[kwlug-disc] samba: starting the minimal netbios functionality

[Robert P. J. Day]

  following my earlier post -- describing a case where no samba
functionality was running on a system at all -- i want to start the
absolutely minimal functionality to use as a teaching aid, and it
seems that the simplest thing i can do is just start nmb.

  even if this has no *practical* value, it's certainly technically
feasible to start nmb if only to use the results to show how netbios
works.  the first think i discovered i had to do was open up the
firewall(s) to allow the netbios services defined in /etc/services.
(i wasted many minutes trying to figure out what i was doing wrong.
duh.)

  so, on my SLES 11 system (hostname "sles11"), if i use the default
smb.conf file and change nothing else, i can:

# rcnmb start

at which point, some hands-on exercises should drive home what's
happening.  so, once nmb is running, what should students be able to
do?  here's something:

# nmblookup sles11
querying sles11 on 192.168.1.255
192.168.1.231 sles11<00>
#

  the netbios suffix of <00> says workstation service.  keep going --
ask for the status as well:

# nmblookup sles11 -S
querying sles11 on 192.168.1.255
192.168.1.231 sles11<00>
Looking up status of 192.168.1.231
	SLES11          <00> -         B <ACTIVE>
	SLES11          <03> -         B <ACTIVE>
	SLES11          <20> -         B <ACTIVE>
	..__MSBROWSE__. <01> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>
	WORKGROUP       <1d> -         B <ACTIVE>
	WORKGROUP       <1e> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>
	WORKGROUP       <00> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>

	MAC Address = 00-00-00-00-00-00

and you can see where i'm going with this -- just by starting nmb, i
can use this as a vehicle to point out what's happening with netbios
requests and info.  and as long as all firewalls have been opened
properly, the same query can be made of that system from other linux
boxes on the network.

  what else would be educational to run at this point?  scan for any
master browser?

$ nmblookup -M -- -

you get the idea.  slowly but surely, i want to bring samba to life
and, after each step, have a series of exercises or commands to show
what that step accomplished.  so was starting nmb the logical next
step?  and after that, it seems just starting smb is really all that's
left.

  thoughts?

rday
--

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Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

        Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry.

Web page:                                          http://crashcourse.ca
Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
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