-What's new in Samba 4 alpha4
-============================
+What's new in Samba 4.0.0 rc1
+=============================
-Samba 4 is the ambitious next version of the Samba suite that is being
-developed in parallel to the stable 3.0 series. The main emphasis in
-this branch is support for the Active Directory logon protocols used
-by Windows 2000 and above.
+Samba 4.0 will be the next version of the Samba suite and incorporates
+all the technology found in both the Samba4 alpha series and the
+stable 3.x series. The primary additional features over Samba 3.6 are
+support for the Active Directory logon protocols used by Windows 2000
+and above.
-Samba 4 is currently not yet in a state where it is usable in
-production environments. Note the WARNINGS below, and the STATUS file,
-which aims to document what should and should not work.
-
-Samba4 alpha4 follows on from our third alpha release since September
-last year.
WARNINGS
========
-Samba4 alpha4 is not a final Samba release. That is more a reference
-to Samba4's lack of the features we expect you will need than a
-statement of code quality, but clearly it hasn't seen a broad
-deployment yet. If you were to upgrade Samba3 (or indeed Windows) to
-Samba4, you would find many things work, but that other key features
-you may have relied on simply are not there yet.
-
-For example, while Samba 3.0 is an excellent member of a Active
-Directory domain, Samba4 is happier as a domain controller: (This is
-where we have done most of the research and development).
+Samba 4.0.0 rc1 is not a final Samba release, however we are now making
+good progress towards a Samba 4.0 release.
-While Samba4 is subjected to an awesome battery of tests on an
-automated basis, and we have found Samba4 to be very stable in it's
-behaviour, we have to recommend against upgrading production servers
-from Samba 3 to Samba 4 at this stage. If you are upgrading an
-experimental server, or looking to develop and test Samba, you should
-backup all configuration and data.
+This release contains the best of all of Samba's
+technology parts, both a file server (that you can reasonably expect
+to upgrade existing Samba 3.x releases to) and the AD domain
+controller work previously known as 'samba4'.
-NEW FEATURES
-============
+Samba 4.0 is subjected to an awesome battery of tests on an automated
+basis, we have found Samba 4.0 to be very stable in its behaviour.
+However, as with all our pre-releases we still recommend against
+upgrading production servers from Samba 3.x release to Samba 4.0.0rc1
+at this stage.
-Samba4 supports the server-side of the Active Directory logon environment
-used by Windows 2000 and later, so we can do full domain join
-and domain logon operations with these clients.
+If you are upgrading, or looking to develop, test or deploy Samba 4.0
+releases candidates, you should backup all configuration and data.
-Our Domain Controller (DC) implementation includes our own built-in
-LDAP server and Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC) as well as the
-Samba3-like logon services provided over CIFS. We correctly generate
-the infamous Kerberos PAC, and include it with the Kerberos tickets we
-issue.
-The new VFS features in Samba 4 adapts the filesystem on the server to
-match the Windows client semantics, allowing Samba 4 to better match
-windows behaviour and application expectations. This includes file
-annotation information (in streams) and NT ACLs in particular. The
-VFS is backed with an extensive automated test suite.
+UPGRADING
+=========
-A new scripting interface has been added to Samba 4, allowing
-Python programs to interface to Samba's internals.
+Users upgrading from Samba 3.x domain controllers and wanting to use
+Samba 4.0 as an AD DC should use the 'samba-tool domain
+classicupgrade' command. See the wiki for more details:
+https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba4/samba3upgrade/HOWTO
-The Samba 4 architecture is based around an LDAP-like database that
-can use a range of modular backends. One of the backends supports
-standards compliant LDAP servers (including OpenLDAP), and we are
-working on modules to map between AD-like behaviours and this backend.
-We are aiming for Samba 4 to be powerful frontend to large
-directories.
+Users upgrading from Samba 4.0 alpha and beta releases since alpha15
+should run 'samba-tool dbcheck --cross-ncs --fix' before re-starting
+Samba. Users upgrading from earlier alpha releases should contact the
+team for advice.
-CHANGES SINCE Alpha3
-=====================
+Users upgrading an AD DC from any previous release should run
+'samba-tool ntacl sysvolreset' to re-sync ACLs on the sysvol share
+with those matching the GPOs in LDAP and the defaults from an initial
+provision. This will set an underlying POSIX ACL if required (eg not
+using the NTVFS file server).
-In the time since Samba4 Alpha2 was released in December 2007, Samba has
-continued to evolve, but you may particularly notice these areas:
+If you used the BIND9_FLATFILE or BIND9_DLZ features,
+you'll have to add '-dns' to the 'server services' option,
+as the internal dns server (SAMBA_INTERNAL) is the default now.
- Python Bindings: Bindings for Python are now used for all internal
- scripting, and the system python installation is used to run all
- Samba python scripts (in place of smbpython found in the previous
- alpha).
