Samba 4.2 Features added/changed

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Samba 4.2.0-RC1

Release Notes for Samba 4.2.0-RC1
October 1, 2014

This is the first release candidate of Samba 4.2.

This is *not* intended for production environments and is designed for testing purposes only. Please report any defects via the Samba bug reporting system at https://bugzilla.samba.org/.

Samba 4.2 will be the next version of the Samba suite.

UPGRADING

Read the "Winbindd/Netlogon improvements" section (below) carefully!

NEW FEATURES

Transparent File Compression

Samba 4.2.0 adds support for the manipulation of file and folder compression flags on the Btrfs filesystem. With the Btrfs Samba VFS module enabled, SMB2+ compression flags can be set remotely from the Windows Explorer File->Properties->Advanced dialog. Files flagged for compression are transparently compressed and uncompressed when accessed or modified.

Previous File Versions with Snapper

The newly added Snapper VFS module exposes snapshots managed by Snapper for use by Samba. This provides the ability for remote clients to access shadow-copies via Windows Explorer using the "previous versions" dialog.

Winbindd/Netlogon improvements

The whole concept of maintaining the netlogon secure channel to (other) domain controllers was rewritten in order to maintain global state in a netlogon_creds_cli.tdb. This is the proper fix for a large number of bugs:

In addition a strong session key is now required by default, which means that communication to older servers or clients might be rejected by default.

  • For the client side we have the following new options:
"require strong key" (yes by default), "reject md5 servers" (no by default). E.g. for Samba 3.0.37 you need "require strong key = no" and for NT4 DCs you need "require strong key = no" and "client NTLMv2 auth = no",
  • On the server side (as domain controller) we have the following new options:
"allow nt4 crypto" (no by default), "reject md5 client" (no by default). E.g. in order to allow Samba < 3.0.27 or NT4 members to work you need "allow nt4 crypto = yes"
  • winbindd does not list group memberships for display purposes (e.g. getent group <domain\<group>) anymore by default.
The new default is "winbind expand groups = 0" now, the reason for this is the same as for "winbind enum users = no" and "winbind enum groups = no". Providing this information is not always reliably possible, e.g. if there are trusted domains.

Please consult the smb.conf manpage for more details on these new options.

Winbindd use on the Samba AD DC

Winbindd is now used on the Samba AD DC by default, replacing the partial rewrite used for winbind operations in Samba 4.0 and 4.1.

This allows more code to be shared, more options to be honoured, and paves the way for support for trusted domains in the AD DC.

If required the old internal winbind can be activated by setting 'server services = +winbind -winbindd'. Upgrading users with a server services parameter specified should ensure they change 'winbind' to 'winbindd' to obtain the new functionality.

The 'samba' binary still manages the starting of this service, there is no need to start the winbindd binary manually.

Winbind now requires secured connections

To improve protection against rouge domain controllers we now require that when we connect to an AD DC in our forest, that the connection be signed using SMB Signing. Set 'client signing = off' in the smb.conf to disable.

Also and DCE/RPC pipes must be sealed, set 'require strong key = false' and 'winbind sealed pipes = false' to disable.

Finally, the default for 'client ldap sasl wrapping' has been set to 'sign', to ensure the integrity of LDAP connections. Set 'client ldap sasl wrapping = plain' to disable.

Larger IO sizes for SMB2/3 by default

The default values for "smb2 max read", "smb2 max write" and "smb2 max trans" have been changed to 8388608 (8MiB) in order to match the default of Windows 2012R2.

Improved DCERPC man in the middle detection

The DCERPC header signing has been implemented in addition to the dcerpc_sec_verification_trailer protection.

Overhauled "net idmap" command

The command line interface of the "net idmap" command has been made systematic, and subcommands for reading and writing the autorid idmap database have been added. Note that the writing commands should be used with great care. See the net(8) manual page for details.

tdb improvements

The tdb library, our core mechanism to store Samba-specific data on disk and share it between processes, has been improved to support process shared robust mutexes on Linux. These mutexes are available on Linux and Solaris and significantly reduce the overhead involved with tdb. To enable mutexes for tdb, set dbwrap_tdb_mutexes:* = yes

in the [global] section of your smb.conf.

Tdb file space management has also been made more efficient. This will lead to smaller and less fragmented databases.

Messaging improvements

Our internal messaging subsystem, used for example for things like oplock break messages between smbds or setting a process debug level dynamically, has been rewritten to use unix domain datagram messages.

Clustering support

Samba's file server clustering component CTDB is now integrated in the Samba tree. This avoids the confusion of compatibility of Samba and CTDB versions as existed previously.

To build the Samba file server with cluster support, use the configure command line option --with-cluster-support. This will build clustered file server against the in-tree ctdb. Building clustered samba with previous versions of CTDB is no longer supported.

CTDB is built separately from the ctdb/ sub-directory. To build CTDB, use the following steps:

 $ cd ctdb
 $ ./configure
 $ make
 # make install


smb.conf changes

  Parameter Name			Description	Default
  --------------			-----------	-------
  allow nt4 crypto                     New             no
  neutralize nt4 emulation             New             no
  reject md5 client                    New             no
  reject md5 servers                   New             no
  require strong key                   New             yes
  smb2 max read                        Changed default 8388608
  smb2 max write                       Changed default 8388608
  smb2 max trans                       Changed default 8388608
  winbind expand groups                Changed default 0

KNOWN ISSUES

https://download.samba.org/pub/samba/rc/WHATSNEW-4.2.0rc1.txt