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Cooperating with Windows. Chapter 26. Introduction. It is a fact that Windows is not going away. We must peacefully coexist with it. UNIX has brought TCP/IP and the Internet to the table and Windows has brought millions of users.
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Cooperating with Windows Chapter 26
Introduction • It is a fact that Windows is not going away. • We must peacefully coexist with it. • UNIX has brought TCP/IP and the Internet to the table and Windows has brought millions of users. • This chapter addresses a variety of topics faced by administrators in this postmodern, PCs and UNIX living together world. Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
1. File and Print Sharing • Introduction: • Perhaps the most powerful level of PC/UNIX integration is achieved by sharing directories that live on a UNIX host with desktop PCs that run Windows. • Either NFS or CIFS can be used to implement this functionality. Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
1. File and Print Sharing • NFS: the Network File System • NFS was designed to share files among UNIX hosts. • The file locking and security paradigms are significantly different from those of Windows. • Although a variety of products that mount NFS shared directories on windows clients are available, their use should be avoided. • Because of the paradigm mismatch • and CIFS just works better. Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
1. File and Print Sharing • CFIS: the Common Internet File System • CIFS is based on protocols that were formally referred to as Server Message Block (SMB). • This was an extension added to DOS to allow disk I/O to work with NetBIOS • In the modern world, SMB packets are carried on an extension of NetBIOS that works over TCP. • The result is the protocols have become widespread and are available on platforms ranging from MVS and VMS to UNIX and Windows. Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
1. File and Print Sharing • Samba: CFIS for UNIX • Samba is an enormously popular software package, available under the GNU public license, that implements CFIS on UNIX hosts. • The real beauty of it is that you only need to install one package on the UNIX machine; no additional software is needed on the Windows side. Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
1. File and Print Sharing • Samba: CFIS for UNIX (cont) • CFIS provides five basic services: • File sharing • Network printing • Authentication and authorization • Name resolution • Service announcements • file server and printer “browsing” Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
1. File and Print Sharing • Samba: CFIS for UNIX (cont.) • Most of Samba’s functionality is implemented by two daemons • smdb • implements file and print services as well as authentication and authorization. • nmbd • provides name resolution and service announcements. Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
1. File and Print Sharing • Samba: CFIS for UNIX (cont) • Unlike NFS (which is deeply intertwined with the Kernel), Samba requires no kernel modifications and runs entirely as a user process. • It binds to a socket used for NBT requests and waits for a client to request access to a resource. • Once a request has been made and authenticate, smbd forks an instance of itself that runs as the user who is making that request. • As a result, all normal UNIX file access permissions (including groups) are obeyed. Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
1. File and Print Sharing • Installing and configuring Samba • Samba is currently shipped with both Red Hat and FreeBSD • It is available on the web from www.samba.org • On all systems, you will need to edit the smb.conf file to tell Samba how it should behave. • You specify the directories and printers that should be shared, their access rights, and Samba’s general operational parameters. Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
1. File and Print Sharing • Installing and configuring Samba (cont) • Samba allows a fine-grained control over security, but it only works if you actually use it. • For a typical site you need to: • set the hosts allow clause in smb.conf • block access from the internet to the CIFS TCP ports (using a packet filtering firewall) (ports 137-139) Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
1. File and Print Sharing • Debugging Samba • Samba usually runs without requiring much attention. However, if there are problems you can consult the per client log files and the smbstatus command. • smbstatus enables you to examine currently active connections and open files. • You can force a lock to be released by killing the smbd that “owns” the lock • the pid is shown in the output of smbstatus Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
2. Secure Terminal Emulation with SSH • Introduction: • Some users may find themselves wanting to leave Windows behind and head for the snow-covered slopes of a good C shell or Korn shell. • For security reasons don’t use telnet unless you have to…. • Look for an ssh client (putty, …) Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
3. X Windows Emulators • Introduction: • X Windows emulators work by implementing the X11 protocol on a Windows PC. • The server provides a conduit between the client application and the windows desktop. • There are some nice ones out there, all with varying prices…. Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
4. PC Mail Clients • Introduction: • The first thing users want to do at their PCs is check email. • Providing a stable email environment is essential to most organizations. • Fortunately this is one area where PCs on desktops and central UNIX servers really shine together. Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
4. PC Mail Clients • Introduction (cont): • UNIX provides a scalable, secure, and configurable environment for the receipt and transmission of email on the Internet. • Messages can be stored on a UNIX server and accessed by a PC mail client via protocols such as IMAP or POP. • This is the best of both worlds (without the windows viruses) • IMAP also allows the mail to be kept on the server so it can be accessed from a variety of places. Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
5. PC Backups • Introduction: • The best solution seems to be NOT to backup PCs. • Carefully educate your users that all important file must be stored on a shared network drive. • This way all machines can be swapped out in a few minutes. • Crazy? Maybe. Resource smart? Yes! Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
6. Dual Booting • Introduction: • Thank goodness for geeks. • It is possible to dual boot. • In some cases it is even possible to share the same filesystems among the installed OSs Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
7. Running Windows Applications Under UNIX • Introduction: • Many versions of UNIX can run Windows applications … kind of. • It is done in a variety of ways, but they all generally boil down to creating a “virtual machine environment” that, to the application, looks like good ol’ Windows. • Some emulators include: • Vmware, Wine, SoftWindows Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
8. PC Hardware Tips • Introduction: • One of the really great things about PC hardware is that it is usually inexpensive. • Watch for device drivers. • Pay attention to bus speeds. • Watch for prepackaged systems that only run windows…. Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows
9. Suggested Supplemental Reading • Eckstein, Robert, David Collier-Brown, and Peter Kelly. Using Samba. O’Reilly. Sebastopol, CA. 1999. Chapter 26 -Cooperating with Windows