+NEW FEATURES
+============
- As such Python is no longer optional, and configure will generate an
- error if it cannot locate an appropriate Python installation.
+Samba 4.0 supports the server-side of the Active Directory logon
+environment used by Windows 2000 and later, so we can do full domain
+join and domain logon operations with these clients.
- SWAT Remains Disabled: Due to a lack of developer time and without a
- long-term web developer to maintain it, the SWAT web UI remains been
- disabled (and would need to be rewritten in python in any case).
+Our Domain Controller (DC) implementation includes our own built-in
+LDAP server and Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC) as well as the
+Samba3-like logon services provided over CIFS. We correctly generate
+the infamous Kerberos PAC, and include it with the Kerberos tickets we
+issue.
- GNU Make: To try and simplfy our build system, we rely on GNU Make
- to avoid autogenerating a massive single makefile.
+Samba 4.0.0rc1 ships with two distinct file servers. We now use the
+file server from the Samba 3.x series 'smbd' for all file serving by
+default.
+
+Samba 4.0 also ships with the 'NTVFS' file server. This file server
+is what was used in all previous alpha releases of Samba 4.0, and is
+tuned to match the requirements of an AD domain controller. We
+continue to support this, not only to provide continuity to
+installations that have deployed it as part of an AD DC, but also as a
+running example of the NT-FSA architecture we expect to move smbd to in
+the longer term.
+
+For pure file server work, the binaries users would expect from that
+series (nmbd, winbindd, smbpasswd) continue to be available. When
+running an AD DC, you only need to run 'samba' (not
+nmbd/smbd/winbind), as the required services are co-coordinated by this
+master binary.
+
+As DNS is an integral part of Active Directory, we also provide two DNS
+solutions, a simple internal DNS server for 'out of the box' configurations
+and a more elaborate BIND plugin using the BIND DLZ mechanism in versions
+9.8 and 9.9. During the provision, you can select which backend to use.
+With the internal backend, your DNS server is good to go.
+If you chose the BIND_DLZ backend, a configuration file will be generated
+for bind to make it use this plugin, as well as a file explaining how to
+set up bind.
+
+To provide accurate timestamps to Windows clients, we integrate with
+the NTP project to provide secured NTP replies. To use you need to
+start ntpd and configure it with the 'restrict ... ms-sntp' and
+ntpsigndsocket options.
+
+Finally, a new scripting interface has been added to Samba 4, allowing
+Python programs to interface to Samba's internals, and many tools and
+internal workings of the DC code is now implemented in python.
+
+CHANGES SINCE beta8
+===================
+
+For a list of changes since beta8, please see the git log.
+
+$ git clone git://git.samba.org/samba.git
+$ cd samba.git
+$ git log samba-4.0.0beta8..samba-4.0.0rc1
+
+Some major user-visible changes include:
+
+- The smbd file server now offers SMB3 as the maximum protocol
+ by default. Samba can negotiate version 3 of the SMB protocol
+ and supports the required features, including all required
+ features of SMB 2.1 and SMB 2.0. Note that this does not imply
+ that Samba implements all features of SMB3 since many of them
+ are optional capabilities. Examples of features that Samba does
+ not implement yet are leases (SMB 2.1) and multi-channel (SMB 3).
+
+ Samba now offers an initial support for SMB2 durable file handles.
+ These are enabled by default and can be turned off on a per share
+ basis by setting "durable handles = no" on the share configuration.
+ Note that in order to prevent conflicts with other applications
+ accessing the same files, durable handles are only granted on
+ shares that are configured for CIFS/SMB2-only access, i.e. more
+ explicitly shares that are configured for minimal interoperability
+ with these settings:
+
+ kernel oplocks = no
+ kernel share modes = no
+ posix locking = no
+
+ The option "kernel share modes" has been introduced to be able
+ to turn the translation of SMB share modes into kernel flocks
+ off.
+
+- The 'provision' script was merged into 'samba-tool'
+ as 'samba-tool domain provision' the arguments are still
+ the same.
+
+- The 'updateprovision' script was renamed to 'samba_upgradeprovision'.
+
+- We changed the default dns implementation to the internal dns server
+ (SAMBA_INTERNAL). BIND9_FLATFILE and BIND9_DLZ are still available,
+ but you'll have to add '-dns' to the 'server services' option
+ to disable the internal dns server.
+ The default for 'allow dns updates' has changed to 'secure only'.
- Registry: Samba4's registry library has continued to improve.
+KNOWN ISSUES
+============
- ID mapping: Samba4 uses the internal ID mapping in winbind for all
- but a few core users. Samba users should not appear in /etc/passwd,
- as Samba will generate new user and group IDs regradless.
