tdb connections.tdb messages.tdb  ntforms.tdb
     printing.tdbkp unexpected.tdb brlock.tdb      gmon.out      namelist.debug  
     ntprinters.tdb sessionid.tdb
 
     root# tdbbackup -s .bak printing.tdb
      printing.tdb : 135 records
 
     root# ls -l printing.tdb*
      -rw-------    1 root     root        40960 May  2 03:44 printing.tdb
      -rw-------    1 root     root        40960 May  2 03:44 printing.tdb.bak
    ----

vfs - An example for a recycle container on a samba share

vfs objects =  recycle
      recycle:keeptree = yes
      recycle:versions = yes
      recycle:touch = yes
      recycle:exclude = ?~$*,~$*,*.tmp,index*.pl,index*.htm*,*.temp,*.TMP
      recycle:exclude_dir=  /tmp,/temp,/cache
      recycle:repository = .recycle/.recycle.%u
      recycle:noversions = *.doc,*.xls,*.ppt
      #hide files = /.recycle.*/.recycle/
      #veto files = /.recycle.*/.recycle/

inherit permissions

Use the UNIX form of setgid to make all files and subdirectories belong to the enclosing group.

For example: the root directory for a samba share appears as:

# ls -ld /home/storage
drwxrwxr-x  47 root dom_users 4096 Jan 31 08:09 /home/storage

change the directory so all files & subdirectories created will belong to 'dom_users' group:

# chmod g+s /home/storage

verify the results:

# ls -ld /home/storage
drwxrwsr-x  47 root dom_users 4096 Jan 31 08:09 /home/storage

if you create a new file 'abc' as user 'foo' who has the primary group 'users' the file is created as

# ls -ld /home/storage/*
drwxrwsr-x  47 foo  dom_users 4096 Jan 31 08:09 /home/storage/abc

guest access

To provide Guest Access to samba please see the page: Setting up Samba as a Standalone Server