OpenVMS Notes: CIFS / Samba

  1. The information presented here is intended for educational use by qualified OpenVMS technologists.
  2. The information presented here is provided free of charge, as-is, with no warranty of any kind.

CIFS for OpenVMS

CIFS Notes: 2016

My Installation Experiments (2016-04-20)


 Stack Technology OpenVMS Comments Notes
1 MultiNet 5.4 Itanium 8.4 upd-11 works like a charm  
2 TCPIP Services 5.7 Alpha 8.4 udp-11 works with a few quirks (might be ECO sensitive) 1,2
3 TCPIP Services 5.7 Alpha 8.4 udp-11 works with a few quirks (might be ECO sensitive) 1,2
4 TCPware 5.9 Alpha 8.4 udp-11 does not work at all 3,4,5
5 TCPware 6.0 Alpha 8.4 udp-11 does not work at all 3,4,5
Notes:
  1. Quirk: Windows users cannot drop a file into the share
    • Windows presents a message about not being able to access the file
    • Samba logs a message about a possible deadlock
    • We are currently running 5.7-ECO5; I might try rolling these back to see if SAMBA auto-magically begins to work
  2. We no longer have a support agreement with HP for our Alphas; you must submit a support case with them if you want this fixed.
  3. After a little hacking I learned that process "nmbd" immediately exits with this message:
    • ERROR: Could not determine network interfaces, you must use a interfaces config line
  4. This did not work with OpenVMS-8.4 consolidated update 9 so we installed update 11 (no change)
  5. We no longer have a support agreement with Process for TCPware; you must submit a support case with them if you want this fixed.

Sample installation

KAWC90(newPROD)::Neil> prod instal *s* /dest=KAWC90$DKA1:[000000]
 
   1 - HP I64VMS CSWS V2.2-1               Layered Product
   2 - HP I64VMS CSWS V2.2                 Layered Product
   3 - HP I64VMS CSWS22_UPDATE V2.0        Patch (remedial update)
   4 - HP I64VMS SAMBA V1.2-ECO1           Layered Product
   5 - VMSPORTS I64VMS ZLIB V1.2-8E1       Layered Product
   ? - Help
   E - Exit
 
Choose one or more items from the menu: 4
 
Performing product kit validation of signed kits ...
%PCSI-I-HPCVALPASSED, validation of KAWC90$DKA1:[CSMIS.USR.]
	[ADMCSM.NEIL]HP-I64VMS-SAMBA-V0102-ECO1-1.PCSI$COMPRESSED;1 succeeded
 
The following product has been selected:
    HP I64VMS SAMBA V1.2-ECO1              Layered Product
 
Do you want to continue? [YES] 
 
Information has been saved to allow you to uninstall the following patches:
 
RECOVERY DATA SET 001 created 27-JAN-2016 11:52:32.69
   -------------------------------------- --------------------------------------
   PATCH                                  APPLIED TO                            
   -------------------------------------- --------------------------------------
   HP I64VMS VMS84I_UPDATE V11.0          HP I64VMS VMS V8.4                    
   -------------------------------------- --------------------------------------
 
* The operation you are performing will invalidate all saved recovery data sets.
* Recovery data sets represent restore points that have a limited lifespan.  Any
* operation that modifies the product database, except for installation of other
* patches where recovery data is also saved, makes existing data sets outdated.
 
* If you continue, recovery data for the patches listed above will be deleted.
* The deletion of recovery data does not affect the installation status of
* patches applied to products that are not participating in this operation.
* However, continuing with this operation will prevent you from uninstalling
* these patches at a future time by use of the PRODUCT UNDO PATCH command.
 
Do you want to continue? [NO] y
 
Configuration phase starting ...
 
You will be asked to choose options, if any, for each selected product and for
any products that may be installed to satisfy software dependency requirements.
 
Configuring HP I64VMS SAMBA V1.2-ECO1: HP OpenVMS CIFS
 
    © Copyright 2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
 
    HP OpenVMS CIFS is released under the terms of GNU Public License.

    This installation procedure requires that all the following
    conditions are satisfied:

    1.  This procedure is running on an Alpha or an IA64 processor.
    2.  The system is running OpenVMS V8.3 or later on both Alpha and IA64 system
    3.  All required privileges are currently enabled.
    4.  No CIFS images are running on this node or anywhere in the cluster that
	make use of common samba$root installation directory.
  
    This procedure checks if the conditions are satisfied.
    If they are satisfied, the procedure continues.
    If not, the procedure stops.

Do you want to continue? [YES] 
 
Do you want the defaults for all options? [YES] (answer no to get source code)
 
Do you want to review the options? [NO] 
 
Execution phase starting ...

The following product will be installed to destination:
    HP I64VMS SAMBA V1.2-ECO1              DISK$USER1:[000000.]
 