+- 'samba-tool domain classicupgrade' will fail when setting ACLs on
+ the GPO folders with NT_STATUS_INVALID_ONWER in the default
+ configuration. This happens if, as is typical a 'domain admins'
+ group (-512) is mapped in the passdb backend being upgraded. This
+ is because the group mapping to a GID only prevents Samba from
+ allocating a uid for that group. The uid is needed so the 'domain
+ admins' group can own the GPO file objects.
- NTP: Samba4 can act as a signing server for the ntp.org NTP deamon,
- allowing NTPd to reply using Microsoft's non-standard signing
- scheme. A patch to make NTPd talk to Samba for this purpose has
- been submitted to the ntp.org project.
+ To work around this issue, remove the 'domain admins' group before
+ upgrade, as it will be re-created automatically. You will
+ of course need to fill in the group membership again. A future release
+ will make this automatic, or find some other workaround.
- CLDAP: Users should experience less arbitary delays and more success with
- group policy, domain joins and logons due to an improved
- implementation of CLDAP and the 'netlogon' mailslot datagrams.
+- This release makes the s3fs file server the default, as this is the
+ file server combination we will use for the Samba 4.0 release.
- DCOM: In preperation for merging the Samba4-based 'python-wmi'
- implementation of a WMI client, Samba's previously abandoned DCOM
- client has been revived.
+- For similar reasons, sites with ACLs stored by the ntvfs file server
+ may wish to continue to use that file server implementation, as a
+ posix ACL will similarly not be set in this case.
- SMB2: The Samba4 SMB2 server and testsuite have been greatly
- improved, but the SMB2 server remains off by default.
+- Replication of DNS data from one AD server to another may not work.
+ The DNS data used by the internal DNS server and bind9_dlz is stored
+ in an application partition in our directory. The replication of
+ this partition is not yet reliable.
-These are just some of the highlights of the work done in the past few
-months. More details can be found in our GIT history.
+- Replication may fail on FreeBSD due to getaddrinfo() rejecting names
+ containing _. A workaround will be in a future release.
+- samba_upgradeprovision should not be run when upgrading to this release
+ from a recent release. No important database format changes have
+ been made since alpha16.
-CHANGES
-=======
+- Installation on systems without a system iconv (and developer
+ headers at compile time) is known to cause errors when dealing with
+ non-ASCII characters.
-Those familiar with Samba 3 can find a list of user-visible changes
-since that release series in the NEWS file.
+- Domain member support in the 'samba' binary is in its infancy, and
+ is not comparable to the support found in winbindd. As such, do not
+ use the 'samba' binary (provided for the AD server) on a member
+ server.
-KNOWN ISSUES
-============
+- There is no NetBIOS browsing support (network neighbourhood)
+ available for the AD domain controller. (Support in nmbd and smbd
+ for classic domains and member/standalone servers is unchanged).
-- Domain member support is in it's infancy, and is not comparable to
- the support found in Samba3.
+- Clock Synchronisation is critical. Many 'wrong password' errors are
+ actually due to Kerberos objecting to a clock skew between client
+ and server. (The NTP work in the previous alphas are partly to assist
+ with this problem).
-- There is no printing support in the current release.
+- The DRS replication code may fail. Please contact the team if you
+ experience issues with DRS replication, as we have fixed many issues
+ here in response to feedback from our production users.
-- There is no netbios browsing support in the current release
-- The Samba4 port of the CTDB clustering support is not yet complete
+RUNNING Samba 4.0 as an AD DC
+=============================
-- Clock Synchronisation is critical. Many 'wrong password' errors are
- actually due to Kerberos objecting to a clock skew between client
- and server. (The NTP work is partly to assist with this problem).
+A short guide to setting up Samba 4 as an AD DC can be found on the wiki:
+ http://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba4/HOWTO
-RUNNING Samba4
-==============
+#######################################
+Reporting bugs & Development Discussion
+#######################################
-A short guide to setting up Samba 4 can be found in the howto.txt file
-in root of the tarball.
+Please discuss this release on the samba-technical mailing list or by
+joining the #samba-technical IRC channel on irc.freenode.net.
-DEVELOPMENT and FEEDBACK
-========================
-Bugs can be filed at https://bugzilla.samba.org/ but please be aware
-that many features are simply not expected to work at this stage.
+If you do report problems then please try to send high quality
+feedback. If you don't provide vital information to help us track down
+the problem then you will probably be ignored. All bug reports should
+be filed under the Samba 4.0 product in the project's Bugzilla
+database (https://bugzilla.samba.org/).
-The Samba Wiki at http://wiki.samba.org should detail some of these
-development plans.
-Development and general discussion about Samba 4 happens mainly on
-the #samba-technical IRC channel (on irc.freenode.net) and
-the samba-technical mailing list (see http://lists.samba.org/ for
-details).
+======================================================================
+== Our Code, Our Bugs, Our Responsibility.
+== The Samba Team
+======================================================================