Samba

Provide Windows-compatible file and print services

Samba exposes files and printers from Linux or Unix servers to Windows, Linux, and other SMB/CIFS clients. smbd provides share services, while smbclient can list available services and perform file operations.

Sources: [1]

Add Active Directory roles to Linux and Unix systems

A deployment can be configured as an Active Directory domain controller or join an existing domain as a regular member. This allows file services to participate in an organization’s identity environment.

Sources: [1]

Operate shared storage for organizations with Windows clients

It fits environments that need to expose Linux or Unix storage to Windows clients or join servers to an existing Active Directory domain. Decide whether the deployment needs client tools, a file server, a domain member, or a domain controller before selecting components and configuration.

Sources: [1]

Validate roles, interoperability, and upgrades before deployment

Share permissions, authentication, name resolution, and network exposure depend heavily on configuration. Reproduce the target operating systems and domain topology in an isolated environment, then validate smb.conf, access control, backups, and the upgrade path before production use.

SMB3 Persistent Handles in 4.25.0 are experimental, require SMB-exclusive access settings, and add performance cost for durable state. Treat them as an opt-in feature for workloads that need continuous availability, not a general file-server default.

This GitHub repository is a mirror of the official GitLab repository, and contributions are directed to GitLab. The software is licensed under GPL-3.0.

Sources: [1][2][6][7]