Portion done: 0%...20%...30%...70%...90%

   User Accounts and User Identification Codes (UICs)
   --------------------------------------------------

    The HP OpenVMS CIFS V1.2-ECO1 installation creates five OpenVMS
    accounts: SAMBA$SMBD, SAMBA$NMBD, SAMBA$GUEST, SAMBA$TMPLT
    and CIFSADMIN. The default UIC group number for these new
    accounts depends on the following:

    o If you are installing the server for the first time, the
      default is the first unused UIC group number, starting
      with 360.

    o If any of these account already exists, then the default
      UIC group number will not be used to change the UIC of
      any existing accounts.

    For more information about UIC group numbers, see the
    OpenVMS System Manager's Manual.

Enter default UIC group number for CIFS accounts
Group: [360]
Creating OpenVMS accounts required by CIFS
Created account SAMBA$SMBD
Created account SAMBA$NMBD
Created account SAMBA$GUEST
Created account SAMBA$TMPLT
Created account CIFSADMIN

   The release notes for HP OpenVMS CIFS, CIFS_REL_NOTES.TXT
   is available at SYS$COMMON:[SYSHLP].

   To automatically define SAMBA$ROOT logical during system
   startup, add the following line in SYS$MANAGER:SYLOGICALS.COM:

        $ @SYS$STARTUP:SAMBA$DEFINE_ROOT.COM
 
   To automatically start HP OpenVMS CIFS during system startup,
   add following line to the file SYS$MANAGER:SYSTARTUP_VMS.COM
   after TCPIP startup command procedure:

 $ @SYS$STARTUP:SAMBA$STARTUP.COM

   To Configure HP OpenVMS CIFS on this node, execute:

 $ @SAMBA$ROOT:[BIN]SAMBA$CONFIG.COM
...100%

The following product has been installed:
    HP I64VMS SAMBA V1.2-ECO1              Layered Product
KAWC90(newPROD)::Neil>

Quick Configuration (2016)

Tip: start with a simple STANDALONE installation to prove basic connectivity. After this works you may wish to enable authentication by WINS or LDAP

First Time Only 
(next 3 lines are optional but recommended)
$ set def DISK$USER1:[000000]
$ set file/own=SAMBA$SMBD	SAMBA.DIR
$ set file/own=SAMBA$SMBD	[SAMBA...]*.*

$ type sys$help:CIFS_REL_NOTES.TXT
$ @SYS$STARTUP:SAMBA$DEFINE_ROOT.COM
$ @SAMBA$ROOT:[BIN]SAMBA$DEFINE_COMMANDS.COM
$ @SAMBA$ROOT:[BIN]SAMBA$CONFIG.COM
    -----------------------------------------------
    you are told to not use this script if you intend to use SWAT, but you need
    to run this script at least once to enable SWAT
    -----------------------------------------------
    you must execute all steps (1-3) even if you want the defaults
    1) Core environment
	1) disable WINBIND
	4) select STANDALONE
	click DONE
	before exiting you will be prompted to choose either USER or SHARE
	    USER (default)
		With user-level security a client must first "log-on" with a valid username and
		password.
	    SHARE
		When clients connect to a share level security server, they need not log onto
		the server with a valid username and password before attempting to connect to a
		shared resource. Instead, the clients send authentication information (passwords)
		on a per-share basis, at the time they attempt to connect to that share.
	notes:
	1) a bug exists in this script which will always prefers USER even though you may have
	selected SHARE on a previous pass through. If you ever change anything in "core environment"
	including switching between USER and SHARE you risk loosing SAMBAS-defined users and/or
	shares so BE CAREFUL
	2) SHARE was the only thing available with SAMBA-on-OpenVMS in 2006 so setup is simpler
	(first use this if you are experiencing PC connectivity issues)   
    2) Generic options
	1) switch from ASCII to Extended ASCII
	5) disable WINS
	now click DONE  
    3) System specific setup
	1) ensure ports 445 are 139 enabled
	3) enable SWAT (but don't tell your user community)
	now click DONE
$ @SYS$STARTUP:SAMBA$STARTUP.COM
As required 
$ @SAMBA$ROOT:[BIN]SAMBA$DEFINE_COMMANDS.COM
$ @SAMBA$ROOT:[BIN]SAMBA$MANAGE_CIFS.COM
    add users
    add groups
    add shares
	when prompted to enter the path for any given share, you must enter the full OpenVMS
	path (logical names are allowed; the folder does not need to be under the SAMBA area;
	I prefer to place them under SAMBA$ROOT:[USERS] )
Optional
http://server.network.domain:901

Additional Information

Windows-Vista and Windows-7 Connection Methods

1 right-click on icon Computer
click on item Map Network Drive
then enter    \\kawc96.on.bell.ca\
then click the BROWSE button, select a folder, then click OPEN,
then wait for a username + password dialog
2 right-click on icon Computer
click on item Map Network Drive then enter    \\kawc96.on.bell.ca\test\ then click the FINISH button,
then wait for a username + password dialog

Debug Tips

Related Links (2016)

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Neil Rieck
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.